Emerging luminary Naseer Hussain: Cong's lone Muslim face in CWC from South

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: The recent inclusion of Rajya Sabha MP Naseer Hussain in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) may have raised some eyebrows but others point out that he is the lone Muslim face from south India.

Other Muslim leaders in the CWC are former Union Minister Salman Khurshid, Tariq Hameed Karra from Jammu and Kashmir Congress who replaces the outgoing Ghulam Nabi Azad, with Ghulam Ahmed Mir and Tariq Anwar rounding off the list.

The other prominent minority leader in the body is AK Antony. Naseer, who is originally from Ballari district, is said to be close to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge.

The minority leader was suspended from the Upper House for protesting against the Farm and Insurance Bills.

Speaking exclusively to News Trail, Naseer said that his inclusion proved that the Congress is an inclusive party. “Minorities are involved with the party at all levels.

In the past, I have been involved with the AICC (All India Congress Committee) for 23-24 years. Now, I’m happy to be given an opportunity to be a part of the Congress Working Committee to help the party formulate its policies and programmes,” he said.

His party colleague and former Union Minister K Rahman Khan concurred.

“He is a member of parliament and now a member of the working committee. It is an indication that he is emerging as a leader in the Congress but no one can say as a Muslim leader; rather in the Congress, he is a Muslim face,” Khan said.

“He’s young and has got an opportunity to be included in the highest body. He should emerge and fulfill the aspirations of the Muslim community,” he added.

Seat sharing for LS polls not difficult: MP Naseer was also optimistic about Congress’ chances in next year’s Lok Sabha elections, adding that seat sharing was doable and not as daunting as it may seem.

“Congress has the experience of running coalition governments in the past and as such, I’m confident that we’ll be able to come up with a seat sharing formula, unlike the BJP, whose alliance partners have been leaving them since 2014. It’s not that difficult for us. Congress is the biggest Opposition party and we’ll figure it out,” he said, adding that there was optimism in the Opposition camp that they would be able to dislodge the BJP to “save democracy”.

 Khan said that other Opposition parties should recognise Congress as a party with a pan-India presence when coming to the table to negotiate for seats.

“Unity will be there if everybody sacrifices. I hope seat sharing would not be a problem because everybody knows where each political party is strong. Congress, being the largest (Opposition) party and having a presence everywhere, the rest of the Opposition parties will accept this position of the Congress that we are present across the length and breadth of the country. There should be a regional method of seat sharing,” he said.

Not fair to single out Rahul: INC

Both Naseer and Khan rejected the notion that Congress had been excluding Muslims from their narrative. Such claims had referred to party MP from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi’s silence on the communal violence in Haryana’s Nuh district and other incidents.

“I think pin-pointing Congress is not good only because of one incident. The party has inculcated an environment of diversity. The questions about why Rahul and Sonia Gandhi aren’t speaking about it (Haryana) are raised to show the Congress in poor light. Who else is fighting the BJP?” Naseer asked.

“A Congress team from Haryana has been there on the ground, forcing the State government to restore law and order,” he said, denying that the party had been reacting to “appeasement” charges by the BJP.

Khan highlighted that 1,200 houses of Muslims being demolished in Nuh district and recent attacks on churches in Delhi were worrisome.

However, he added that singling out Rahul Gandhi was wrong since Haryana Congress had helped restore normalcy in the state.