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| A grab, amid stagnating livelihoods, for Muslim votes |
| Kavita Chowdhury / Kanpur Feb 15, 2012, 00:26 IST |
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The steel container with heavy machinery has been stranded on Jajmau Road in the heart of Kanpur’s leather tanning district for over three months. Production at the leather export house where the machine was headed is stalled, owing to the only road approach to the leather factories being dug up.
Kanpur is synonymous with the leather industry. After Chennai, it is the second-largest city for leather exports, with the total turnover of leather and leather product exports touching Rs 3,000 crore. Yet, infrastructural facilities for this industry are practically non-existent. Political parties seem to be concerned about the industry only during elections.
Today, a sizable section of those involved in the leather business comprise Muslims and Dalits. In the new political dynamics emerging after delimitation, the Muslim vote is up for grabs.
The overpowering stench notwithstanding, the approach to these tanneries in Jajmau lacks proper roads. Imran Siddiqui, director, Super Tannery Limited, and a member of the UP Leather Industries Association, says, “We are facing insurmountable problems. Close to 100 units have been closed and many more are on the verge of closing down.” On catering to markets in Europe and Australia, Siddiqui says, “Foreign clients and exporters are hesitant to come here. There is only one Air India flight, and that, too, is erratic. That’s the reason why the leather garments’ business failed and moved to metro cities.”
While the large units cater to the export market, smaller tanners undertake jobs for bigger units and also meet the local demand for industrial gloves and slippers.
Naiyer Jamal, general secretary, Small Tanners Association, says, “There are eight-hour power cuts. But the greatest cancer that has afflicted our business is harassment from the pollution board. All the tanners have contributed for the setting up of the effluent treatment plant and we believe in the polluter-pay principle. But if the water treatment technology is outdated and is polluting the Ganga, it is up to the government to rectify that. Shutting our units is no solution. Thousands have lost their jobs and they (Muslims and Dalits) are largely unskilled workers, whom other industries don’t employ.”
Significantly, in the prestigious Kanpur Cantonment constituency (which includes Jajmau), Muslims account for the majority of the population (60 per cent) after the redrawing of constituencies, and every party here is in a bid to grab the Muslim vote. This explains the fielding of seven Muslim candidates here, several from the Ansari community. These include Sohail Ansari from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Tahir Ansari from the Peace Party, a new entrant. A three-way contest is on the cards, with the Muslim vote being divided among Abdul Mannan of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP)’s Mohd. Hasan Rumi, and the BSP’s Sohail Ansari.
The Congress even brought its celebrity Muslim face, cricketer Azharuddin (member of Parliament from Moradabad) to appeal to the Muslims here. However, it seems the aam Muslim is more politically astute than what politicians make of him. Rasheed Ahmed, a small firewood trader in the Lakadmandi locality, says, “Whoever comes asking for votes, whether it is a Congress, an SP or a BSP candidate, I tell him I support him. But only I know whom I would vote for on the voting day. We are definitely not revealing our cards this time.”
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