Narendra Modi reaches
out to Ali Mian
The first opinion of the person of intellect is the last opinion of an
ignorant person.
Imam Ali
Chief of the BJP Election Committee, Mr. Narendra Modi’s
targeting the Muslim vote nationally, is a first class initiative with far
reaching possibilities. This is the first time the BJP has been explicit about
reaching out to Muslims nationally and marks a very worthwhile shift in policy.
Mr.Modi has indeed secured 25% of the Muslim vote for the
BJP in his home state of Gujarat. But this fact is not readily accepted by
other Muslims who remain suspicious as of now. There is even talk of the
Stockholm Syndrome, the Patty Hearst syndrome, wherein the 25% Muslim voters
who went to Modi are supposedly mirroring/appeasing their tormentors as the
lesser of two evils.
On the contrary, despite this errant nonsense, Mr. Modi’s
version of Secularism which seeks to provide equal opportunities to all, was,
and is, the intent of the Indian Constitution, and its founding fathers. It is
not a biased appeasement of designated vote banks as practiced by the Congress
Party. This has been squarely understood and voted for by a quarter of Gujarati
Muslims. These people have seen and experienced the benefits of being treated
fairly.
Recent reports continue to state that the Muslim per capita
income nationally is the lowest amongst the minorities, lower than Christians,
lower than Sikhs, and probably everyone else.
The BJP can hardly be
blamed for this state of affairs despite its spurious communal label, because
it has ruled at the Centre for just one term and ruled some states for no more
than a decade.
Therefore it is the so called secular forces that have short
changed the Muslims, who can’t get a job in the organised sector by and large. Another
recent report said their presence in Government jobs has gone up from 7%to 10%
since UPA 1. This is hardly earth- shaking when the Congress heart apparently
bleeds for the minorities!
For his initiative to reach out to all Muslims across the
country, Modi himself does not discriminate between the various sects extant. But
it can be said that some Sunnis of India are well entrenched beneficiaries of
the Congress Party already, in so far as they do anything for the Muslims at
all beyond paying them lip- service.
They are also
favoured dependents of outside supporters such as the Samajwadi Party, that
currently rules Uttar Pradesh. But most of this support is also theatrical,
rather than substantial.
So, Sunnis as a whole, particularly the highly politicised
richer ones, may or may not be inclined to switch over to the BJP and its
blandishments. Though the poorer Sunnis are, and have been, just as neglected
as the Shias.
So, it is the Shia population of over 50 million nationally,
making them a third of all Muslims in the country, who may heed Modi’s call
first of all. They know what it is to be neglected and worse by their so-
called own!
Some 20 or 30 million poor Sunnis may also do likewise. At
80 million, that is almost half of the total population of Indian Muslims, and
they can make a dramatic difference to BJP’s fortunes at the hustings. These
people have all been largely ignored or given second- class treatment by the
Congress Party for long, and now by various constituents of the UPA too.
And not a word ever emerges from our Government about the
regular slaughter of Shias across the border in Pakistan, though the latter
make bold to comment on goings on in India regularly, at all levels, including
their parliament and via such radical “non-state” India haters like Hafiz Saeed
of LeT or Jamaad, or whatever new label he attaches to himself in order to shift
ground.
Mr. LK Advani, the BJP patriarch, was vilified and punished
by his own, in an act of ingratitude and churlishness against the man who put
the BJP on the map and propelled it to power. This was some years ago, when he
had the temerity to praise Mohammad Ali Jinnah as a secularist. After all, the
founder of Pakistan, was, in effect, both an honorary Englishman, a pork eating,
alcohol drinking one at that, and a Shia.
And so, knowing how
it feels, and seeing the wisdom in being inclusive, the octogenarian Mr. Advani
was quick to lend his support to Modi’s clarion call.
If the BJP rank and file, the RSS cadres, the other elements
that make up the Sangh Parivar, such as the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, often
given to anti-Muslim pogroms, join hands with this brilliant initiative of
Narendra Modi’s in right earnest, much electoral dividend could result.
Not only that, the ‘untouchability’ factor that always
plagues the BJP in terms of post-poll allliances will be much assuaged and
nullified.
The Indian Shia minority, concentrated in Uttar Pradesh’s
state capital and erstwhile abode of the Nawabs, Lucknow, and Andhra
Pradesh/Telengana’s Hyderabad, formerly the capital of the Nizamate and one of
the richest princely states in British times, is waiting for an alternative
that does not discriminate against them in favour of the Sunnis.
And the concentrations of prosperous Shias in Delhi and
Mumbai are also significant electorally and influential too, because they live
in the most prominent metros in this country.
In Lucknow, the lines
in the sand seem to have been drawn. Shia community leaders expressed their
disappointment with CM Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party by staying away
from his Iftar parties recently. The SP Government is perceived to favour the
State’s Sunni sect and came down with ill- advised police action against Shia
men, women and children in procession recently.
A long- standing demand for a Shia Wakf Board for Uttar
Pradesh has been languishing too.
Abroad, Pakistani Shias, persecuted and hunted daily by
their Sunni countrymen, will be watching Modi’s progress with sympathy. As will
the people of Shia majority and oil rich Iran and the population of Southern
Iraq, around the Shia Holy shrine of Karbala, chafing under the minority Sunni
domination of Iraq.
This is therefore not the opportunism a panicked Congress
thinks it is, but a voice for a brave and accomplished set of people that count
many famous Indians in their midst including late Shehnai maestro Bismillah
Khan, several Khans from Bollywood, Javed Akhtar, the poet and screen-writer,
tennis player Sania Mirza, and others.
Whether the Shias and their spiritual leaders will recognise
this opportunity to leverage their advantage via the BJP remains to be seen.
(1, 091 words)
August 20th,
2013
Gautam Mukherjee
No comments:
Post a Comment