By Editors
The All India Mahila Empowerment Party (AIMEP) has entered the electoral fray in Karnataka. The new party, promising to boost the participation of women in politics, irrespective of their caste and religion, was launched five months ago in New Delhi. At the launch, which was attended by a number of Bollywood stars, the party’s founder, the Hyderabad-based business woman, Nowhera Shaik, announced the party’s intention to contest in the upcoming Karnataka elections.
Despite the fact that Shaik is a political newbie with hazy antecedents, the party’s launch was duly covered by most media outlets, including Business Standard, Bangalore Mirror, New Indian Express, Outlook, The Pioneer and other publications. Judging by the fact that Shaik was widely quoted – on her views on the triple talaq, for example – it would seem that the media was taking her seriously. According to news reports, while supporting the Supreme Court’s August 2017 verdict on instant triple talaq, she praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts towards a ban on the practice and sought a monitoring system to ensure implementation of the SC judgement because, as she put it, “Muslim women are still being divorced under the triple talaq system.” In her interactions with the media she also spoke on the lack of commitment by political parties to pass the long-pending legislation providing reservation for women in parliament and legislative assemblies even though many state their intention to do so in their election manifestoes. Shaik has also sought the introduction of stern laws to curb crimes against women, particularly rape.
The AIMEP literally made a grand, dramatic entry into Karnataka, with Shaik riding into Mysuru on a chariot. It was impossible not to miss the arrival of this party in the state, what with their full page advertisements in leading newspapers and large hoardings across Benguluru (and possibly elsewhere in the state). However, this ostentatious display of money power fuelled suspicions about the antecedents of the party and its underlying motivation to participate in this election despite the fact that it is not only very new but has no real base within the state.
The media were quick to pick up the thread and constantly cornered her with this refrain: are she and her party BJP’s ‘B team’, a plant by the national party to split Muslim (and possibly women’s) votes, which the Congress is betting on securing in the state? After all, Muslim voters account for 14 per cent of the electorate in Karnataka and will have a significant impact on the poll outcome in at least 45 constituencies, according to newspaper reports. Apparently unfazed by the allegations, Shaik has stoutly denied that she is anybody’s decoy or proxy. She was quoted in a Deccan Chronicle report saying: “If the Congress or JD (S) loses their secular vote only because we are in the fray that shows their secular credentials are skewed and not genuine.” (Also see other links below.)
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/mahila-party-not-bjps-b-team-5133798/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaLJE7_uZNE) https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/karnataka-assembly-elections-mahila-empowerment-party-releases-
Although the AIMEP appears to be gaining traction in the media, with due coverage of the release of the party’s manifesto, and so on, veteran journalist R Poornima is skeptical about Nowhera Shaik. According to her, “Although we welcome a Muslim woman into the electoral fray in Karnataka, which has such a low representation of female political leaders in general, her antecedents are unclear. Becoming a political leader is a process, a movement and an andolan. Nowhera Shaik seems to have sprung up from nowhere.” She added that during every election small entities like the AIMEP, planted by major parties, can be seen indulging in the game of disrupting voting patterns. This time the AIMEP figures prominently in some newspaper reports on fringe parties in Karnataka who are likely to spoil the chances of major parties such as the Congress and the JD(S). (See links below.)
In all this political skullduggery, however, the representation of women in politics is falling between the cracks. “It is discouraging to see the meagre representation of women in the political discourse in Karnataka today,” says Poornima. “We need affirmative action from political parties on this front. One Shobha Karandlaje in the state is not enough!”
The AIMEP’s manifesto does not include many novel or concrete steps towards the overall empowerment of women. It does list a ban on alcohol, support for 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies, a separate women’s hospital in every district, and special evening courts for the speedy disposal of cases involving atrocities against women among its poll promises. However, the rest of the document reads like a predictable laundry list of electoral promises, ranging from solving problems like unemployment, erratic power supply and drinking water shortage, and the provision of two-room apartments for people living below the poverty line (BPL), among other things. Shaik also talks extensively about government schools in rural areas being in bad shape and the urgent need to improve them.
During her first press conference in Bengaluru, Shaik had promised to field 80 per cent women candidates for the upcoming state elections. However, only 40 per cent of the AIMEP candidates contesting in the Karnataka elections are women. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yl7-jtQx2M)
Nowhera Shaik did condemn the Kathua rape, demanding speedy justice for the little girl and punishment for not only the perpetrators of the heinous crime but also the people supporting them. However, there is little evidence in her interviews or in the party’s manifesto of a serious attempt to identify and address many of the other issues facing women in India today. Her manifesto makes all the right noises about the need for fast track courts to ensure speedy justice for women, a special task force to protect women from exploitation, etc., but it is difficult not to assume that these are just the usual platitudes mouthed by other parties as well. Somehow, nothing about the AIMEP really explains the name of the party, which suggests that its primary political plank is “women’s empowerment”.
Corinne D’Souza of Vimochana, a well-known women’s rights group in Benguluru, thinks it is time for an all-women political party to emerge and fight for the real issues facing women in the state today. “We have not fielded a woman candidate yet because we don’t want to end up splitting the votes to benefit a particular party,” she says. Nevertheless, she underscores the fact that a strong woman’s party is required in the state. “Ït is about time. We don’t want bogus parties but the real thing,” she added.
27 April 2018
This is the first full-fledged comment I’ve seen on the emergence of the AIMEP: http://www.asianage.com/opinion/oped/270418/why-is-a-mysterious-hijab-clad-lady-contesting-every-seat-in-karnataka.html
Another critique: https://thewire.in/politics/karnataka-elections-mahila-empowerment-party