No Muslim Voice In Poll Bound States

Far from being ‘appeased’, Muslims are out of the reckoning in three states.

- Salik Ahmed & K.S.Shaini

Not long ago, Muslims were a major vote bank in India. In the poll-bound states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, however, there is no talk of a Muslim card or the usual “appeasement” rhetoric. The ruling BJP is accused by its opponents of whipping up issues that reinforce a binary narrative of the country’s demography, which muffles the political substance of Muslims. Referring to illegal immigrants as “termites” to be thrown out, BJP president Amit Shah has been talking of an Assam-like National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in states such as Rajasthan too, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has spoken on the need for a law to build a Ram Mandir on the disputed site in Ayodhya. Campaigning in the poll-bound states is yet to pick up, but these remarks do portend the issues the BJP will be harping on, probably right up to the 2019 general elections.

Not far behind, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is making the rounds of temples, even as senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad recently lamented that he isn’t called for campaigning as the Congress fears it would cause the loss of Hindu votes. While his party members have contradicted his statement, Azad has surely managed to highlight the feeling of alienation among Muslims in an increasingly polarised political scenario.

In Rajasthan, Muslims have never had much political significance, perhaps because of their share in the state’s population—nine per cent, according to the 2011 census—quite less than their share in Uttar Pradesh (19.2%) and Bihar (16.8%). No wonder the first palpable assertion of the “Modi wave” was in Rajasthan, when the BJP won 163 seats out of 200 in the 2013 assembly polls. The representation of Muslims in the assembly plummeted to a measly two—both from the BJP. And Muslim morale was dealt a body blow by a spate of hate crimes and mob lynchings.