Tag Archives: Imtiaz Jaleel – MP – Aurangabad

Meet Imtiaz Jalil, MP from Aurangabad, recipient of the News makers achievers award 2023

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, , , , , , , , , , ,

Aurangabad, MAHARASHTRA:

Receiving the award ( Source: FB)

Imtiaz Jalil,MP, Aurangabad was honoured with the ‘15th News makers Achievers Awards 2023’ in the ‘Best Working Politician’ category on May 1st 2023 at Yashwant Rao Chavan Auditorium, Mumbai. Jalil was conferred with the award at the hands of Afternoon Voice’s founder and Editor in Chief Vaidehi Taman.

The award was bestowed to Imtiaz Jalil in recognition of his significant contribution to Indian politics. He is known for his zealous participation and discussions on development issues of various sectors and is praised for raising issues of the common man in the Parliament.

After receiving this recognition, Twocircles.net had a candid conversation with the Lone MP of AIMIM and found out the reasons behind his successful political journey.

TCN:- Tell us a little about your Background and your journey during journalism.Any takeaway from this field?

IJ: I started my career in journalism in 1991 with Lokmat newspaper in Aurangabad.In 2003 I joined NDTV and worked with them for nearly 12 years in Pune. I quit journalism and came back to my home town Aurangabad In 2014.

I have learnt a lot from journalism – working on ground, interacting with people, understanding their problems etc. Furthermore, there was no pressure from NDTV to submit stories. We had the liberty to report and give our 100%. Communal angles were never highlighted by the Channel. NDTV’s selection of news stories were common-man-friendly.  A farmer’s suicide story was the main highlight of the day which is difficult to find in today’s era of journalism. Now a days journalists aren’t doing journalism; they have their own political ideologies and commercial interests. Unfortunately, it is the marketing sector that is controlling news organisations today.

TCN: –What encouraged you to join politics?

IJ: When I came back to my city, assembly polls were around the corner, and everyone was discussing politics. NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) was keen to field a Muslim candidate from my constituency. And I was thinking, why not?

With the Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde ( Image source: FB of Imtiaz Jalil)

TCN:-What made you choose AIMIM?

IJ:-Muslim representation in the Assembly and Muslim political leadership is a highly debated topic. Congress and NCP were the big political parties that were famous among Muslims but  Muslims started realising gradually that they are being taken for granted. After assessing the situation I decided to choose AIMIM and jumped in the ring with the aim to uplift the Muslim community and Alhamdulillah (thanks to god) I’ve been doing well.

TCN:-What do you attribute your success and popularity to?

IJ:- Allah. I always have had a strong faith and connection with Allah. I used to offer Istakhara too. Allah has been very kind to me because I reached this position without money or muscle power. Alhamdulillah.I am also grateful to people of Aurangabad.

TCN:-What does the award of Best MP of the year mean to you?

IJ:-I was elected as a MLA in 2014 by the people of Aurangabad. I was committed to work for them and give my best. Once again in 2019 my people have sent me to Lok sabha.It was fascinating to see the love and the trust my people had in me. I just had to reciprocate that love.

This is the Best award that I have ever got. It definitely makes me happy more so because an organisation from a different region took note of my contribution and felicitated me.

TCN:-Where do you get inspiration from to do public service?

IJ:– My mother, Mrs. Zakiya. She helped me and inspired me to work for others.

TCN: –Any Specific schemes or projects you initiated for your constituency?

IJ:- There are many. We run an NGO to empower women and youth under the banner of “Yuva Foundation”. We train women in sewing for free so that they can be self reliant. Till date around 3400 women have completed their training and successfully earning their livelihood. We provided training to the youth who wish to get into police forces. We have ambulance services free of cost.

Image from FB

TCN: – A Hospital project was initiated by you some years back, is it becoming a reality?

IJ: – Yes, within a year, a 200 bedded hospital will be functioning, In sha Allah.

I am against constructing statues, because common man is more in need of health facilities than staring at a statue. Govt was considering a statue project in my city but I opposed this and approached High court and filed a PIL (Public interest litigation) and stopped it.

TCN:-On the scale of 1 to 5, how do you rate your contribution to the development of your constituency and in maintaining peace and brotherhood?

IJ:-You need to ask this question to the people of Aurangabad. I must say that people who don’t like my party’s ideology appreciate my work as well. They praise me openly. Besides this development work, maintaining brotherhood is my topmost priority. Despite all odds, I managed to ensure zero communal incidents, unity and harmony between people of all religions. You can observe or read comments of my Hindu brothers and sisters on social media about me and my work.

I strongly believe that 98% of the people are peace lovers. Feeding his family is the priority of a common man. Troublemakers exists in every community. We must ignore fake social media posts.

With Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM president ( Image source: FB of Imtiaz Jalil)

TCN:-What are your plans for the further development of your constituency?

IJ:– Promoting tourism in my historical city Aurangabad and providing employment to the youth. I have contacted a US based IT company on my own and have completed all the formalities. Very soon we are going to have nearly a thousand youth employed in this IT company.

TCN 9: What is your main learning from Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi, the president of your party? 

IJ:– I have learnt a lot from him! Working positively without expectations is a remarkable thing. Asad Sahab moves round the clock tirelessly,continuously establishes contacts with people all over the country. He understands their issues and empowers them on appropriate platforms.

TCN :- Apart from politics, what else interests you? How do you rejuvenate yourself when you are overcome by the workload? 

IJ:– I hardly get time for my self. But when I have the time, I listen to music and spend time with my family.

source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> India News / by Imran Inamdar, TwoCircles.net / May 20th, 2023

How a Budding Social Alliance Helped Elect Maharashtra’s First Muslim MP in 15 Years

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, , , , , , , ,

Aurangabad, MAHARASHTRA :

In Aurangabad, Dalits, Muslims and other communities who faced communal violence united to buck the national trend.

Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel is congratulated by supporters. Photo: Facebook
Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel is congratulated by supporters. Photo: Facebook

Aurangabad:

Anyone visiting Aurangabad can sense the brewing emergency in the air. In late April, in the thick of the election, a video  surfaced of a teenager – seemingly a Muslim – who abused prominent personalities of Maharashtra. Rival parties alleged that the video was being distributed by the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), a newcomer to the city’s politics.

Harshvardhan Jadhav, an independent candidate who was formerly with the Shiv Sena, responded with his own video, demanding an apology from the AIMIM and threatening to ransack its offices. Jadhav is also the son-in-law of the state BJP president, Raosaheb Danve.

Imtiaz Jaleel, the AIMIM’s candidate, shared another video  in response, which helped calm the situation. In the video, Jaleel, while appealing for peace, denied all allegations against the AIMIM and urged the police to take strict action against those trying to instigate violence in the city. Jadhav was forced to share another video taking back his threat and apologising to the city police . This timely and sensible intervention both by the police and Imtiaz Jaleel, who represents the alliance of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and AIMIM from the Aurangabad constituency, saved the city from another bout of violence.

On May 23, Imtiaz Jaleel won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat, becoming the first Muslim MP from Maharashtra in 15 years, and the first Muslim MP from this constituency since the Congress’s Qazi Saleem in 1980.

A new solidarity

During the campaign, the city witnessed a new solidarity, especially between Muslims and Dalit-Bahujans of the city, regularly on display at the party office of MIM at Buddi Lane near Jama Masjid in the old part of the city. In my conversations with supporters of Imtiaz Jaleel, everyone was enthusiastic about the cross-community alliance – and its potential as a watershed moment for the growth of and peace in Aurangabad in the coming years.

With a Muslim population of about 31% and Schedule Caste population of 15.7%, Aurangabad, in the heartland of Marathwada, is a hotbed of communal polarisation. Incessant violence since the 1980s, and the militant politics of the Shiv Sena resulted in a deep segregation of the city on religious and caste lines. The demand to rename Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar has created a more recent spectacle of Hindutva power-politics.

In January 2018, the city was hit by violence after the Bhima-Koregaon clashes . That May, again, two people died and many shops and properties were destroyed in communal violence.

The city seems on the edge of descending into a curfew-like situation. Even on the day of the Lok Sabha election results, offices and shops closed early as rumors of possible violence spread.

Urban local body elections in Aurangabad are essential for control over the city. The first corporation elections in 1988 turned the city into a battleground, and many people died. In 1985, just three years before the elections, the Shiv Sena had inaugurated the party’s city branch. There was full-scale rioting during the municipal elections in 1988 because of the Sena’s anti-Muslim politics. It won 27 of the 60 seats in the first municipal corporation elections of the city. Since then, it has been the main contender. Its dominance has led to deep-fissures in the city’s social fabric.

From the late 1980s, the Shiv Sena would dominate the parliamentary constituency; Chandrakant Khaire held his seat from 1999 to 2014.

MIM’s entry

Imtiaz Jaleel with Asaduddin Owaisi / pic Facebook
Imtiaz Jaleel with Asaduddin Owaisi / pic Facebook

In 2015, AIMIM made its debut in civic body polls. It won 25 of the 113 seats, and emerged as the second-largest party, after the Sena-BJP alliance. In the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections, the AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel won the Aurangabad Central seat. In later municipal elections, the party worked to consolidate Dalit, Muslim and OBC votes. It has worked in its favor, presenting a secular and accommodative image on the ground.

After last year’s Bhima-Koregaon attacks, many Dalit voters moved away from the Shiv Sena. Four-term MP Chandrakant Khaire lost the citizens’ confidence more generally. His interference in the municipal corporation and zilla parishad had alienated residents, and the city’s garbage and water crisis had become his signature failures. This also contributed to Harshvardhan Jadhav’s split from the Sena-BJP alliance. As a result, this election was a battle between two pro-Hindutva candidates, Jadhav and Khaire. This allowed the MIM-VBA candidate to win by a margin of just 4,492 votes over Khaire.

Post-1980, incessant violence in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad has forced Muslims into geographic areas where they are cut-off from the mainstream. This spatial division has made Muslim spaces more vulnerable to violence, and irrelevant and invisible to the larger electoral and cultural politics of the nation.

Since the communal violence of 1988 in Aurangabad, the city has become more segregated everyday due to the capture of the political stage by Hindutva parties. In the absence of a progressive politics to bridge the gaps between the communities, ties could not be rebuilt.

In 2019, however, a new assertion – bringing together Dalits, Muslims and other communities who faced the worst of the violence these last three decades – offered a glimpse of a new politics, and of a city turning from hate and toward assimilation and peace.

Asaf Ali Lone  is an independent researcher. His research interests are urban segregation, marginalities and resistances.

source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> Politics / by Asif Ali Lone / June 08th, 2019