Most of the minority

Ever since the 2009 Lok Sabha polls,there has been hype over the Congress’s imminent revival in UP,based largely on expectations of the return of a significant section of the minority community to the party’s fold. Now,the demonstrations against Rahul Gandhi by students of Azamgarh’s Shibli National College would appear to call for an urgent revision of that reading. Stories of both the “return” and the “alienation” of the Muslim may be exaggerated. In fact,the protests at Azamgarh underline a larger shift: the days when any one party could bank on the “Muslim Vote” in UP are long over. If at one time the decline of the Congress monopoly meant that the community was then wooed by several players,the waning ability of the Samajwadi Party to attract the bulk of Muslim votes on the post-Ayodhya promise of protection of identity and personal security has brought another moment of opening up of the playing field. As the Congress attempts to court Muslims once again in UP,there is no room for complacency.

In the new landscape,the Congress,or any party,requires different strategies,ranging from those that address identity-centred concerns of Muslims to those that speak to the community’s aspirations for a better life. At one level,the Congress appears to be doing this. While Digvijaya Singh invokes,even panders to,Muslim grievance,much of it very real,using the Batla House encounter as shorthand,Rahul Gandhi pitches a wider tent. In fact,the Congress’s announcement of a sub-quota for Muslim backward classes could be seen as an attempt to link the two narratives of identity and backwardness,the proverbial two birds with one stone. It remains to be seen if this two-toned message strikes a chord or it is seen as too smart by half.

The relatively recent emergence of small Muslim parties in UP testifies to the same phenomenon of Muslim politics breaking free of the stranglehold of any single party,any one narrative. The floating Muslim vote adds another element of uncertainty to UP’s closely fought multi-cornered contests. But in as much as it keeps all parties on their toes,and prevents them from viewing a community as a votebank,it is for the good.