My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Is the confidence of Muslims increasing in the BJP? By  Deepak Parvatiyar 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