May 27, 2024

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THE MUSLIM FACTOR

SAMAJWADI PARTY LEADER Maria Alam, niece of veteran Congress leader and former Union law minister Salman Khurshid, addressing a gathering on April 29 in Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, urged Muslim voters in India to wage a "vote jihad" against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. In an election already riven by a HinduMuslim binary, this statement sparked another row, bringing the Muslim voter once again to the centre stageModi was quick to connect "vote jihad" with the already extant "love jihad" and "land jihad" narratives and mount a multi-pronged attack. Quoting a 2006 statement by former prime minister Manmohan Singh in which the Congress leader had said that minorities, particularly the Muslims, had the first right to the country's resources, he equated it with Rahul Gandhi's idea of wealth redistribution to paint it as a ploy to take away the wealth of the Hindus, including the mangalsutras of married women, and give it to the Muslims. Simultaneously, the prime minister accused the Congress of offering reservations to Muslims at the cost of other backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in pursuance of its minority appeasement and vote bank politicsRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) patriarch Lalu Prasad's May 7 statement that Muslims should get "full" reservation only added fuel to that fire. After Modi cited his remarks as proof of the Opposition's bias in favour of Muslims, Lalu was forced to clarify that "social backwardness is the basis for reservations. Narendra Modi wants to finish reservations". Notably, the BJP's own ally, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), has promised reservations for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Maharashtra leader of the Opposition, Congressman Vijay Wadettiwar, had stirred the pot some more on May 5 when he alleged that a police officer affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and not Ajmal Kasab had killed the then state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks Pakistan had instigated. It led to Modi widening his Opposition-bashing to India's Islamist neighbour, calling the Congress a "mureed" (disciple) of Pakistan and hinting at a hidden nexus between the twoThe Muslim Factor, as it has come to be called, is in full play in Election 2024. Many experts had argued that the BJP's sweeping majority in the past two general elections had rendered their collective voting might irrelevant. That conclusion may prove premature this time as the top four states with the highest share of Muslims in their population--UP, West Bengal, Bihar and Maharashtra--will be key in determining whether the Modi-led BJP returns to power a third consecutive time. That is the reason even the BJP, despite its overtly anti-Muslim rhetoric, has been strategically reaching out to Muslim voters on the ground. "The relevance, in fact, has increased," says Hilal Ahmed, associate professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi. "For the BJP, the Muslims are a reference point. Hindutva will lose its currency if there is no Muslim."

RACE FOR THE MAXIMUM CITY

It is May 8, and Arvind Sawant, the incumbent Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP running for re-election from Mumbai South, and his entourage find themselves in the midst of bursting crackers, a shower of rose petals and resounding chants of "vote for mashaal (flaming torch)". Sawant is passing through Bara Imam Road, and the hard-bitten Sena leader is getting a rousing reception in what is the heart of Mumbai's Muslim quarters. The place is not far from Nagpada, where members of the Chhota Shakeel gang in 1998 allegedly gunned down Salim Badgujar, a Shiv Sainik, for opening a Shiv Sena branch. "This is the first time in my life that I have seen Muslims supporting a Sena candidate with such enthusiasm," says Javed Mansuri, president of the Mansuri Jamat. The undivided Sena traditionally shared a bristling relationship with the Muslims, particularly after its shift towards Hindu right-wing politics in the late 1980s. The party's purported involvement in communal conflicts, including the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai, only deepened the fault linesSawant is ranged here against Yamini Jadhav, an MLA from Byculla, and nominee of the rival Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra chief minister