Muslims Must Develop BJP’s Stakes In The Community

Muslims in India must realize that their strategy of voting against the BJP is not working. Instead of empowering them, it is injecting the poison of communalism and forcing the Hindus too to adopt similar strategy. This is likely to force Hindus too to work in the Hindu-Muslim binary and accentuate the Hindu-Muslim divide.

Such a one-sided voting strengthens the argument of hardliners in the BJP that it should not always be ready with a velvet glove when it comes to dealing with Muslims. The extra efforts which Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook to work for the interest of Muslim community would be questioned because the results of genuine positive actions are refusing to come.

Modi had outlined his vision for development of Muslim youths saying they should have the Holy Koran in one hand and computer in the other hand. He has never spoken a work against Islam and, on the contrary, he has asked youths to adopt the humanitarian aspects of Islam. He has stressed that the fight against terrorism and radicalization should not be taken as a fight against any religion.

When the Modi government came to power it substantially increased the budgetary allocation for improving quality education in madrasas. While the allocation was Rs 46 crore per year, the budget was increased to Rs 294 crore in 2015-16. The government has been trying to encourage study of subjects such as science, mathematics, social studies, Hindi and English in the curriculum of traditional madrasas.

The Modi government increased scholarships for Muslims students to provide them more opportunities of higher education. During his fist term in office 2014-19, he provided scholarship to 3.14 crore students from the minority community which was 20 lakh more than the one provided by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government under Dr Manmohan Singh from 2009-14. The scholarship has been calibrated to benefit maximum number of students.

Muslims have become the biggest beneficiaries of Modi's pro-poor schemes whether it was under the Jan Dhan Yojana, the PM Awaas Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, Mudra Loans or various benefits meant for women and child development. Modi's biggest and boldest decision was to empower Muslim women by abolishing the practice of Instant Triple Talaq. Now a law is in place to give protection to such women who suffered a life of destitute in absence of a legal cover.

Despite not having taken a single decision that targeted the Muslim Community, the Prime Minister has become the target for Islamists. One will have to look into the reason for this. The country cannot survive if close to 20 per cent of population live in perpetual hate. Although, some members believe in offering placative, the hate seems to be too deep to peter out.

The same hatred and mutual suspicion used to exist between leaders of the two communities prior to imposition of the Emergency in 1975. Being locked up in same jails during the Emergency for months gave the two sides opportunities to understand and appreciate each other. While the Muslim side worked to facilitate observing the fast of Navratras by their Hindu inmates, the Hindu side did their best to do the same for Muslims during Eid. Narrowing of social distance led to political realignment of forces that ousted Mrs Indira Gandhi from power. This was impossible to defeat the Congress without the support of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) or its political affiliate the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS).

Ever since then the Congress has been trying hard to ensure that that Hindus and Muslims continue to be divided. Artificial fear which has been spread is that the BJP and the RSS are against Muslim and they want a Hindu Rashtra in which Muslims would become a second-class citizen. This fear has prevented them to see that the BJP governments that have come to power have worked hard to alleviate the economic plight of the Muslim community.

The community lost a golden opportunity to bridge this divide and create goodwill when they voted overwhelmingly against the Modi government. Does it mean that for the Muslims, issues such as corruption, nepotism, backwardness, law and order do not matter much. What matters to them is defeat of the BJP.

Such sentiments that dictate the voting behaviour is sure to be counter productive in the long run. The same BJP that tries to woo Muslims, may turn their back and focus on groups that give them rich political dividend. They may rather work hard to consolidate their Hindu votes. The Muslim community would lose its political clout because of its voting behaviour.

There was a time (early 1990s) when the BJP used to begin with a negative of minus 14 per cent votes of Muslims. To overcome this big gap and then to challenge the Congress and other parties was considered an extremely difficult task. Political pundits, therefore, had written off the BJP as a serious contender for power.

The Muslim community became a captive voting bloc for the Congress at the national level. It supported the regional satraps such as Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar. The BJP at that time had acquired the image of being a party of Brahmin and Banias and it appeared difficult for the party to shade off its image. The social combination and the support of Muslims helped the Congress and such regional leaders to stay in power.

The BJP broke the jinx when it realized that a way out was to form coalition with other parties and come to power at the Centre. It succeeded in 1998 and then again in 1999 despite having only 180 plus Lok Sabha seats. In the meantime, the party had also begun social engineering and many backward caste leaders came to dominate the party leadership.

Coming from the OBC Ghanchi caste, Narendra Modi, has become deadly weapon to achieve better caste configuration for the BJP. He has demonstrated that the BJP can come to power even without the support of Muslims. The developmental vision added to this along with pro-poor policies have ensured that the BJP is going to stay in power for a long time to come.

This is the new reality which Muslims must realize. If they have to stay relevant in politics they should behave as citizens and vote for the party that is giving them the best deal in terms of development and empowerment rather than become a captive voter falling prey to the design of vested interests.

Some positive signs came during this Lok Sabha election. According to a survey, some 8 per cent Muslims in the country voted for the BJP. But the national average came due to high support of Muslims (29 per cent) from Gujarat. While 12 per cent of higher caste Muslims voted for the BJP (Ashrafs) at the national level, only about 2 per cent Muslims preferred the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Both sides must understand that the divide can be bridged. Muslims in, particular, must help the BJP increase its stake in the community.