Dear Atishi
The news of you contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the East Delhi constituency is a breath of fresh air. Expectedly, the forces of status quo, in both the Congress and the BJP, have launched a vicious personal attack on you. However, as a citizen who resides in the constituency you are contesting from, I wish to bring to you some concerns in the hope of a dialogue. Something your adversary Gautam Gambhir ran away from.
In February 2019, in Okhla, where I live, thousands of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) posters adorned the walls appealing to the people to vote for the party if they want to defeat the BJP. That is it. The posters had nothing more to them. These were customised posters for Muslim-dominated areas, whereas, in other areas, you were talking about the achievements of the AAP in terms of health care and education. What explains this double standard of your party in terms of the different strategies of campaigns for different areas?
Does the AAP not have any tangible achievements to show in terms of the development projects it has undertaken in our area? What about the state of the much spoken about mohalla clinics and schools? Or do you yourself know the dilapidated state of many of the mohalla clinics in the area and that are hardly functional. Or the fact that the only school in the Muslim-majority region has been shifted out of the area (to New Friends Colony) leading to an increase in drop-out rates of children from within the community. Many areas within Okhla still do not have any piped water supply. The same parasitical lobbies of real estate builders, contractors and brokers that once used to dominate the Congress party’s organisational structure in the area have now thronged the AAP. The entire area lies in shambles, with open drains, open dumping areas and debilitated roads.
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The emergence of the AAP in the last six years gave rise to a lot of hopes and aspirations among the people of Delhi. For the Muslims, in particular, it allowed them a third option beyond the tried, tested and failed binary of the BJP and the Congress. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and, particularly, the 2015 Vidhan Sabha elections, the Muslims latched on to this new option and voted enthusiastically for your party.
Here was a party, in the words of journalist Jyoti Punwani writing in 2014, that without always invoking the older secular trope of fear, made the Muslims “feel the tangible pride of being part of a new kind of politics that does not see them as separate.” This new politics involved developing a new leadership from within the community and bringing the Muslim out of their ghettoised existence. But cut to 2019, we now see the AAP resorting to the same old Congressi tactics of doing politics in minority-dominated areas that it once claimed to break away from. And what is that? To take the Muslims for granted, to take the entire constituency for granted, to have a sense of entitlement about their votes while simply short-circuiting real issues.
Let me take the example of the continued presence, despite citizens protests for over a decade, of the highly toxic incinerator-based waste-to-energy plant operated by Jindal Group in the thickly populated residential parts of the area. It was set up during the Congress years with the stated aim of recycling waste, but using outdated technology, it has only contributed to the toxicity in the air of Okhla, making its pollution levels worse than even the rest of Delhi. The plant stands in violation of several rules of the environment ministry and has been the cause of several ailments in the area including bronchitis, asthma and cancer. Last year, in September a joint inspection by the Central Pollution Board and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee informed the National Green Tribunal that this plant is not complying with the emission standards and is leading to a drastic increase in air pollution in the area.
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Back in 2015, Arvind Kejriwal had assured the residents of the area that the plant would be closed down. Far from being closed, its owners, in fact, have now applied to expand the plant’s capacity.
In local conversations, whenever they have been approached by the residents, your party members say that the matter is not in the hands of the Delhi government. Why then, did Kejriwal assure the residents after becoming the CM in 2015, that he will ensure that the plant shuts down? Or, if the matter is indeed not in your hands, why hasn’t the Delhi government extended its support to the residents who have been protesting continuously against the plant, and holding several jan–sunwais. Aren’t you also replicating the older arrogant attitude of the Congress, which had turned a deaf ear to the pleas of the residents in this regard?
In the last five years of the Narendra Modi regime, violence against Muslims has increased, leading to an overarching feeling of fear and desperation amongst the community. In such a situation, all that dominates their psyche when they go out to vote is protection from such violence, and not their rights to roti, kapda, makan, shiksha and rozgar. But isn’t that what second class citizenship, that RSS aspires to reduce the Muslims to in their ‘Hindu Rashtra’, all about? That the minorities stop aspiring for a better life and live in perpetual fear. In such a context, it is supposed to be the task of the ‘secular’ forces, who claim to be an alternative to the BJP/RSS, to counter this agenda of hate. But, what have we witnessed instead? Far from speaking out against this larger majoritarian shift in Indian politics since 2014, there is a failure to even address basic civic and economic issues that plagues the everyday lives of Muslims.
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The precarious condition of the Muslims over the years has benefited not just the agenda of parties like the BJP, but also parties like the Congress. Who would know better than you that, historically, the Congress has largely relied upon raising the spectre of the BJP to appeal to the Muslim voters, rather than working much for the betterment and empowerment of the community. The findings of the Sachar Committee Report stand as a bitter testimony to that. It is indeed saddening to see the AAP now moving towards the same.
To conclude, when it comes to the question of defeating the BJP in the upcoming elections, the AAP doesn’t need to tell the Muslims how to vote strategically. Strategic voting has been a compulsion for the Muslims for decades now as they have had to shoulder the burden of secularism disproportionately. They have done that before, they will do so again. After all, they know they will pay the highest price if the BJP returns to power in 2019. But, nevertheless, the question would still stare at you. Would the people of my neighbourhood always be taken for granted as a pliant vote-bank? Or would they be treated as equal citizens?
I wish you to reflect on this and also wish you all the best.
Regards
Umar Khalid
The author is an activist and former JNU student. Views are personal.