NEW DELHI, 14 March 2008 — Hopes of a resolution of the crisis in Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) were dashed yesterday at a press conference called by its general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Maulana Mahmood Madani.
Although the crisis in JUH, a leading Islamic organization in India founded in 1919, has been brewing since the death of JUH President Maulana Asad Madani last year, it took a serious turn earlier this month. While some JUH leaders wanted Asad to be succeeded by his son Mahmood, organization elders favored his brother Arshad. A power struggle between the rival groups ensued. On March 6, the JUH working committee passed a no-confidence motion against Arshad and appointed Qari Usman as caretaker president.
Describing his own dismissal as illegal, Arshad announced suspension of Mahmood and his six supporters from the working committee. Arshad also announced the formation of a new working committee excluding Mahmood and his supporters. Not to be left behind, Mahmood yesterday declared the working committee founded by Arshad as illegal.
A compromise formula suggesting intervention by veteran scholars has also been offered by Maulana Marghoobur Rahman, director of Darul Uloom Deoband. Rahman is also a member of JUH working committee. Arshad has welcomed Rahman’s proposal, but there has not yet been any comment from Mahmood. Supporters of Mahmood view Rahman’s proposal as a strategy to secure Arshad’s return as JUH president.
The split in JUH, just a year ahead of Lok Sabha elections, is regarded as a setback for the Congress party, which has historically been supported by the Muslim body. The Jamiat participated in the Khilafat movement and opposed the two-nation theory.
With Arshad seen often in the company of senior Congress leaders, the party apparently expected Jamiat support in the upcoming parliamentary and assembly elections with him as JUH head.
Mahmood, who has emerged as the apparently all-powerful figure in JUH, is a Rashtriya Lok Dal legislator in the Rajya Sabha. With Arshad’s influence waning in the organization, JUH may review its hitherto unstinted support for Congress.
