By Tariq Anwar
The Muslim community in India is noticeably underrepresented in the campaigns leading up to the 2024 general elections, despite making up roughly 15% of the country’s population. Apathy is the driving force behind the activities of both the Congress and the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) towards the Muslim population.
Special focus is paid to the battle for Muslim votes, which is the second majority in the country. The community is firmly established across 720 assembly constituencies and 100 Lok Sabha segments in 90 districts in the country.
The results of about 100 Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) seats are thought to be impacted by Muslim votes.
The community constitutes about 97% of the total population of Lakshadweep, followed by Jammu and Kashmir (68%), Assam (34%), West Bengal (28%), Kerala (27%), Uttar Pradesh (19%), Bihar (17%), Jharkhand (15%), Uttarakhand (14%), Delhi and Karnataka (13% each), Maharashtra (12%), Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh (10% each), Rajasthan (9%), Madhya Pradesh (7%) and Tamil Nadu (6%).
This sizeable figure causes all political parties to court the community well in advance of elections. This time, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP has cast its lot to attract the Muslims of sufi sect and pasmanda (backward) groups.
But BJP’s policies of playing hardline Hindutva card by raising issues like mosques, temples, the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and alleged appeasement of the community by Opposition parties like the Congress, either historically or in any state where the grand old party is in power, are likely to kill the saffron party’s bid.
Political observers believe that the BJP would perhaps be the last party or never be an option for Muslims when they cast their ballots. But at the same time, they also acknowledge that there has been a slight increase in the community support for the BJP in recent times.
“The BJP received 6% Muslim votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and 9% in the 2019 polls. It is contrary to the popular belief that the community specifically votes to unseat the BJP. They consider the candidate rather than the party while exercising their right to franchise. Their decision depends on the circumstances in a particular constituency,” said Professor Hilal Ahmed, who works with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) on political Islam, Muslim politics, representation debate and politics of symbols.
However, Rasheed Kidwai, veteran journalist and author, disagrees with the opinion. He claims that the Muslims have been the country’s main sufferers of the sectarian climate and that the BJP has been purposefully fostering division in politics. “And therefore, they prefer to support ‘secular’ parties like Congress and other regional political outfits,” he says.
The Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) — a coalition of Opposition parties — is certain that the Muslim votes will end up in its kitty as a result of alleged persecution of the community at the hand of the BJP and the lack of any other option. This is perhaps the reason that the community is underrepresented or even absent from their pre-poll advertisements and promises.
There are only a countable number of Muslims on the candidate list released by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), two significant political parties and the leading contenders for Muslim votes.
There will be Yadav contestants in even the predominantly Muslim constituencies of north India. Muslims make up more than 20% of the electorate in a number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, but INDIA bloc will field Hindu candidates from such constituencies despite the fact their social section might not even have 10% of the total votes there.
The Congress, which is often accused of appeasing Muslims for political gains, even removed a photo of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (country’s first education minister) from an advertisement that was carried by every national newspaper.
Among the party officials in the aforementioned commercial was none other than VP Singh, a former Congressman who deserted the grand old party and became prime minister after accusing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of corruption. Apparently, the goal was to appear as non-Muslim as possible from a political standpoint.
“Why should the Congress give a damn about a community — which considers the party as the only option on national-level politics?” asked Lucknow-based journalist Asad Rizvi, stating that the Congress is actually worried not to antagonize Hindu votes, which the party believes will bring it to power, perhaps willingly ignoring the fact that the majority community is holding on to the BJP firmly.
The BJP, according to him, has appointed a group of “influential Muslims” and “independent contractors” to persuade the community members that they can rely on PM Modi — who “genuinely cares” about them — and that the BJP is a “secure option” for them.
He said Professor Tariq Mansoor — a former vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), who is frequently targeted by fundamentalist Hindus connected with the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates — is leading this group of BJP supporters.
One of the national vice-presidents of the saffron party and a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, the former academician never directly interacts with Muslims in public and, in an attempt to attract them, occasionally writes essays complimenting the BJP government’s efforts.
He enumerates the actions that the Modi administration has done to persuade Muslims to reject the BJP’s “untouchability”. But if someone gets in touch with him to ask questions about the accuracy of his assertions, he would rather not talk.
The hackneyed topic of the “Ghazwa-e-Hind” was recently brought up by another Muslim thinker who describes himself as a “bridge” between Muslims and the RSS (BJP’s ideological mentor). This was in response to a 2008 reference on the Darul Uloom Deoband’s website.
When grilled about the demolition of Muslims’ religious places, bulldozing of their houses, continued threats to the community’s existence, cancellation of Maulana Azaf Educational Foundation scholarship for Muslim girls and Modi government’s dilemma in denouncing Israeli genocide in Gaza, he repeatedly dodged questions and hung up the call.
The INDIA bloc too is willing to ignore the BJP government’s policies against the Muslim minority. Even the Muslim lawmakers of the alliance are reluctant to offer their opinions on the party’s policies.