 Amid
Amercian cries for revenge following the Black Tuesday, the central
government here in blatant contradiction to the set tradition banned
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) on 27 September without taking
anybody into confidence. Though the Union Home Minister LK Advani has been
talking of banning the organization for quite some time, nobody believed
that the home ministry will actually go through the motion of banning the
organization without substantiating allegations.
The BJP-led central government’s move to ban the SIMI has come in for
sharp criticism from all sections of the society including Muslim
organizations of all hue and several political parties. Legal luminaries
have also called the move as short-sighted and have said that the case
does not stand any chance in a court of law. All-India Muslim Personal Law
Board has decried the ban in categorical terms and called the central
government’s move as politically motivated. The conglomerate that
includes more than a dozen prominent Muslim organizations has said that
not a single case against SIMI has been proved in courts so far.
It has formed a committee to look into the matter. Other organizations
including Jamiatul Ulama, Milli Council and Majlis-e-Mushawarat have also
criticized the move. Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party has come
forward and criticized the ban on SIMI.
Samajwadi Party’s general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Azam Khan told MG
that the move smacks of political vendetta against the Muslims of the
country.
He said that it is a move to realign ‘Hindu’ votes towards the BJP.
Maulana Aijaz Aslam of the Jamaat-e-Islami says that the ban is unlawful
as the government has failed so far to substantiate charges of SIMI’s
involvement in any terrorist activities in the country.
Maya Kamath/Asian Age
Saadatullah Husaini, president of Students Islamic
Organization of India has also condemned the ban on SIMI and has called
that it must be immediately lifted. He told MG that the ban on SIMI is
unconstitutional as accusations have not been substantiated against the
outfit.
There have been contradictory remarks regarding the SIMI’s involvement
in ‘anti-national’ activities. Most recent case being that of the
Kanpur riots where around two dozen Muslims were killed by the government
machinery in total connivance with Hindutva outfits. Though SIMI was
blamed to be involved in Kanpur riots by the Sangh Parivar the rebuttal of
the Inspector General of Police would have cleared the air that there was
no proof of SIMI's involvement in the riots. On SIMI’s alleged relations
with Kashmiri militant organizations, the government has not presented
anything to support this claim. On the other hand senior police officials
in the troubled state have said that there is no proof of SIMI's relations
with any militant organization in the Valley.
The charges for banning the organizations seem to be frivolous as there
seems to be nothing new that could have prompted the BJP government to
take such a drastic measure. All charges were old and there was no new
development.
Projection of the SIMI as a monster remains unconvincing as the
organization has a very limited reach among the Muslim youth. This simple
fact can be gauged by the fact that despite being launched around three
decades back it has not more than four hundred members (Ansars) to boast
of. The organization that once used to send presidents and other office
bearers in the Jamia Millia Students Union and was an important force to
reckon with among student organizations in Delhi and Aligarh as well as
some other educational institutions has been in the oblivion for quite
some time till the government brought its fading image back to limelight.
Even in places where it is said to have a ‘strong’ cadre base, the
organization may not be able to pinpoint more than a few people as its
sympathizers, leave alone its members. According to official accounts
Kanpur is the ‘stronghold’ of SIMI while same accounts say that it has
one hundred members in Kanpur!. The cadre-base remains ice-thin and it was
shrinking fast.
The media campaign against SIMI has brought some new youth towards this
students outfit as well as revived the sagging community support for it. A
larger than life image of the SIMI has helped the organization in more
than one way. And the most important favour that the media did to the
organization was to help it re-emerge at the forefront from imminent
oblivion where it was heading. The government ban will do more favour to
the organization and will attract more and more disgruntled youth towards
this small youth outfit.
The argument that the home ministry has forwarded as a basis for banning
the organization seems to be laughable. It has certainly not done any home
work. It says in the report that, ‘ since inception, SIMI has
consistently adopted a hard-line militant posture on various issues of
concern to the Muslim community. According to its Constitution SIMI aims
to achieve Allah’s pleasure through reconstruction of human life in
accordance with the principle given by Allah and his messenger and the
Holy Qur’an and Sunnah would guide the organization in all matters.’
If this argument is made the basis for banning any organization, then all
the Muslim organizations in the country will be banned and every Muslim
will be declared as ‘anti-national.’
One of the charges in the official notification banning SIMI is that it is
working for an international Islamic order. Every Muslim should strive for
achieving this fundamental goal. Followers of every religion, be it
Christianity, Hinduism or even Communism, claim to be working for a an
international just order according to their world-view. The Constitution
doesn’t say that this dream is a ground for banning any organization.
Another charge that has been levelled against SIMI is that it has been
demonstrating against the burning of the Holy Qur’an all over the
country. Instead of arresting and punishing the criminals responsible for
the sacrilege the government has tried to nab protesters!. It could happen
only in our country only under the BJP rule.
There are people who say that SIMI was ‘talking’ too much. A number of
people have said that SIMI was involved in mud slinging and its cadres and
functionaries used to deliver inflammatory speeches. A senior Jamaat
leader on the condition of anonymity told MG that though SIMI has been
wrongly banned by the BJP government, it will be hard to defend its case
in the court as it quite often used annoyingly harsh language. He said
that though SIMI was never involved in any anti-national activity, its
discourse has always contradicted this fact, particularly in recent times.
Even common people who have been sympathetic with SIMI have felt annoyed
over the way it has been talking. People are sure that SIMI was not
involved in any anti-national activity, but its language contradicted this
fact. There are people who believe that when the Bajrang Dal, VHP, Shiv
Sena and RSS which are involved in hundreds of riots and anti-minorities
activities and who are responsible for demolishing the Babri Masjid can go
unchecked, why the government singled out SIMI for ban only for its
rhetoric.
Mohammad Azam Khan, the SP leader, says that the ban is aimed at
increasing the communal divide on the eve of crucial assembly elections in
UP. He said that if the government had decided to ban SIMI, first it had
to ban VHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena which are openly indulging in
anti-national activities. He said that these organizations are openly
imparting arm training to their cadres in order to indulge in violence
against Muslims and other minority communities. Mulayam Singh Yadav has
also demanded a ban on VHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena. Ashok Gehlot and
Digvijay Singh, chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh
respectively, have also demanded banning these organizations.
Qasim Rasul Ilyas, editor of leading Urdu monthly Afkar-e-Milli and a
former SIMI president, says that the ban against SIMI is totally unlawful
as not a single accusation against the organisation has been
substantiated. He says that SIMI is a socio-religious organization of
Muslim youth and is involved in character-building of the youth. He says
that the organization is also involved in social work. He says that SIMI's
relief work in Gujarat after the earthquake has received accolades from
all sides.
In the meantime, a large number of SIMI activists have been detained from
all over the country. Most of these people till the filing of this report
are languishing in police custody and jails. A large number of youth are
reported to be arrested from UP, Madhya Pradesh, Andhara Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Apparently police has also detained a
large number of those ex-members who have no formal relations with the
SIMI now (it retires its members after the age of 30). Police is also
reported to have quizzed members of several other Muslim organizations in
the country. q
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