As the Pasmanda Muslim movement gains traction, the community's leaders have urged Opposition parties to step forward to support their demand for Dalit Muslims to be given the status of Scheduled Caste, and the benefits of reservation like their counterparts from the Hindu community. They also seek a caste census for all, including Muslims. “This will reveal the exact percentage of the Pasmanda community. So far, the Ashrafs have a strong grip on the resources of the community,” a Pasmanda leader said in New Delhi.
In a letter addressed to leading Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the Pasmanda leadership has asked the parties to clearly state their stand on the issue of Scheduled Caste status for Dalit Muslims. “The parties which claim to be secular and get the Muslim vote in huge numbers are not ready to state their stand on Pasmanda Muslims. The Muslim community in general is poor and backward. Accordingly, Pasmanda Muslims are the worst off. Yet, we don’t hear any political party from the Opposition speaking for them,” a Pasmanda leader said on the eve of a day-long meet in New Delhi.
Engaging the Opposition parties via the letter is an initiative of noted Pasmanda leader Ali Anwar Ansari, president of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz. “The Opposition is fighting a defensive war. They need to wage an aggressive war. Nobody wins a defensive war,” is the community’s refrain to the Opposition, urging non-BJP political parties to overcome their reluctance in speaking about the minorities. The Pasmanda Muslims are disappointed that “whenever there is any instance of lynching, usually, a Pasmanda Muslim is killed, like in the case of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri in 2015 or Tabreiz Ansari in 2019. Yet, opposition leaders don’t speak up.”
