An Interview with SDPI National General Secretaries Elyas Muhammad Thumbe and Afsar Pasha by Abhay Kumar

Like Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has jumped into Bihar’s electoral fray as it holds all the so-called secular parties responsible for the miserable plight of Muslims and other deprived communities. While the SDPI’s electoral strength has been largely confined to local body elections in states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa and West Bengal, the party hopes to win its first MLA in the upcoming Bihar elections where it has fielded five candidates in four districts, Katihar, Purnia, Araria and Vaishali.  The prospect of SDPI’s electoral success, as claimed by its leaders, lies in the fact that the party is backed up by Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim alliance. To know more about SDPI’s strategy in Bihar polls and other issues, Abhay Kumar interacted with two National General Secretaries, Elyas Muhammad Thumbe and Afsar Pasha, at party’s central office in Nizamuddin West, New Delhi on Tuesday evening. The excerpt of interview is as follows.

Why has your party, the SDPI, decided to contest Bihar elections? What is your strategy there?

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe: So far political parties have been driven by their selfish interests and they have had no agenda for the welfare of deprived communities like Muslims, Adivasis, Dalits and Backwards. Now, the communal parties are also eying Bihar and polarising the votes through raking up religious sentiments. Put differently, all these parties, both secular and communal,have pursued corporate and communal agendas. Unlike them, our party is struggling for the right (adhikar) of people and empowering people. Thus, our slogan is freedom from hunger and fear. Today the situation has become so worse in the country that a person can be killed on the pretext of possessing even one kilogram beef. As for Bihar, people are deprived of basic facilities and development, particularly those living in Seemanchal region.  Towns are in a bad shape as there are open drainages. Besides, there are piles of garbage in streets. Even roads are in a dilapidated condition with unruly traffic system. People are also suffering from irregular power supply. The villages are very far from the modern development concepts where power supply is not more than two to three hours in a day. 

Afsar Pasha: The Seemanchal is an underdeveloped region and no party has worked for its development (taraqqi). Our party has been working in the region for six years. We have taken up the issues of backward and downtrodden communities of this region and have been working for their empowerment. The present political parties have neglected the downtrodden communities and used them as a mere vote bank. They used to give tickets to the rich candidates and those of criminal background.   Unlike the current trend where the rich section (maldar tabqa) of the society is dominating politics, we have selected the candidates from these down trodden communities who have been working for the welfare of the people for a long time.

Asaduddin Owaisi also makes a similar claim that his party is supported by Muslims, Dalits and other deprived sections. Much like the way your party fought with the AIMIM in Karnataka polls, the SDPI is likely to compete with AIMIM for Muslim votes in Bihar as well. Why should voters prefer your party to Owaisi’s?

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe: Our party is for all deprived and backward communities and not just for Muslims. We take up everyone’s issue, irrespective of caste, creed and colour. But Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM goes to people only when elections are at hand. Unlike his party which is dominated by one family (khandan), there is an internal democracy in our party as well as space for everyone.

Afsar Pasha:  Ours is a different party [from Owaisi’s]. While we participate in electoral politics when election is held, the rest of five years we remain busy with holding agitations for the welfare of the people. We do not content ourselves with just delivering speech (bhashan) at the time of polls. Rather, we work for spreading political awareness among masses and for their rights.

You claim that you work on the ground but Owaisi is getting much of media’s attention.

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe: A section ofmedia have vested interests in showing the violent speech of Owaisi that polarises society. Unlike him, we launch agitations throughout the year but our activities and press releases are often ignored by media. This might have to do with the fact that our party, unlike Owaisi’s, lack political power as we do not have any MP or MLA. 

Afsar Pasha: The person, who has been enjoying the power, is likely to draw media attention. Our party is drawing media in a small way and wherever we have succeeded in electoral politics we could get good media coverage.  For example, when we achieved victory in Bangalore in local body elections, our success was highlighted and widely discussed by media.

Given the tough fight in Bihar elections, are you hopeful that you will be able to win seats there?

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe:  Out of five seats we are contesting in Bihar, we have a bright change in Jockihat seat where the SDPI has fielded Mohammed Yahya, a zila parishadmember. Another candidate, Vijay Uraon, an Adivasi, is given ticket from Purnia constituency and he is also expected to win as well. We will open our account in Bihar this time as we are backed up by the Dalit-Adivasi-Muslim alliance.

Afsar Pasha: We hope that we will get good numbers of votes and we have a positive aspiration of opening our account in Bihar elections.

While you are underscoring unity between deprived sections, the critics allege that your party is dominated by Muslims from South India, particularly from Kerala and Karnataka. As far as sect (maslak) is concerned, those who follow Wahabi Islam, as has been alleged, discriminate party members of other sects. How far is it true?

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe: It is a false propaganda. Apart from South India, the SDPI is very popular (mashhur) in Rajasthan where it is the third popular party after the BJP and the Congress in the last assembly election which we contested. We have good popularity in West Bengal too. Such a conspiracy is hatched by the Congress party and other parties which are depending on Muslim vote banks. In our party, we have Sunnis, Salfis, Ahl-e-Hadith, Jamaatis, etc. In the SDPI, following any particular creed is not a bar. To become a member of the party, one is to be a citizen of India, above the age of sixteen, keeping distance from all social evils and bad habits without being involved in any case of corruption and act of communalism.  Allegations against the SDPI are made by those narrow-minded persons, who have their big ego and self-interests.

Afsar Pasha:  That it is dominated by Wahabi Muslims is not correct. Our party is for all.  We have members and cadres belonging to all religions and sections. Anybody can see that we have been giving opportunities to the candidates belonging to different religions. The candidates who won the elections in different states are of Muslims, Dalits, Christians and others.  Wherever we have contested elections, we were supported by all sections, Muslims, Dalit, Christian and others.

While you have been criticising “secular” parties for ignoring the interest of Muslims, other political parties, claiming to champion the interests of Muslims, have a direct clash of interests with you. For example, the Muslim League has made an attempt to stop the SDPI’s entry into Muslim-dominated regions of Kerala. Is not such a fight for power would end up strengthening your rivals such as the BJP?

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe: For last sixty years the so-called secular parties have asked Muslims to vote for them by showing the fears of the BJP. But when it comes to fulfilling promises, they have done nothing for them.  In other words, they have cheated (dhoka) us. That is why we believe that if Muslims keep supporting these so-called secular parties, then they will find themselves ruined. As for other so-called Muslim parties, we do not think that they are genuinely working for Muslims. We have no hesitation in saying that they act like slaves of so-called secular parties. Let me give you an example. The Muslim League in Kerala works as a “slave” of the Congress party and it has nothing to say about injustice metered out to Muslims in rest of India. Unlike others, ours is a party of the oppressed and we, therefore, raise the voices for all sections. The apprehension that SDPI’s entry into polls would ends up splitting Muslim votes and thus, benefiting the BJP, is also not true. Much before we decided to participate in Karnataka, the BJP had already won elections there. Contrary to these allegations, the representation of Muslims has gone up after the emergence of our party. Even the Congress has given Muslims more tickets this time.

Afsar Pasha: We do not have clash (takkar) with such parties because our support base is not only Muslims. Rather, our support base is deprived communities such as Muslims, Dalits and backwards. In the upcoming panchayat polls in Kerala where we are contesting, people would vote for us and we will definitely win elections. Besides this, we do not think that the BJP has benefited from our entry into elections. As a matter of fact, the BJP has been growing over the decades much before our party came into being.

The assembly elections in three states, UP, Kerala and Bengal are not far away. Are you ready for them?

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe: Our party’s structure in Bengal is strong but in UP we are still at a primary state and there we need to work for some more years. Further, we have good strength and base in Kerala, we will definitely contest in assembly elections. 

Afsar Pasha:In Bengal, we are a part of the Gona Front which is an alliance of six parties comprising the BNP, led by former minister under CMP government Abdul Razak Mulla, the SDPI, the Welfare Party of India, the JDU, the JMM and the RPI. We will contest West Bengal elections under this alliance. As for UP, we have identified our constituencies and started working there.

The relation between the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the SDPI is never clearly articulated. However, there is a wider perception that the SDPI is the political “wing” of the PFI. If it is so, then how could the principles that SDPI, cherishing ideals such as socialism, secularism and liberty, can square with those of the PFI, which are often couched in religious terms?

Elyas Muhammad Thumbe: The PFI does not have a direct relation with the SDPI. But it is correct that the PFI has given the SDPI a large support. Put differently, the PFI is like a “patron” of the SDPI. Both the PFI and the SDPI ask their cadres to keep distance from social evils. Being the member of the SDPI, we show respect (ehteram) for the values of Islam. However, establishing an Islamic government in India is very difficult (mushkil) act. Given that, both the PFI and the SDPI work to ensure equal rights to all. I myself came to the SDPI after having worked in the PFI. That is why we do not see any contradiction between the ideology of PFI and the SDPI—both stand for equal rights. Such confusion arises when one interprets our notion of socialism from a communist perspective. Our socialism is an Indian version of socialism, which stands for equal development to all, equality and liberty. Moreover, in our party’s conception of socialism, one can be both faithful to one’s religion and at the same time a socialist.

Afsar Pasha:We are working to realise the ideas of socialism and democracy, which are the best (sab se acchha). The SDPI is an independent party, which formulates its ideology and policies independently.  The party has its own structure and leaderships. We agree that the party was formed due to the follow up actions of the resolutions taken in the ‘National Political Conference’ held in Calicut, organized by the Popular Front of India where several intellectuals, academics and leaders of difference oppressed communities participated.

Abhay Kumar is pursuing Ph.D at Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He may be contacted at debatingissues(a)gmail.com