Karnataka polls: I would rather dissolve the party than contest on religious basis, says AIMEP president Nowhera Shaik

Bengaluru: Nowhera Shaik says the people of Karnataka know her because of the social work she has been spearheading for the last 20 years. In any case, she has been pretty hard to miss this election season — looming billboards and full-page newspaper advertisements have ensured that she and her All India Mahila Empowerment Party made a loud and splashy entry into the Karnataka elections arena.

Between being an abaya-clad woman championing women’s rights, to launching the party in November 2017 and contesting elections within a few months, the party’s national president has drummed up a lot of curiosity. She purportedly had to wait four years for the election commission to grant her party the symbol of her choice – a diamond.

Conducting her campaign from presidential suites and private jets, the chairperson of Heera Group very early on declared her intent to field candidates across all 224 constituencies, though she herself is not contesting from any constituency.

She released her manifesto way ahead of any of the mainstream parties, which included many women-focused promises, like special help desks at all police stations to cater to women, evening and Sunday courts to speedily resolve cases of crimes against women and dedicated economic zones and incentives for women entrepreneurs.

This author caught up with Shaik for an exclusive interview at a seven-star hotel in Bengaluru the day she introduced her party’s star campaigners – Bollywood actors Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan. Edited excerpts follow:

You are primarily a businesswoman and philanthropist. Do you remember the moment you decided you would enter electoral politics? Yes, I do. It was in 2012. A case was brought to our notice where a young woman had been tortured and murdered by her husband and in-laws, and was being denied even a post-mortem. Her parents were being threatened to not pursue the case. We women’s rights activists stood firm and demanded an investigation and on the basis of a post-mortem, which identified over 70 wounds on the young woman’s body, her husband was arrested.

Then came the local MLA’s phone call, after which the man was quietly released. This wasn’t the first time; we had seen so many such instances. That was when we sat down together and decided, that when power was being used to perpetrate such injustice then why shouldn’t we come to power and use it for good instead.

What’s unique about your party’s approach to women’s rights. How is it different from that of other mainstream parties? MEP itself is unique. No one has floated a political party with women’s issues as the central platform. But it’s not enough to be just unique, it’s the need of the hour as well. Parties may talk about women’s empowerment and ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. They make a lot of promises to women; but when it comes to the practicalities of giving security to women and tackling crimes against them, they fall behind badly.

We need extremely tough laws, especially when minors are involved. The perpetrators should be hanged in public so that no one even thinks of committing such crimes. When MEP comes to power, we will fulfil all the promises we are making on security for women. This is our first time fighting elections and we are fielding 52 women candidates. Even on the national level, no party has fielded so many women candidates before.

Mainstream parties say that finding winnable women candidates is difficult… They say that but they can be winnable only if they are allowed to enter the fray, right? If they are not even given the opportunity, not even allowed to come on to the platform, where is the option? If they aren’t even on the ballot, how will people press the button? Give us the option, let some of us contest and lose, that’s okay. Next time more will come.

What are the challenges you faced in launching MEP on such a massive scale, especially without much of a political background? In the beginning, people laughed. To work past that was a challenge in itself. They asked me how it was going to be possible to field 224 candidates like I promised when even 100-year-old parties think so much before fielding a hundred candidates. Then the pressure tactics started. People threatened me to quit, saying they won’t let me stay and campaign here. I got calls from all quarters trying to bribe me to reduce the number of candidates.

They even started levelling all kinds of accusations. Some said she is with BJP, some said in Islam women aren’t allowed in politics. I have faced these challenges and answered all of them. I am confident that I am right. I only wanted to work towards women empowerment and justice for humanity. I am reiterating this. I am not under pressure from anyone and neither will I be in the future. No one can buy my allegiance.

Also, I have studied our politics for a while. I think there are some organisational similarities between running a party and a business, and me being a businesswoman has helped me handle most of the challenges that have come our way. Going forward after Karnataka elections, we’d be better prepared for any political challenge.

There have been questions raised about how you are funding these huge operations… I have always been funding my social work, and now that I have formed a party I am not alone in running it. We get the support of all those who wanted to come together to form a political platform for women. We function just like any normal political party, with the district, state and national-level infrastructure in place. Just that my personal contribution may be slightly more.

How do you think you’ll be able to convince the people of Karnataka to vote for a brand-new party with no performance record? We have already convinced them. That’s why we were able to attract so many candidates to come and fight elections on our platform. We received 5,700 applications for people who wanted to contest on our ticket. People want change. They want my manifesto to be implemented. And I feel victorious just knowing how strong and determined my candidates are to fight the electoral battle. I salute them.

They have been harassed to withdraw, threatened… saying their children will be kidnapped if they don’t. People with bags of money reached their homes asking them to reconsider contesting. But except one or two, none of my candidates withdrew. I feel my victory is apparent just from the fact that my candidates are ready to brave all this. I am confident that I will win 100-150 seats.

In certain constituencies with large Muslim populations, religious leaders have made it clear that their only criterion is to defeat BJP. They have discouraged other Muslim candidates, even forced some to withdraw, in the fear of splitting the Muslim vote. But you have gone ahead and fielded Muslim candidates in these seats. Do you feel you’ll be seen as working against the sentiments of the Muslim people? My vote bank is the entire of India. Not just Muslims or Hindus or Lingayats. I will only look at them as citizens and human beings. I want to end religion-based electoral politics. If I had to ever fight on a religious basis, I will dissolve the party. I want to bring the people of India together, not break them apart. Coming to the question, I am fielding candidates who will appeal to everyone.

There is majority Muslim population there, so the candidate is also Muslim. What you are saying is a wrong way of thinking: ‘This is against the Constitution’; ‘If you are so scared of splitting the votes, then please stay back in Delhi, and I will go ahead and contest as per my plan’; ‘Maybe you should withdraw your candidate and let me win’; ‘I am also a secular party after all’. Ultimately, all this is just the talk of politicians, not of the common people.

Recently, you personally were caught with Rs four lakh of unaccounted cash, which was confiscated. Would you care to comment on that? It wasn’t unaccounted cash. It was withdrawn from my personal account and even had the bank seal. I was returning home from Tirupati via a private jet after attending a celebration at one of my schools. My mother had put the money in my bag so that I would have some spending cash. I had left from Bangalore in the morning and returned in the evening, and in the rush, I forgot it was in my bag.

On arrival, I found Election Commission people waiting there, asking to examine the bags. They told me I couldn’t hold more than Rs 50,000. It’s the law of the elections, so I don’t blame them. They are just doing their job. It’s not a big deal. They even sent a notice saying I can get proof from the bank and reclaim the money, which I will do soon.

At the press conference, one of your party workers asked you if you had chief ministerial ambitions. I haven’t even thought of being MLA. I don’t have any love for a seat, no personal ambitions in that regard. But for the sake of justice when it is necessary, I will be ready to take up any position. And if there is someone who I think can do a better job delivering justice, then I will make way for them. I will make MLAs, MPs, chief ministers and prime ministers, but I am not particularly interested in being one.

The author is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer and a member of  101Reporters.com , a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.