BJP could take lessons from Shiv Sena on namaaz
Namaaz on the streets was a sore point with Bal Thackeray and his party in the early 1990s.
The BJP government in Haryana can take some lessons from the Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra — from 1995. Namaaz on the streets was a sore point with Bal Thackeray and his party in the early 1990s and soon after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, Sainiks offered much provocation to Muslims in the metropolis causing the ferocity of the riots to intensify.
Devout Hindus had never heard of Friday maha-aartis but that was a formulation by the Sena-BJP alliance then to interrupt the azaans and Friday prayers by Muslims. Hundreds of bells gonged at temples all across the city and it was obvious it was less religious and more a political stunt, particularly when it became apparent that these bells tolled mostly at temples in close proximity to mosques so that the spillover of bhakts clashed with namaazis on the roads.
It was indeed sheer provocation but the Muslim community did not react. Instead soon after calm was restored to the city, they petitioned their corporators individually for solace. Some of these corporators belonging to the Shiv Sena had been elected, strangely, from Muslim majority areas and when I asked some of the voters how that had happened , one of them said, “ Anti-Muslim inki upar ki rajneeti hai (it is politics by their top leadership). Down here at the grassroots these Shiv Sainiks are very helpful. They have helped us set up shops, regularised our licences, protected us against extortion by cops. What more do we want?”
But they did — some extra floor space index (FSI) from the government so that they could build additional floors in mosques that would stop the worshippers from praying on the pavements. When the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance came to power in 1995, much of their focus was on urban development wherein they did raise the FSI for all urban structures in the city. Mosques quietly benefited from that benevolence and in no time at all, one could see no one on the streets during namaaz. Muslim men in white caps bowing before the mosques, once a wonderful moment for photographers, were such a thing of the past. While the azaans continued, all prayers now were conducted indoors. There have been no clashes between the usual suspects ever since. It is almost as though out of sight, they have also gone out of the mind of potential rioters.
When I asked a Muslim intellectual some years later how it had been accomplished, he repeated what the common man had told me — provoking the minorities and causing riots is big business for top leaders who have little stakes in the system per se. But at the grassroots, co-operation and understanding is valued by both the voters and those who seek their votes. “Every vote counts, Hindu or Muslim. And to the voter, the leader who delivers is more important, does not matter if he is from the Congress or Shiv Sena.”
For some years after that their Sena corporators and MLAs were more valued by the minorities of the city, though they changed their minds after 2002. Uddhav Thackeray had told me just before the 2004 elections, “Not a single vote from them is coming to us this year.” Even then he recognised the cause as the deliberate provocation of them by his allies.
But the maha-aartis were not resumed and whether or not they vote for the party today, strangely, the Muslim minorities in Mumbai trust the Shiv Sena more than they do the BJP or the Congress, simply because the party helped them with extra space indoors for their prayers so that they do not remain sitting ducks for any provocateur irritated by their presence on the streets.
Prayers should always be indoors and private as both the Muslims of Mumbai and the Shiv Sena government recognised in the 1990s. And that applies to all the loud music emanating from jagratas and aartis during festivals. If the namaazis in Gurgaon did not really have a choice but to spill outside their mosques perhaps the Haryana CM should take a leaf out of Bal Thackeray’s book who later even allowed a Tabliqui Jamaat right behind his home, Matoshree, on just one condition — there would be no loudspeakers and the peace of the vicinity would not be disturbed. The jamaats have been congregating across Bombay for years without incidence.
Political will was all that it took to achieve the peace. It continues to pay the Shiv Sena dividends at the grassroots.
