Muslims, BJP need new start

Political analysts, academics, and social commentators are keenly observing the behaviour of Muslim voters, who constitute some 19 per cent of the Uttar Pradesh electorate, and are a crucial factor for the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in their respective quests to return to power in Lucknow. While these parties are banking on Muslim consolidation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking for their division. Across the state, cutting across sects and sub-sects, a common refrain from Muslim leaders and voters is “Hum log Bhajpa ko vote nahi karenge, uske alawa har party ko denge” . The BJP remains an important factor that determines how Muslims vote.

In Deoband, the Darul Uloom may have shut its doors for political discourse, but kafia-clad students and scholars leaving classes for lunch told this writer that security would top their minds while voting. It was no different in Aligarh, 250 kilometres away, where the modern-educated Muslim elite agreed that the issues of development, price rise, corruption and employment had taken a back seat to prevent BJP from coming to power. Admitting to the electoral animosity of Muslims, BJP leaders said the onus was on the community. “We were not in power for the past 60 years. It was these secular parties, whom they vote repeatedly, who are responsible for their lack of development,” says Thakur Kunwar Brajesh Singh, the BJP candidate from Deoband. But the Muslim leaders blame the BJP for limiting their choices through hateful actions and speeches. BJP candidates hardly visit Muslim localities as they know there is no vote to be won. The secular parties are smug, believing that Muslims have no choice but to vote for them out of fear. Statistics show that over 2,000 communally charged incidents, big and small, have been reported in UP under chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Yet, he is the leading claimant of Muslim votes.

Noted scholar and political analyst Prof Akhtarul Wasey blames the BJP for distancing itself from Muslims by adopting a hardline Hindutva stand after 1984, when it got unnerved after winning just two Lok Sabha seats. The BJP, unlike its earlier incarnation, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS), deviated from a right of centre party to a hardcore Hindutva group, thus shutting doors for Muslims and also creating a fear psychosis. Like the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, liberal conservative parties exist all over the world and are accepted even by the marginal and minority populations as political alternatives. Indeed, the BJS had several Muslims as workers and leaders. Noted Urdu litterateur Imdad Sabri represented the BJS in the Delhi Metropolitan Council and rose to become Mayor. Maulana Ikhlaq Hussain Qasmi, a cleric and writer, was vice-president of the BJS Delhi unit. Sheik Abdul Rahman was the vice-president of the Jammu and Kashmir BJS unit. Begum Khurshid Kidwai won from the Muslim-dominated Jama Masjid constituency and became deputy mayor. Another Muslim dominated seat in Delhi, Kasabpura, was also represented by the BJS member Mohammad Ismael. The Jan Sangh was emerging, and was seen as an alternative to the centrist Congress. Angered by the atrocities during the Emergency, Muslims overwhelmingly voted for the Jan Sangh-origin leaders in 1977 to oust Indira Gandhi from power. Delhi’s Muslim dominated Chandni Chowk was represented by Sikandar Bakht, the BJS candidate. However, he later failed to win the seat on a BJP ticket.

There is a case for introspection for both the Muslims as well as the BJP. The party should introspect why its leaders are creating an atmosphere of fear that not only Muslims but even the secular Hindus are getting scared. The architect of the Northern Ireland Peace Process, Lord Paterson, once said even a microscopic two per cent population can become a perpetual national security problem if it feels excluded from the system. Similarly, Muslims must drop their siege mentality and stop putting their eggs in just one basket. Even they can cast a positive vote for development and progress, rather than vote with an insecure mind. Before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi told Urdu weekly Nai Dunya that he wanted computers in one hand of Muslims and the Quran in another hand. There is need for his party and its leader to walk the talk and remove fears in the minds of minorities.

The author is Editor, Strategic Affairs, DNA.