Is the confidence of Muslims increasing in the BJP?
July 23, 2014
http://www.elections.in/blog/is-the-confidence-of-muslims-increasing-in-the-bjp/
When Union Minister for Minority Affairs Najma Heptullah, one of the best known Muslim faces of BJP, talked about the confidence of the Muslims increasing in the BJP, she attributed her claims to the “development-for-all” agenda of the party that seems to have replaced the “vote-bank politics” syndrome.
BJP’s Communal Tag in the Past
It was always the political agenda of the BJP to shun vote bank politics and Muslim appeasement. But all these years, the Muslims considered the party as a pariah largely because of its moorings in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ideology of Hindutva and Hindu Nationalism. The demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 and the ensuing communal riots in the country contributed to widening of the gulf between the two. Moreover, the BJP has been seen as an eternal constituent of the saffron brigade comprising militant Hindu right wing fronts such as the Shiv Sena, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and so on. The communal riots of Gujarat in 2002, when the BJP was at the helm in the state as well as in the Centre, too contributed to a great extent for the Muslims maintaining distance from the party.
A ruling party without a single Muslim MP
There is little surprise, therefore, that in the 16th Lok Sabha, where the BJP is in majority, it has not even a single party MP from the Muslim community. Though it had fielded seven Muslims in the fray but none could win. Yet, this has been a significant trend all along in recent times in the BJP-ruled states. In Gujarat, there is not a single Muslim BJP member of the Legislative Assembly. In the last assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, one Muslim candidate (of the Congress) won like in the previous state elections. Figures show that only eight Muslims could win in the state assembly elections to five states of Rajasthan, Mizoram, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, just before the Parliament elections – a considerable decline from 20 last time.
The 16th Lok Sabha has the lowest count of Muslim members since 1962. In a Lok Sabha with 23 Muslims, 4 per cent of 543 and the lowest count since 1962, not one of them comes from UP. This is significant because Uttar Pradesh politics is the very epitome of vote bank politics where the local political satraps vie with other for a larger pie in the Muslim vote bank (Mulayam Singh is a case in point). The BJP won 71 seats there but not one of its candidates was a Muslim.
The BJP did eye the Muslim votes
True, the BJP always claims that it neither favours appeasing Muslims nor believes in treating them as vote banks. The party promises, in its manifesto, a Uniform Civil Code as well as the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Unlike other ‘secular’ leaders, its most important leader Narendra Modi refuses to adorn a skull cap offered to him as he claims he does not believe in the practice of ‘politics of identity’. Yet, there is little doubt that there was a consolidated effort by the party to make inroads in the Muslim dominated constituencies. Modi, despite his reputation as a hard core Hindu leader, was in the forefront of these campaigns.
An important fact remains that in its top leadership, the BJP has always had a few prominent Muslim faces. Late Sikander Bakht was one such prominent Muslim face of the party. Najma Heptullah, MJ Akbar, (both Congress turncoats), Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Shahnawaz Hussain are the other prominent Muslim leaders who are all very vocal in defending the party’s decisions and have even worked at some time or the other as the party’s spokespersons. Yet, in the past their presence had little significance in terms of winning the Muslim support for the party. This time Shahnawaz himself lost from Bhagalpur.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who is one of the 23 Muslim MPs in the 543-member 16th Lok Sabha, has explained this trend as the consolidation of Hindu votes. In Parliament, he even went on to ‘congratulate’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘breaking the myth of Muslim vote bank.”
Winning the Muslim Community’s Confidence
There seems some merit in Owaisi’s theory of consolidation of the Hindu votes in favour of the BJP. Yet what merits a scrutiny is the myth of Muslims as a vote bank. At the onset it appears that no political party could ignore the presence of the 176 million Muslims (14 per cent of the Indian population) in India. Indeed they always remained central to the poll strategies of the political parties since Independence. Right from Indira Gandhi to VP Singh to Laloo Yadav and Mulayam Singh, this perceived Muslim vote bank has been an important constituent of poll arithmetic. UP and Bihar were the largest hubs of Muslim centric politics. In this elections though, while Muslims in UP drew a blank, only four Muslims got elected from Bihar.
Another significant trend was of the BJP winning more than 50 per cent of the 87 seats across the country which had a high percentage of Muslim voters.
Is it the Development plank?
So, what has resulted in the large number of Muslims turning to the BJP? Is it the development plank as suggested by Heptullah? Or is it a result of the general anti-incumbency against the previous United Progressive Alliance government?
Muslim organisations have their own interpretations. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind attributes this to the “disunity, division and mutual clashes among secular parties and their leaders”. Yet a growing realisation among the Muslims to reach out to the Modi government too is a factor that is bringing the Muslims closer to the BJP.
A series of measures to uplift their economic conditions, such as the proposed ‘Upgradation of Traditional Skills in Arts, Resources and Goods’ and the additional budgetary provision of Rs 100 crore for modernisation of Madarsas, are steps in the right direction to win the confidence of Muslims. If they are executed, Heptullah may well prove right!
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