No going back to Maulana Mulayam

Within 24 hours, Mulayam Singh Yadav was compelled to roll back his 8220;jumma8221; prayer order. He had to abandon his plan to close UP s...

Within 24 hours, Mulayam Singh Yadav was compelled to roll back his 8220;jumma8221; prayer order. He had to abandon his plan to close UP schools early on Fridays because of the reaction it provoked from the Muslim community.

The other factor responsible for his turnabout was the BJP8217;s reaction. The party did not lap up the prospect of communal polarisation as it might have done ten years ago. L.K. Advani and Kalyan Singh publicly hinted at the possibility of President8217;s rule. So far this had been under consideration privately. In a changed national climate, the BJP is not willing to risk the UP decision snowballing into a major controversy.

This episode highlights the distance the minority community has travelled. Muslims in 8217;04 are not what they were in 1990, or even in 8217;02 when Gujarat took place. The demolition of the Babri Masjid was a watershed. Today Muslims are wary of confrontational issues. Urdu papers have discovered emotional issues don8217;t jack up sales as they used to.

It is not as if Muslims were being prevented from saying their midday prayers, either at their workplace or in schools. Some banks employing a large number of Muslims shut shop between 1 pm and 2 pm. No one saw anything amiss, nor was it an issue with Hindus who worked there.

But Mulayam would have made it into an issue in the minds of both Muslims and Hindus. It is precisely these kind of steps that have led to the ghettoisation of the community and created a Hindu backlash.

Mulayam wanted to polarise the situation between the SP and BJP, which would push out the Congress and limit the BSP. A four cornered fight would help the BJP because it would split the minority vote into three, between the SP, BSP and Congress. The Muslim leadership in UP was keen not just to go in for tactical voting constituency-wise this time but, if possible, to vote for an alliance which could oust the BJP at the Centre. A Mayawati-Congress alliance would have electrified UP and north India, and charged the atmosphere further if Priyanka and Rahul had taken the leap. Sonia Gandhi8217;s roadshow has drawn an enthusiastic response in UP. It is not surprising the BJP worked overtime to block the alliance.

But Mulayam misjudged the Muslim mood when he thought the 8216;jumma8217; prayers would consolidate it for him. Recently, Muslims have been suspicious of his relationship with the BJP. But then, most parties appear out of touch with the changing Muslim psyche. Muslims are increasingly wary of being taken for a ride by political parties. The community abandoned the Congress because it felt the party was treating it only as a vote bank. The anger against the Congress began with the forced sterilisations of the Emergency, but it was the flip-flops under Rajiv Gandhi, from the Muslim Women Bill to the opening of the locks at Ayodhya, which lost it the support of the community. V.P. Singh became a serious contender for power the day the shilanyas took place. Muslim alienation was complete with the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Only recently they began to look at the Congress anew under Sonia8217;s stewardship.

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There have been indications that a small section of the minority community is also looking at the BJP, with the party chanting the development mantra, and with Vajpayee trying to resolve the Kashmir tangle and create a thaw between India and Pakistan. It will be a long time before the Muslims vote for the BJP but these are straws in the wind. There are Muslims, particularly among the young, who feel the best way to power and safety may be to join the BJP and engage with it.

Arif Mohammed Khan went a step further when he said he was not just interested in joining the BJP but in working with the RSS to build bridges between the two communities. In recent months, significant behind-the-scenes parleys have taken place between the sangh and Muslims over issues that divide them. These may even lay the ground for a declaration by the sangh, possibly even before elections, giving up its claim to Kashi and Mathura if a temple is built at Ayodhya.

Muslims are no longer satisfied with emotional rhetoric or with the politics of tokenism. They want educational opportunities, stronger economic packages, more avenues to political power. They want the wherewithal to throw up thousands of Azim Premjis, A.P.J. Abdul Kalams, Najma Heptullahs.

Though he presented some kind of a package in his budget speech, Mulayam chose not to go down this route. In recent years, 8216;Maulana8217; Mulayam had gone on to don the cap of 8216;Pandit8217; Mulayam, trying to woo a section of the upper castes. He tried to become Maulana Mulayam again, but realised it will not work any more. That is the significance of his decision to cancel his prayer order which would have agitated the community ten years ago.