Will reforms fetch Congress Muslim vote?

For the first time Congress Muslim leaders have said that economic reforms brought in by Manmohan Singh and the stable Congress-led UPA government have been good for the community.

“It has opened up the options for Muslim youth. The focus has shifted from protection of Urdu language and special status for Aligarh Muslim University to jobs for themselves,” said Imran-ur-Rehman, president of Congress minority cell.

For many years now, like other Congress leaders, Muslim leaders in the party and Muslim supporters outside were unhappy that the protective umbrella of a socialist state is being withdrawn. Now the party’s Muslims are saying that reforms have been good for the community because it has broadened their horizons. All that they want is a fair opportunity through access to education, bank loans to start businesses. “Earlier, Muslims would talk in terms of defending the interests of the community. Now they are talking in terms of their own interests,” Rehman said.

He admitted that in the 1990s, Muslims moved away from the Congress because of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. But after experiencing the constant discrimination of the BJP-led NDA, the Muslims got a better deal under the UPA. Innocent Muslims were hauled up after every terrorist attack when the BJP was in power.

So, will Muslims in Uttar Pradesh vote for the party in the forthcoming assembly elections? “The Congress will do well,” says a Muslim cadre of the party. They - many of them from UP — also say that the battle is essentially between Mayawati’s BSP and and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP). They allege that the RSS and the BJP are spending money liberally to influence Muslim groups and divide the Muslims.