As Indian opposition chief Rahul Gandhi addressed journalists after election outcomes demonstrated a dramatic setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), he held up a pocket-sized model of India’s Structure.
“It was a fight to save the constitution. I would like to thank everybody who has participated in this election. I am proud of the people who resisted the onslaught on this constitution,” Gandhi stated on Tuesday night.
“It’s the poor and marginalised individuals who got here out to avoid wasting the structure. Staff, farmers, Dalits, adivasis [Indigenous] and backwards have helped saved this structure.
“This constitution is the voice of the people. We stand with you and fulfil the promises.”
Lacking from the record of individuals Gandhi thanked had been India’s 200 million Muslims, the nation’s largest spiritual minority. Muslims are believed to have overwhelmingly voted for Gandhi’s INDIA alliance, which gained 223 seats within the elections for the Lok Sabha, the decrease home of parliament — beneath the midway mark of 272 however considerably greater than exit polls had predicted. Modi’s BJP gained 240 seats, falling in need of a majority by itself and leaving it depending on allies to type a authorities for the primary time since Modi got here to energy in 2014.
Gandhi’s omission was no one-off. It was a part of a sample, say analysts, observers and plenty of Indian Muslims – one which has seen opposition events reveal seeming reluctance to even point out Muslims.
“They know that a large part of India’s [predominantly Hindu] middle class is radicalised to the extent that taking the name of Muslims might harm the fortunes of political parties,” Mohammed Ali, an award-winning journalist primarily based in New Delhi, stated, talking of Gandhi’s Indian Nationwide Congress occasion and different opposition teams.
As India’s multiphase nationwide elections drew to a detailed with the declaration of outcomes, the curtains additionally got here down on a marketing campaign that turned more and more vitriolic in the direction of Muslims. Modi himself confronted a warning from the Election Fee after a collection of speeches that critics stated represented hate speech. He referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” and “those who have more children”. And he referenced a collection of Islamophobic tropes which were broadly debunked.
A Muslim youth who requested to stay nameless stated the elections had been like a nightmare. “It was six weeks of nonstop anti-Muslim dog whistles. We do not feel part of this process,” he stated.
But, by all of it, many Indian Muslims say additionally they felt let down by the nation’s so-called secular opposition events, a lot of whom refused to even confer with their fears and issues. That’s mirrored in a parliamentary panorama that, on its floor, seems contradictory.
The BJP with its Hindu majoritarian ideology has misplaced seats whereas avowedly secular opposition events have gained floor. However the incoming parliament could have one of many lowest variety of Muslim MPs – 22 – since independence.
Opposition avoids utilizing phrase ‘Muslim’
The leaders of the opposition Indian Nationwide Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) did criticise Modi for bringing faith into his marketing campaign. However analysts and plenty of throughout the Muslim group level out that the opposition largely averted elevating Muslim issues.
Dozens of Muslims have been lynched over accusations of cow smuggling as their meals selections and public prayers have come below assault from vigilantes. Governments in a number of BJP-ruled states have enacted legal guidelines to stop interfaith marriage – pandering to the conspiracy concept of “love jihad”, which suggests, with out proof, that Muslim males attempt to marry non-Muslim girls to transform them to Islam.
And in 2020, India’s capital, New Delhi, witnessed riots through which not less than 53 individuals had been killed, most of them Muslim.
The Congress occasion and its alliance accomplice the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP), which governs Delhi, had been silent on justice for the victims of these riots in the course of the marketing campaign – a sore level for individuals like Nisar Ahmad, a resident of Mustafabad in East Delhi.
The 50-year-old ran a thriving garment enterprise earlier than the riots, however that was shut down attributable to threats from his Hindu neighbours, and he was pressured to promote his home in East Delhi’s Bhagirathivihar as a result of he was nervous about his security there after the riots.
“In the election campaign, no one cared to talk about the victims of the Delhi riots and justice for them,” Ahmed informed Al Jazeera.
Ahmad, who is likely one of the witnesses in courtroom circumstances associated to the Delhi riots, stated he can not overlook how his neighbours had been overwhelmed, stripped and killed. “For me, everything has changed since the riots. I still feel unsafe in my own country,” he stated.
“No one is talking about Muslims. The politicians fear if they use the word Muslim in their campaigns, it might hurt their vote bank,” Ahmad stated, referring to the opposition’s reluctance to debate points essential to Muslims in marketing campaign speeches. “I have voted and still hope somewhere that things might change.”
Others echoed his sentiments in Jamia Nagar, one other Muslim neighbourhood in South Delhi.
“In previous elections, many politicians visited the area, and we would feel there is an election vibe,” Muhammad Shakir informed Al Jazeera. This time, although, he stated, “There was no speak about our points and native issues.
“It feels like everyone is ignoring Muslims deliberately,” he stated.
Muslims portrayed as a risk
Irfan Ahmed, a professor of anthropology at Ibn Haldun College in Istanbul, questioned the usually touted description of India’s elections as the most important pageant of democracy. “For those denied justice and dignity, it may look like the world’s biggest circus,” he stated.
“Since 2014, this electoral circus has passionately been staging Muslims as a threat against which people are asked to vote,” Ahmed informed Al Jazeera. “While the BJP issues the threat openly, the non-BJP parties do implicitly: That is by remaining silent.”
No occasion, he stated, “has the courage to talk about the violence done to the Muslims”.
Al Jazeera spoke to a number of Muslims throughout India who shared the identical sentiment.
Consultants say non-BJP events have been reluctant to even say the phrase “Muslim” as a result of the BJP has created a notion that secular events have favoured the minority group.
“Should your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators?” Modi requested a crowd in April within the state of Rajasthan as his occasion alleged – with out foundation – that the opposition was planning to take wealth from unprivileged caste Hindus and provides it to Muslims.
Guru Prakash Paswan, a spokesperson for the BJP, denied his occasion was towards minorities. As an alternative, he accused the opposition of taking part in “divisive politics.”
“As far as the BJP is concerned, we never distinguish or discriminate on the name of religion. We follow the principles of non-discrimination guaranteed under the constitution. Like our PM says, ‘Sab ka sath, sab ka vikas, sab ka Vishwas’ [‘Everyone’s support, everyone’s development, everyone’s trust’] is our motive,” he informed Al Jazeera.
However the actuality feels very completely different for a lot of Indian Muslims. And it isn’t simply the BJP that they blame.
Dwindling Muslim illustration
Events belonging to the INDIA alliance gave fewer tickets to Muslim candidates this time than they did in 2019 at a time when Muslim illustration in parliament was already at its lowest since independence in 1947.
Non-BJP events gave 115 tickets to Muslims in 2019, however the newly shaped INDIA alliance fielded solely 78 Muslims this 12 months. The Lok Sabha has 543 seats.
In Maharashtra state with a inhabitants of 10 million Muslims, non-BJP events didn’t give a single ticket to Muslims whereas in Uttar Pradesh state, residence to 40 million Muslims, the state’s predominant opposition Samajwadi Occasion (SP) fielded simply 4 Muslims. The SP has lengthy counted Muslims amongst its core voters.
The Bahujan Samaj Occasion, a pro-Dalit occasion, fielded 35 Muslims throughout India, together with 17 in Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar state, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, a part of the INDIA alliance, gave tickets to 2 Muslims. The state has 20 million Muslims whereas 4 out of 20 of the Communist Occasion of India (Marxist) candidates in Kerala had been Muslims. One-fourth of the state’s inhabitants is Muslim.
The Trinamool Congress occasion, which governs West Bengal state in japanese India, fielded six Muslims, together with 5 in West Bengal. One-third of the state’s practically 100 persons are Muslims.
Most of Muslims gained from constituencies with substantial Muslim populations.
Traditionally, Muslim illustration within the legislature has been low, nevertheless it has declined for the reason that rise of the BJP within the Nineties. Within the outgoing parliament, 27 MPs had been Muslims.
“Addressing the question of representation is a bit complicated in a country which has one of the largest clusters of billionaires while at the same time is home to the largest numbers of poor people in the world,” stated a professor of political science at New Delhi-based Jamia Millia Islamia College who wished to stay nameless.
“You have economically and socially marginalized groups vying for the limited resources, so giving any concession to one group faces resistance from other vulnerable social groups,” he informed Al Jazeera.
“And it was this fear that the BJP exploited by hammering out the message that the Congress party was planning to snatch reservations from unprivileged caste Hindus and give them to Muslims.”
Averting Hindu consolidation
The BJP fielded only one Muslim candidate this 12 months, and none of its 302 members within the outgoing parliament is Muslim.
Paswan, the BJP spokesman, defended his occasion, saying it really works for all communities.
The BJP occasion has accomplished “unparalleled welfare work for minority communities” up to now 10 years, he informed Al Jazeera. He stated the occasion has nominated Muslims to the higher home of parliament.
Consultants say non-BJP events keep away from giving many tickets to Muslims to avert a consolidation of Hindu voters behind the BJP. All of that underscores a deeper difficulty with the best way so-called secular events view Muslims, Professor Ahmed stated: solely as voters, not as leaders.
Whereas the INDIA alliance has been cool in the direction of Muslim events such because the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), primarily based within the southern metropolis of Hyderabad, and the All India United Democratic occasion, primarily based within the northeastern state of Assam, it has not hesitated to incorporate outright Hindu events.
The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), primarily based in Maharashtra, is led by the son of Balasaheb Thackeray, who was accused – although by no means formally charged – with instigating anti-Muslim violence in Mumbai within the early Nineties. Immediately, the occasion is part of the INDIA alliance though it nonetheless has a Hindu majoritarian agenda.
Shama Mohamed, a Congress spokesperson, defended the occasion’s stand on minorities.
“We are going to be certain that the minorities obtain their justifiable share of alternatives in schooling, healthcare, public employment, public works contracts, ability growth, sports activities and cultural actions with out discrimination.
“We will respect and uphold the fundamental right to practise one’s faith and the rights guaranteed to religious minorities under … the constitution.”
‘Muslim’ lacking from manifestos
An evaluation of the manifesto of the Congress occasion, Samajwadi Occasion, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Trinamool Congress occasion, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Communist Occasion of India (Marxist) – all main opposition events – exhibits that the majority of them didn’t use the phrase Muslim and stayed away from points dealing with the group.
The Samajwadi Occasion coined a brand new catchline for the marketing campaign: Pichhda, Dalit and Alpasankhyak (Backward, Dalit and minorities) in an try and eliminate its pro-Muslim picture.
The occasion manifesto in addition to the speeches of its prime chief, Akhilesh Yadav, steered away from matters regarding Muslims equivalent to extrajudicial killings and the usage of bulldozers to demolish Muslim houses and companies.
In neighbouring Bihar state, the regional Rashtriya Janata Dal occasion additionally tried to alter its pro-Muslim picture. It coined a brand new catchphrase to broaden its base past the Muslim and Yadavs, an unprivileged caste Hindu group. The occasion’s predominant chief, Tejasvi Yadav, tried to underplay the Muslim connection, declaring that his occasion stood for all younger individuals in one of many poorest states in India. Youth employment was his greatest election focus.
The Congress occasion, which leads the INDIA alliance, additionally averted utilizing the phrase Muslim in its manifesto. Its focus has been social fairness and illustration of unprivileged caste Hindus in jobs and different authorities establishments.
In 2018, former occasion chief Sonia Gandhi stated Congress wanted to shed the notion that it was a pro-Muslim occasion.
In its manifesto, the occasion additionally didn’t point out the federal government’s repeal below Modi of Indian-administered Kashmir’s semiautonomous standing in 2019 and stayed silent about assaults towards Muslims.
In the meantime, the Aam Aadmi Occasion launched a web site AAPKaRamRajya.com earlier than the elections to showcase its work – in impact mirroring the BJP’s longstanding promise to show India, formally a secular nation, into Ram Rajya (kingdom of Lord Ram).
In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress occasion promised in its manifesto to abolish a citizenship regulation that was enacted in 2019 and that many critics say discriminates towards Muslims. The Trinamool Congress additionally dedicated to not implementing a uniform civil code, a coverage pushed by the BJP that may finish private legal guidelines that enable Muslims and different communities to observe their conventional customs and practices in relation to marriage inheritance and different civil issues. Nonetheless, the occasion manifesto didn’t point out the phrase “Muslim”.
Analysts say the BJP’s Hindu majoritarian push has made Muslim points disappear from public discourse.
Mohammad Reyaz, an assistant professor at Aliah College within the japanese metropolis of Kolkata, stated the silence of so-called secular events on Muslims, whereas disappointing, isn’t a surprise – partially as a result of they knew the group wouldn’t vote for the BJP in any case.
“Muslims will still vote for secular parties despite their marginalization. They have little choice available,” Ahmed stated.
Not all are silent
To make certain, not all political events have been silent.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which governs the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and the Communist Occasion of India (Marxist) (CPM), which has been in energy in neighbouring Kerala since 2016, talked about Muslims of their manifestos.
The DMK promised to repeal the contentious citizenship regulation and grant job reservations to Muslims. The occasion additionally criticised the revocation of Kashmir’s particular standing. The CPM can be dedicated to restoring Kashmir’s particular standing, Mariam Alexander Child, a celebration chief, stated.
The CPM’s manifesto particularly talked about assaults towards Muslims and promised to ban vigilante teams. It talked about compensation to Muslims who’ve been wrongfully jailed below a collection of legal guidelines, together with “anti-terror” legal guidelines.
However what about different events?
Ahmed, who can be the creator of The Algebra of Warfare-Welfare, which analysed the 2014 elections, stated that on the finish of the day, many events use language much like that of the BJP.
“Rahul Gandhi, the so-called secular leader of the Congress party, eloquently speaks about Dalits, adivasis and so on, but he lacks the courage to even mention the word Muslim, let alone highlight their plight demonstrated by many research and reports,” Ahmed stated.
“In that sense, the difference between Gandhi and Modi is only technical. Both favour an ethnic populist democracy though their respective styles are not identical.”
Rifat Fareed contributed reporting from New Delhi
