Congress Minority Cell: Determined by a divided house

“We do not want to use minorities as a vote bank” State Congress Minorities Cell Chairman Syed Yaseen told The Indian Express here, in the wake of convention which he organised. But the move to consolidate the fractured vote of the minorities in the post-Babri Masjid era, is definitely a priority on the Congress agenda.

Clearly the internecine feuding among state minority leaders, has called for a reworking of strategy. “We want to create minority leadership at the block and district levels. At the same time we want to monitor and check the vulnerability of the minorities to the negative propaganda of the BJP and the Janata Dal on emotional issues such as Babri Masjid and TADA, an election plank on which the Janata Dal earned the minority votes in the last election”.

As part of the endeavour to create “grass-roots leadership”, appointments to the Minority Cell in nine of the state’s 28 districts have already been completed, with the remaining expected to be appointed within the next 15 to 20 days, he said. The districts covered so far include the Hyderabad-Karnataka and old Mysore regions, where the Congress hopes to recover old ground vis-a-vis the minorities. Among these districts are Bijapur, Raichur, Gulbarga, Bellary, Haveri, Mysore Rural, Mysore City, Chamrajnagar and Tumkur.

At the same time, efforts are on to persuade former minority cell members who left the Congress, in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition, to return. Already, in districts like Kolar, they have been successful in doing so, Yaseen added.

For its part, the convention and Tariq Anwar’s visit has clearly brought to the fore the prevalent factional politics within the State Congress. That a few of them used the occasion to express their resentment over being sidelined, only highlighted the fissures within the minority lobby.

Prominent among the disgruntled leaders are the unsuccessful contenders to the post of Minority Cell Chairman. Since the Convention was being perceived as a show meant to showcase Yaseen’s leadership, it was clearly the best place to express their unhappiness over it.

Obaidullah Sharief, a protege of Janardhan Poojary and former Chairman of the Minorities Cell, was significantly absent from the convention. He had unsuccessfully contested the last parliamentary elections from the Bangalore North constituency, after he was given a ticket in preference to the then Union Minister Jaffer Sharief. Since Yaseen is Jaffer Sharief’s son-in-law, his absence merely reflected the on-going rivalry. Former MP M Rehman Khan too stayed away from the convention despite the fact that his name figured on the list of dignitaries. To make matters worse, an influential Urdu daily owned by Rehman Khan’s family, carried an editorial by its publisher-editor and former MP Maqsood Ali Khan, decrying the convention, days after it was held.

K J George, former minister in the S Bangarappa cabinet, said to be close to Sonia Gandhi, was also absent as was Naseer Ahmed, former minister and a close aide of Bangarappa. Syed Ahmed, Joint Secretary, KPCC and former Chairman of the Minority Cell before Obaidullah Sharief, organised a separate meeting of minority leaders with Tariq Anwar.