Digvijaya Singh, (above) Asaduddin Owaisi

New Delhi, Nov. 15: The ambitious plan of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen to fight elections in Delhi, Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh after a successful foray in Maharashtra has caused alarm in the Congress.

The cause of worry is not the MIM’s ability to slice away the Muslim votes but the possibility of a purely religion-based outfit deepening the communal polarisation in society. Despite the MIM’s claim of secular politics, it is largely perceived to be a Muslim party in what constitutes Telangana in post-bifurcation Andhra Pradesh.

A senior Congress leader told The Telegraph: “This is what the RSS-BJP would pray for, an outright Muslim political party with a pan-India presence. This will not only boost the BJP’s politics numerically, it will be a boon for them in terms of atmospherics, too. The ground for communal polarisation will be readymade. A secular India can do without a religion-based party at this critical stage.”

This leader said such attempts had been made in the past with limited success but another experiment at this stage could yield bigger results because of the confusion and unease among Muslims after the massive mandate won by Narendra Modi.

He said: “This is the time to strengthen secular politics. Every political party has the right to expand its base but any community and religion-based mobilisation will further deepen the fault-lines of Indian society.”

Another leader expressed similar views. “We need a vigorous and sustained effort to educate the voters that India’s future lies in secular amity, in a harmonious relationship between different communities.

“The recent experience of communal tension producing a particular kind of result has to be wiped out. This cannot be sustained as a model to fight election. We should not encourage the rise of a communal outfit.”

The debate was triggered by Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh who, in a series of tweets, questioned the MIM’s intention in fighting elections outside its Hyderabad bastion. Digvijaya, who is in charge of Andhra and Telangana, tweeted: “The BJP gets support of MIM in Maharashtra and now it would be contesting in Delhi. Who would gain if MIM fights in Delhi? Obviously BJP!”

The MIM won only two seats on debut in Maharashtra but got around five lakh votes that would have otherwise gone to the Congress, NCP or the Samajwadi Party. Although the MIM fielded five Hindu candidates too, it is an open secret that Muslims voted in bulk for its candidates in the two seats it won. Its entire electoral discourse centred around inadequate Muslim representation in the Assemblies.

Its leader, Asaduddin Owaisi, has repeatedly asserted that he was working to protect the interests of Muslims and was expanding his party’s base to ensure a greater number of elected representatives in Assemblies and Parliament.

Although Owaisi has been a Congress ally in the past, most leaders now see a problem in his Muslim-specific discourse even as they do not accuse him of being a communal bigot.

Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed, stressing that only a truly secular pan-Indian party could protect the interests of all communities, including the minorities, said: “Every Indian who believes in secularism and is opposed to the vision of the RSS should restrain from supporting any party that appeals to voters in the name of religion. The idea of India can be protected by honouring pluralism, not by pursuing a divisive and narrow agenda.”

Asked how the MIM could be communal after breaking away from the Congress, he said: “I am not saying who is communal or secular. I am saying politics should not be done on a religious or communal agenda.

“The Congress is the only party which commands the respect of all castes, religions and creeds because it has a broad vision. India will be served better with inclusive politics and hence we are warning the people against a narrow vision.”

Digvijaya too suggested that religious fundamentalists of the majority and minority communities were two faces of the same coin, although gullible voters didn’t realise that majority communalism was touted and propagated as patriotism.

The Congress has supped with these forces in several states. While it is in alliance with the Muslim League in Kerala, it had ties with Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF in Assam. But the MIM’s rise is bound to create complexities as dealing with a pan-Indian Muslim outfit would be a different ball game altogether.