All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is set to go public once again and fight for minority rights.

 All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is set to go public once again and fight for minority rights. 

Come July 24, the apex body, known to confine itself strictly to religious issues and shun public interface, will host 'jalsas' (functions) in Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Lucknow and Meerut. The objective is to build public opinion against a slew of recent "anti-Muslim" legislations: Right to Education Act, 2009, Waqf Amendment Bill 2011 and Direct Taxes Code Bill, 2011. 

If the final warning goes unheeded, next course of action would be launch of a fullfledged agitation after Ramzan. AIMPLB had taken such a step last in 1986 after Shahbano judgment when it questioned SC's verdict in the case and dubbed it "misinterpretation of Quran". 

Amid fierce resentment from the community, the Rajiv Gandhi government invited Board members to draft a suitable legislation. And their efforts paved the way for Muslim Women's Protection of Rights on Divorce Act, 1986. Since then, AIMPLB has maintained a studied distance from any public demonstration. 

Talking to TOI on Saturday, senior member and lawyer of AIMPLB Zafaryab Jilani said that he could see a similar build up. Slamming the government for turning a deaf ear to legitimate grievances of Muslims, he said the RTE Act , particularly, was sure to spell doom for madrassas and junior high schools run by Muslim bodies as most of them would not be able to meet the stringent standards required for government recognition. UP alone has 6,000 madrassas and 6,500 minority schools. Considering the all-India scenario, things could actually turn alarming if the situation is allowed to persist, he said. 

"The wait is over now. There has been no positive response and now we have no other option but to take up the agitational mode," he said. 

The unusual event is bound to hot up the state politics and impact the coming assembly elections. Muslim vote-share in 1/3 assembly constituencies (130 seats out of 403 seats) is estimated to be between 25-30%, while in more than a dozen seats in western UP like Aligarh, Moradabad, Meerut, Rampur, Muzaffarnagar or even in Purvanchal pockets of Azamgarh, Mau, Gorakhpur, etc, it could be above 30%.