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Even some Congress members in the Uttar Pradesh assembly wore a forced smile when the comparison was made. Stressing the need for a Urdu university, one of Mulayam Singh Yadav?s ministers called the newly elected UP Congress president, Salman Khurshid, ?another Salman?. (?Did he mean another Salman Khan?? asked some in whispers.) The comparison was to unfold gradually.

?He is a Salman Rushdie in UP politics?, the minister said. The sarcastic remarks continued outside the house too for the next few days when the exchange over the Maulana Ali Jauhar Urdu University bill in the house became shriller.

The anger and frustration of the Mulayam Singh Yadav minister, Azam Khan, an aggressive Muslim face of Samajwadi Party politics, was over the possibility that the bill could get blocked by the governor, T.V. Rajeswar. Both the Congress and the governor had objected to making Azam Khan the pro-chancellor of the university for life.

The comparison was greeted in the house with peals of laughter. But for Azam Khan, it was more than an accidental similarity of first names. Salman Khurshid runs a premier network of public schools in the country which impart English education, while Salman Rushdie, in the eyes of a large number of Muslims in the country, has questioned the basic tenets of Islam in his writings.

Given the brand of politics he espouses, Azam Khan knows that images operate on an emotional level. He may also have a fair idea of what effect the comparison could have on his vote bank. Rushdie represents to the Muslim mind a tradition of Western hatred for Islam. Khurshid, who not only runs public schools but has also married a Christian, is an alien in the rather closed world of the Muslims. So the clever equating of the two served Khan?s purpose of aggressively pushing a political rival to the corner. Muslim identity in India, he has perhaps theorized, is not ready yet to become synonymous with the English- educated.

By launching a rather vituperative campaign against the Congress?s stand on the Urdu university issue in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party is using Urdu as a tool to forge a new radical Muslim identity. The Urdu issue, which was kept in the back-burner since Partition, is once again being sought to be linked with the dignity and status of the Muslim population in the country. Mulayam Singh Yadav?s party has found an easy weapon in the Urdu issue to put the Congress on the defensive.

The language as a means of consolidating Muslim identity dates back to 1867, when a so-called Muslim renaissance under the leadership of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan tried to reassert the identity of the community against the backdrop of the freedom struggle. After Partition, the movement around the language declined, as most of the leaders moved over to Pakistan. Although the language never struck root in rural India, Urdu?s commanding status in the literary world prompted the Muslim intelligentsia to keep up its demand for a proper status of the language even after Partition.

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the former president of India, in his report, attributed the alienation of Muslims from the Congress to the latter?s ?failure to give recognition to Urdu as a regional language in UP, Bihar and Delhi?. Some other Muslim leaders began to describe this as ?a cultural genocide of Urdu?. Unfortunately, when the Congress later agreed to accord this status, Muslim voters did not rally behind the party.

In the crude vote bank politics of UP, the Samajwadi Party has pitted Urdu against English. It has revived Muslims? hatred for English, with the chief minister openly deriding the language, and attacking the state?s governor for expressing preference for English. The alleged Congress flip-flop in the past over Urdu has come in handy for the party. The Muslim leadership in the state has thrown its weight behind the demand for a Urdu university in the state.

Taken aback initially by Mulayam Singh Yadav?s latest sop for Muslims, the Congress also quickly agreed in principle that there should indeed be a Urdu university. But it objected to the rider in the bill making provision for Azam Khan to be pro-chancellor for life. But the Mulayam Singh Yadav brigade sees this as an excuse to refuse the demand.

In his third term as chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav went about declaring a string of projects for reviving the state?s hapless economy, but compromised on his stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party by going overboard to woo the industrialists. As the Congress turned belligerent, despite being officially an ally, the party started zealously guarding its Muslim votes.

The state government was found announcing one sop after another for Muslims since early last year. It announced the appointment of Urdu teachers and translators in government departments, and constituted the Arabic-Persian Board headed by Maulana Khalil Ashrali of Rampur to coordinate between madrasahs and the state government. The government accorded financial assistance to 64 madrasahs. A bill has been tabled to set up a madrasah board. And then came the proposal for the Urdu university in Ramgarh in Western UP in the name of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, a modernist Muslim leader and freedom fighter.

The Congress, which is eyeing the Muslim population in the state for votes, is cautious about the impact the governor?s disapproval of the bill may have on Muslim voters. The party is worried about the surge of Muslim sentiment over the issue. Khurshid?s second coming in the state has not so far been able to inspire any campaign to call the bluff on ?Maulana Mulayam?.

Assigned to move a rusty Congress machine in the state which failed to get a single seat among the 12 assembly seats in recent bypolls, Khurshid is confronted with the problem of a lack of leaders. The new state Congress chief is busy trying to balance the various factions before he can even think of planning a campaign again the ruling Samajwadi Party. The Urdu university bill controversy has come as a major challenge to the party and to his leadership.

Khurshid?s stand against the Urdu language issue is a defensive one. His counter-attacks clearly lack firepower. He assumes a high moral ground saying that a university should not be a battleground for any kind of politics, argues that the controversy over Urdu is unnecessary and observes that Urdu is not the language of Muslims alone. He talks of opening more industrial training institutes to provide more jobs for Muslim youths, and asks Muslim students to learn computers. For he sees the Samajwadi campaign as one ?laced with evil political design?.

On the comparison being drawn between him and Salman Rushdie, Khurshid?s reply targets Azam Khan?s inability to read English. ?How many books has he [Azam Khan] read of Rushdie that he brings the comparison?? he asks. And this is where Azam Khan thinks he has scored a political point. ?Why should I read Salman Rushdie? I am farthest from the writer?, he says, turning his ignorance of Rushdie?s literary works into a political point.

Salman Khurshid knows that the demand for the Urdu university is snowballing into a major issue which can make or break the Congress?s image among Muslims. He tries to chart a course for the party, but his path is beset with obstacles. He is still left weathering the crisis in the party organization. Fighting fire with fire still appears a distant prospect.