The Hindu : Muslim Front likely to field candidate in Belgaum

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Belgaum

Muslim Front likely to field candidate in Belgaum

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, MARCH 20. The Muslim Front of Belgaum, which was floated recently, will field its candidate in the Belgaum Assembly Constituency if secular parties such as the Congress and Janata Dal (S) fail to nominate a candidate from the community. The decision was ratified by community leaders, the 72 Jamats and all youth committees in the city at a meeting here on February 21, said Iqbal Shabash Khan, Governing Council member and spokesman of the front, here on Saturday.

He told presspersons that the front had requested the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) to field a Muslim candidate. Otherwise, it would field its own candidate to assert the community's rights and protect its socioeconomic and cultural interests.

Clarifying that Muslims were not against the Congress, Mr. Khan said the community had a strong antipathy towards Ramesh Kudachi, the party member of the dissolved Assembly, for several reasons. Mr. Kudachi did little to prevent the "police atrocities" on Muslim families following communal disturbances in the constituency about two years ago. He did not also bother to console them after the incident. The police withdrew all the "false cases" against Muslims, but Mr. Kudachi could not take credit for it.

Criticising the India Shining campaign of the National Democratic Alliance, he said the so-called development in the country was with the help of foreign or World Bank loans, which was not the mark of true progress. All communities participated in the freedom struggle, but hardly five per cent of the population benefited from Independence. Muslims were repeatedly subjected to atrocities and they were ignored in the social, economic and cultural fields. More than 60 per cent of the Muslim population were living below the poverty line. Thus, the front was formed with the objective of working and involving other sections of society to bring the community into the national mainstream of development and progress.

Mr. Khan said Muslims had supported Mr. Kudachi in the 1999 elections in which he created history of defeating the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi candidate for the first time in Belgaum city. There were 38,000 Muslim voters in city and the community capable of winning elections on its own, he added.

Mohammed Ghouse Peerjade, president of the front, Khalid Mulla, secretary, and Latif Pathan, corporator, were present.

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Muslim Front likely to field candidate in Belgaum