Lok Sabha elections 2024 | Tell those targeting you this is your country: Anil Desai to Muslim youth

Congress’s Varsha Gaikwad (right) asked the youth to learn from icons such as Dr Ambedkar and A P J Abdul Kalam

If someone targets you, you must be bold enough to argue back. Stand up and assert that this is your watan (country) and you are made from this mitti."

The man making this statement to a room hall full of young Muslims was neither a Muslim politician nor a secular activist, but a true-blue Shiv Sainik. This was Anil Desai, two-time Rajya Sabha MP from the undivided Shiv Sena, and current Lok Sabha candidate of the Sena (UBT). Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh introduced him as part of the "think tank" of the Shiv Sena.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Desai and Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh at the Saisa Institute, Bandra on Saturday

Desai was replying to a question by a young Muslim who had expressed fears of being discriminated against in the job sphere because of his beard.

Would Desai give an assurance that when (not "if") the INDIA bloc came to power, such discrimination on the basis of appearance would end?

Kulsum Khan, Rabodi resident

"Definitely," said Desai, pointing out that India was a democracy for, of and by the people. Those discriminating on the basis of clothes were taking the country backwards, he said. Everyone who was employed was contributing to the country's GDP, he added, and nobody should take such discrimination lying down.

Desai was part of an interaction with minority youth organised on Saturday by Shaikh's organisation ‘Ahtesaab', which runs skill development centres in Muslim areas. Young Muslims had come from Govandi, Bandra East, Ghatkopar and Thane to ask questions of candidates of the INDIA bloc, Desai from Mumbai South Central, and the Congress's Varsha Gaikwad from Mumbai North Central.

"I wanted to present a different image of the community to them," Shaikh told mid-day. "Normally the practice is to take candidates to meet maulanas."

Youth's aspirations

Desai and Gaikwad may have found it easier to field questions from maulanas. The youth gathered at the Saisa Institute, Bandra, had serious concerns based on their own experiences.

Kulsum Khan for instance, wanted to appear for the UPSC exam. But she could not get over the memory of having been humiliated in her convent school in Thane's Rabodi area. "When I was in Std III, I couldn't sit for the unit test, because I couldn't pay my fees. The teacher told me: You Muslims are like this only, you all say you can't pay. Why not go to a municipal school then?"

Now, said Kulsum, her younger sister had been told the same thing by the same school.

"I'm afraid now, when I appear for the UPSC exam, will I be told that we Muslims are like that only?'" asked Kulsum.

"Shocking!" replied Desai. "Which school was this? We'll definitely look into it. Such prejudices need to be eradicated. But please put this detestable incident behind you and sit for the UPSC. You will be an asset to the country."

Talking to mid-day, Kulsum said her sister had been sent to the same school despite her own bitter experience because this was the only good convent school in the area. Her father was a driver, she added, and her parents had taken loans to pay the fees.

Gaikwad joined the interaction late. Her responses, however, were very different when questions of discrimination were put to her. The four-time MLA asked the youth to learn from icons such as Dr Ambedkar and A P J Abdul Kalam, both of whom had battled discrimination and poverty and ended up giving the country the Constitution and the space programme respectively.

"I myself faced heavy odds; that's why I always tell students not to feel ashamed if they have to study in a small crowded house with no facilities," she added.

The contrast in the answers of the two candidates, one from a party whose trademark used to be hard Hindutva, the other from a party that flaunts its secular credentials and is even accused of ‘Muslim appeasement', was an accurate reflection of the irony that dominates Maharashtra politics today.

Other concerns voiced by students concerned the cancellation of minority scholarships, the steep fees charged by private schools, the lack of municipal schools till Std X in their areas, and the difficulty in procuring OBC certificates for Muslims. Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh answered these questions.