The Muslim vote question

There is something profoundly sad and disturbing about the manner in which the Muslim community is being treated by all political parties in this election.

There is something profoundly sad and disturbing about the manner in which the Muslim community is being treated by all political parties in this election. The Congress lost the Muslim vote at the beginning of the Nineties and then alienated most Indian Muslims by standing by while the Babri masjid fell and cities as Bombay burned. No wonder P.V. Narasimha Rao was called the ‘first BJP Prime Minister of India’. The Samajwadi Party first went to one extreme by following a path of pro-Muslim extremism and then, when it was secure that it owned the Muslim vote bank, doing deals with other parties, using Muslims as collateral. The BSP talked big about helping India’s Muslims, but Mayawati then went on to campaign for Narendra Modi, which gave some indication of her lack of commitment.

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That leaves the BJP. Nobody now disputes that there are only two serious impediments to the BJP’s rise as India’s national party. The first is that its popularity stops at the Vindhyas — though this time round, Karnataka may break that jinx. And the second is that it has still to win the trust of the minorities. The BJP’s problem is that it cannot expect Muslims to trust it when national leaders join Narendra Modi to fight an entirely communal election campaign and when it is unwilling to distance itself from the likes of Praveen Togadia and the VHP. It seeks to get around this lack of trust by offering membership to unemployed Muslim politicians and securing the endorsement of the Shahi Imam — both cynical moves that demonstrate little sincerity.

Muslim voters in this election, therefore, have been faced with unappealing choices. There is the Congress, which has still to win back the Muslims and which, in any case, is not averse to a bit of soft Hindutva in such states as Gujarat. There is the SP, which, these days, runs itself like a brokering house dealing in Muslim futures. There’s the BSP, a party which, ultimately, has no real commitment to religious minorities. And then there’s the BJP, which shows one face to its Hindu base and another to Muslims whose votes it wants.

In the circumstances, what real choice do India’s Muslims have? Who really cares about their interests? And who will do anything to rid the community of the poverty and backwardness which plague it? Sadly, there are no good answers to these questions.