Imtiaz Jaleel Interview: 'Opposition Wants Muslim Votes, Not Muslim Leadership'

Video Editors: Abhishek Sharma, Nitin Bisht

"We are not here to play with marbles. What is a political party for? Is our party only to celebrate Ramzan, invite you, make you wear a skull cap, feed you dates, and click pictures with you? They wear our caps for one day and then keep making a fool of us for five years. So, they are free to accuse us of anything," said Imtiaz Jaleel, Lok Sabha MP from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad), reacting to accusations of his party responsible for splitting anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) votes in every election.

In 2019, Jaleel's victory in the constituency, with a very close margin of over 4,000 votes, came as a surprise to many. He became the only Lok Sabha MP from his party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to win other than party chief Asaduddin Owaisi who won Hyderabad.

He also became the first Muslim MP to win from the constituency in 40 years.

"I have contested all three of the 2014, 2019, and 2024 elections on the basis of my work. The city where I come from (Sambhaji Nagar), the town that I come from, it had an image of being one of the communally hypersensitive cities. The development of this city was paused because selfish politicians created barriers between different communities for their benefit," Jaleel said, adding that defeating four-time MP and Shiv Sena (UBT) opponent Chandrakant Khaire was a silver lining.

This time, however, the battle is tougher with the Shiv Sena split making it a three-way fight between Jaleel, Khaire, and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) leader Sandipan Bhumre.

This time, however, the battle is tougher with the Shiv Sena split making it a three-way fight between Jaleel, Khaire, and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) leader Sandipan Bhumre.

On 'Badi Badi Baatein', AIMIM leader and Sambhaji Nagar MP Imtiaz Jaleel talks about party being accused of splitting Opposition's votes, why he thinks and the party was kept out of INDIA bloc, and why he thinks the BJP will not be able to fulfil the '400 paar' promise.

What does ‘Badi Badi Baatein’ mean to you in Indian po litics?

After every five years, democracy is celebrated in India. Elections signify that our democracy is alive, we celebrate this festival every five years. Unfortunately, a trend I have noticed is that the voter turnout has decreased after every five years. I believe this is a massive danger to our democracy. Either the citizens have lost trust or do not see any candidate worthy of their efforts to go to the polling booth, stand in the queue for 30 minutes, and cast their vote. I believe the entire country should be worried about this issue.

On what issues and goals are you contesting the 2024 elections in Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad)?

I have contested all three of the 2014, 2019, and 2024 elections on the basis of my work. The city where I come from (Sambhaji Nagar), the town that I come from, it had an image of being one of the communally hypersensitive cities. The development of this city was paused because selfish politicians created barriers between different communities for their benefit. In the past ten years, I have tried to break these barriers. In order to get manufacturers, tourists and other industries to this city, we need communal harmony. All development work is connected to this. A backlog (in development) is extremely harmful for a city. The backlog in the past 25-30 years has added up because no politician ever worked for this city and only fought elections based on religion, community and caste.

According to you, what were the factors that made you win against an established politician like Chandrakant Khaire in 2019?

Citizens may be fooled once or twice, but not beyond that. Once they start noticing that other cities are building flyovers, better roads and have more employment opportunities but we don't, the youth starts to realise that they are choosing the wrong leaders. In 2019, I saw families where the parents were dedicated Shiv Sena or BJP supporters but the youth told their parents that ‘instead of voting for the party of your choice, I will vote for the party of my choice’, and they voted for me. I saw this as a positive change and a silver lining that when the wave of Modi was all over the country, I defeated a four-time Shiv Sena MP who has been winning the elections, along with BJP, for the past 20 years.

It is said in Maharashtra that there is a Uddhav Thackeray wave. Given the sympathy factor that goes behind him after the split of the Shiv Sena, do you believe that Chandrakant Khaire will be able to cash-in on the same during this election?

If one does not work, then no factor will be able to help you. No sympathy wave will make you win. Your admirers, your fans, and some who sympathise will be with you. Still, politicians trying to take advantage of this sympathy wave also know that this city needs more water, better roads, students graduating from good engineering colleges, and need more jobs. In this era of social media, every young person has a smartphone, even they know what is happening and what is not. So, it is not easy to fool people. If we take the speeches of Chandrakant Khaire from the past 10-20 years, they were all based on Hindutva. But he was jolted when he saw that even after those speeches, he did not get votes, even he realised that change is coming.

Do you believe the BJP will be able to cross 400 seats in this election?

A kind of psychological pressure is being created within the people, so that the people who are scared or uncertain also jump to their side. The BJP is very cleverly saying they will cross 400 this time. It’s a daydream which PM Modi is showing the BJP supporters. I say, why only 400? If he had to sell a dream, he should’ve just said all 553 would be ours, shut the parliament and passed Bills from home along with Amit Shah. For a democracy to survive, a strong Opposition is equally significant. Amit Shah said he would win 45 seats from Maharashtra, leaving 3 for the opposition out of the total 48, knowing that one of the three seats is mine. He already knew that no matter how much strength he uses against me, he would not win.

Do you think issues like CAA and Ram Mandir would work for the BJP?

There are some people for whom they will. I will give you an example. A memorial was being built for a BJP politician here and crores of rupees worth government land was allotted for building it. I opposed the plan and I said a hospital should be built instead. I filed a PIL in the High Court, and the High Court agreed with me. Now, there is a 400-bed government hospital being built there. I am suggested that the hospital be named in the memory of that BJP politician. But when I posted this news on social media, a lot of BJP supporters commented as to why I said 'Aurangabad' and not Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. They did not care about the hospital. These supporters and their family members could be the first ones to go to that hospital, but their brains have been poisoned to chase these ‘non-issues' and treat them as issues. Issues like CAA and Ram Mandir have been handled with extreme calculations. The RSS and the BJP have a think-tank to decide which issue to choose when. When the Uttar Pradesh elections were underway, a girl wore a hijab and went to college in Udupi became as issue in the UP elections. The entire UP was discussing whether the girl should’ve worn hijab to college or not. When the elections were over, girls went to college wearing hijab again but no issue was raised. So, which issue has to be raised, when and how the issue can be communalised to distract the minds of the citizens... so they don’t ask questions regarding jobs and inflation. Modi ji built Ram Mandir, Modiji got CAA, Modi ji demolished this masjid, Modi ji got that new law for Muslims - these are all the issues that there are.

Why was AIMIM not made part of INDIA bloc? You have voiced your opinion in the past that AIMIM should have been a part of INDIA.

You will see that all leading parties want votes of Muslims but don’t want Muslim leadership. They don’t believe in that. We have arranged chairs for them and laid carpets for too long. Now, we will sit next to you in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. This is the reason why they keep scaring the Muslims. In so many elections they said vote for us or Shiv Sena will come tom power. Now they say vote for us or the BJP will come to power. More than half of the congress has gone and joined the BJP now, including politicians who would point fingers at us. Ashok Chavan had said said I was there to help the BJP, now he has gone and joined the BJPf. The one party has been steadfast (on its ideology), whether we lose or win, we stand strong. Now, they will understand our strength.

Your party has been accused by both sides of splitting votes.

They can keep accusing us. We are not here to play games. What is a political party for? Is our party only to celebrate Ramzan, invite you, make you wear a cap, feed you dates, and click pictures ? They wear our caps for one day and then keep making a fool of us for five years. So, they are free to accuse us of anything.

Speaking of Hindu-Muslim division and polarisation - Maharashtra ranks the highest in terms of hate speeches and communal violence.

Is is, because everything is being organised and sponsored by the government and the police. If you are organising, sponsoring and publicising it yourself, what is the big deal? If they don’t have any good work to show, they will get someone who keeps blabbering such things. They have done that in our city too and they use such poisonous language. They keep doing it and no action is taken but if Imtiaz Jaleel uses even one wrong word, I will get a notice instantly. Law is not different for me, you or anybody else. IPC is applicable and CRPC is applicable on all of us, then why is there a discrimination like this? This discrimination exists because even the police today is playing into this role, they have become puppets of the BJP. How many hate speeches have been acted upon? The Supreme Court has passed so many bills but has the hate speech stopped in Maharashtra? No. They believe that if the Supreme Court can say whatever it wants to, the leaders will keep exploiting their power. So, they will say whatever they want to. It's usually the same 6-8 people.

What according to you is the biggest issue for 2024 elections?

Just save the country. Save the country from this dirty politics which is creating barriers in the society. If we want to save the country, it is a huge responsibility of the citizens to use the elections wisely. People in power will come and go but the country will go several years behind.