The outcome of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections has been hailed as a triumph of secular forces. Yet it,significantly,also marked the decline of Muslim representatives from 34 in the previous Lok Sabha to 28 this time,including four from Jammu and Kashmir.
It is certainly true that a secular Hindu can serve the cause of Muslims quite as well as a member of the community could. But there are questions of psychological satisfaction involved in the representatives community which shouldnt be dismissed out of hand. After all,Muslims,like any other community,nurse their grievances. Some of them were highlighted by the Sachar committee. Nor should we forget the reaction within Muslim communities to the arrest of many Muslims for blast-related investigations: the trains from Azamgarh called the Ulema Express and the post-Batla House concerns.
To examine this we should look at Muslims from UP,which has the largest Muslim population in the country,and leaders from which often act as spokespersons for all Indian Muslims. They were particularly unhappy over the neglect of Urdu in its home state; they were disillusioned with the states main secular parties. The BSP,which put over 500 candidates,had become too unwieldy and its ambitions did not inspire many of its former supporters. Further,by equating the Congress and the BJP,like other members of the third front,it lost the confidence of Muslims. And the Samajwadi Party lost goodwill by enlisting the support of Kalyan Singh. Thus by a process of elimination many Muslims switched their support to the Congress and contributed to its revival.
But the fatal error some community leaders committed,and which was responsible for the decline in their representation in the Lok Sabha,was to form small Muslim parties,such as the one called the Ulemas Council,in protest against the secular parties.
The Council put up candidates in many places in UP and outside. It,along with some other such nondescript parties and independents,put up an estimated 780 candidates in this last election. All of them except for those who contested in alliance with mainstream secular parties lost,merely succeeding in increasing the chances that the BJP would win. Thus not a single Muslim candidate won in Maharashtra,Gujarat,Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Orissa. But they certainly added to the tally of the BJP. In Gujarat,for instance,veteran Congressman Shankar Singh Vaghela lost to his BJP rival by around 2000 votes; the Muslim candidate got more than this deficit. The Ulema Council knew of these consequences: as its candidate from Muslim-majority Azamgarh,Dr Javed Akhtar,said,It is not our job to defeat the BJP or play the sole protector of secularism.
The lessons are clear. No party from one religious community has a chance of success unless it aligns with a secular party. If the main party claiming to represent Hindus had to morph from the Hindu Mahasabha to the Jana Sangh and finally the BJP,open to non-Hindus,and gained power only after aligning with Muslim leaders from Kashmir,Christian leaders from the Northeast,Sikh leaders from the Punjab in a socialist-convened front,how can a party exclusive to a much smaller community ever succeed in an election?
Even the Akali Dal has learnt this reality of Indian politics. Before the assembly election of 2007,it opened its doors to non-Sikhs and gave the party ticket in some constituencies to Hindus. It got a majority in the assembly after it formed an alliance with the BJP.
This is not to deny the power of Muslim voters,who have shown their clout in states like West Bengal,where they were a major factor in demolishing the Lefts citadel. But as part of the Congress-Trimamool Congress front,there Muslim leaders won seven seats as many as in UP,where the numbers of the community are far higher. The Indian Union Muslim League,as a Congress ally in Kerala,won three seats.
Indian Muslims,the second-largest Muslim community in the world,have many outstanding individuals,contributing to diverse fields music,art,literature,sports and cinema. The contributions are memorable not because they are Muslims but because they excelled. In politics,Muslim leaders must internalise the logic of the party system,and understand and represent the aspirations of different classes,castes,regions and other diversities apart from their own community which itself is far from being homogeneous.
In frustration after their recent experience,some Muslim parties are demanding proportional representation based on reservations for their community. As Salman Khursheed,the minister for minority affairs,has pointed out,this may provoke jealousy and hostility and thus be self-defeating. The Sachar Committee dealt with this problem rationally. Looking at its conclusions would serve the interest of the community best.
The writer is director,Institute of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs
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