Muslims will not be fooled by false promises any more

Since it made up 11.6 per cent of Karnataka’s population, it clearly helped engineer the Janata Dal wave in State, with the party winning in 15 of the 27 constituencies there. Conversely, its withdrawal of support to the Congress in Maharashtra saw the party lose at least 10 seats. In Andhra Pradesh, in contrast, it was the consolidated Muslim vote that saw the BJP incumbent, Bandaru Dattatreya, lose the Secunderabad seat that he had won in 1991. His Congress opponent, PV Rajeshwera Rao, won here with a margin of over 2.5 lakh.

Ironically, Rajeshwera Rao’s father — Narasimha Rao — is even today perceived by opinion-makers and ordinary folk alike, as the man who brought down the Babri Masjid.

True, the anger against Rao isnothing new. It was palpable even in the 1996 polls. A survey conducted at that time by the Chennai-based Forum for Culture, Environment and Sustainable Development revealed that 68.2 per cent of Muslims were eager for a change of government at the Centre. Between 1991 and ’96, the party’s overall Muslim support declined from 59 per cent to 37 per cent. By sidelining Rao this time, the Congress may have rehabilitated itself partially with the community. Says retired school-teacher Rahat Hashmi, “This time the desire to punish the Congress is not there so much and the fact that a ticket has been denied to Rao will help the party.”

He also feels that Sonia Gandhi’s arrival on the scene has made a difference because she is associated with the secularism of Nehru. But BJP’s best-known Muslim leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sikander Bakht strongly disagrees with this thesis.

“Muslims will see through Sonia Gandhi’s game plan of apologies. They will not be impressed by it. Would she like to apologise for thewholesale murder of Muslims during the emergency at Delhi’s Turkman Gate? Will she apologise for the shilanyas that her husband organised at Ayodhya?” asks Bakht.

According to him there is a new mood among Muslims in favour of the BJP. “The problems of any Indian, regardless of his religious persuasion, is the the same. Muslims have realised that this experiment of 50 years has not got them anywhere. This time they will not be fooled by hypocritical parties and empty slogans of secularism. They will vote for the BJP,” he says.

But why, if it is confident of Muslim support, did the party leadership set aside only five tickets for Muslim candidates? Bakht is quick to defend his party: “Remember, we have to accommodate so many old workers as well. We welcome people like Aslam Sher Khan into the party, but the tragedy is that they replace old workers. So let them first work and groom themselves for a place within it.” Syed Shahabuddin, however, feels that while an individual BJP candidate, who has donegood work, may be given support, the party is still universally regarded by the community as hostile. “We had hoped that the Congress and United Front would come together to defeat the BJP.

When there is a multiplicity of secular candidates, there is the inevitable division of votes. Now Muslim votes will go to deserving UF and Congress candidates, as the case may be,” says Shahabuddin.

Adds Rahat Hashmi, “Vajpayee’s iftar party just raises amusement. Does he think that if he wears a cap and keeps two Muslims by his side as showboys, he will fool the people? Isn’t his article on the internet attacking Muslims enough evidence of what he really thinks?”

But if some political parties are perceived as trying to mislead the community, the religious and community leadership that has traditionally led the way is also increasingly being mistrusted. Political formations that depended on the old priest-politician nexus may consequently feel the heat.

Last March, backward-caste Muslims of Bihar rebelledagainst the suzerainity of Imarat-e-Shariat, the supreme law-making body in the State, and formed their own family court.

This is a new trend which could get reflected in voting behaviour. Emotional issues like Babri Masjid, are increasingly being replaced by real ones like employment, education and political representation.

Dr Tahir Mehmood, chairman of the Minorities Commission, puts it this way: “People want to know why, when our Constitution states that there must be no discrimination in matters of employment, there is less than 2 per cent representation of Muslims in the services?” Although the answers are still elusive, the questions are being raised more sharply than ever before.

Ask C Azaruddin, seller of dates and general dispenser of wisdom in Delhi’s Walled City. “We Muslims have always been taken for granted. Exploited for our votes but left to rot by the wayside — na idhar ke rahe na udhar ke rahe. But unless they start doing something to change our lot, we will chase them with slipperswhen they come for our votes.”