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Muslim courtship in UP

“If there was a Gandhi as Prime Minister, the Babri Masjid would not have been demolished,” contended Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Dar-ul-Uloom at Deoband. Rahul Gandhi made this remark on March 20, 2007 while he was on a campaign trail of western Uttar Pradesh

Indrajeet Rai “If there was a Gandhi as Prime Minister, the Babri Masjid would not have been demolished,” contended Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Dar-ul-Uloom at Deoband. Rahul Gandhi made this remark on March 20, 2007 while he was on a campaign trail of western Uttar Pradesh, a region where Muslim vote determines the electoral fortune of a sizeable number of candidates. Debates are abounding whether Rahul Gandhi’s Babri Masjid remark was accidental or a planned one. One thing is certain though. It’s election time in UP and its courtship time of the Muslims in the state. There is nothing surprising in wooing of Muslims by political parties in UP. In a state where Muslims constitute 18.5 % of the population, a serious political party can afford to ignore them at its peril only; unless it is the BJP trying to play its hardcore Hindutva card.
All the major political parties are battling hard to consolidate Muslim vote in the Uttar Pradesh. Parties like Samajwadi, Bahujan and Congress are trying to win Muslim support by making promises such as reservation and announcing a plethora of welfare programmes for them. The Congress, since its coming to power at the Centre, has taken a number of steps for minority welfare in general and Muslims in particular. The Prime Minister appointed a high level committee under the chairpersonship of Rajindar Sachar in March 2005 to find out the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India. The Sachar Committee submitted its report to the government in November 2006. The formation of the Sachar Committee was seen as an attempt by the Congress to win back Muslims to its fold with an eye on UP elections. Then, the Prime Minister, in what seemed to be a deliberate effort, courted controversy by saying that the minorities had the first claim on the resources of the nation. Later, he clarified that minorities have an equal claim on the nation’s resources. The ruling Samajadwadi Party has always portrayed itself as the champion of the Muslim cause. Whether it was deliberate or not, but the organisation of Roza-Iftar party at the banks of the river Ganga in Haridwar by the SP during its national executive meet in November 2006 was interpreted by many as an endeavour of Mulayam Singh to sharpen his pro-minority image. One of the ministers of the Mulayam Singh government, Haji Yaqoob Qureshi had offererd a bounty of Rs 51 crore for the head of a Danish cartoonist who had drawn some controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. But the state government absolved him of any blame and decided not to take any legal action against the minister. The SP has been raising the spectre of BJP’s coming to power to garner Muslim support in the coming Assembly elections. The Chief Minister Mulayam Singh is appealing to Muslims to vote for SP in order to keep the saffron party out of power. “Only Samajwadi Party is strong enough to keep BJP away from power in Uttar Pradesh as Congress is not in a position to check the growth of the saffron party,” Mulayam Singh was quoted as saying in one of his election meetings. The SP, in its election manifesto, has promised to recruit minorities in police, state paramilitary and in other government jobs in accordance with their population. Not to be left behind the SP and Congress in wooing the Muslims for the state elections, the BSP supremo Mayawati has promised reservations for them if it wins the Assembly elections. “If my party is voted to power, reservation for Muslims would be on the top of the agenda,” said Mayawati and promised her party’s support to the Centre in providing reservation to Muslims. On its part, the BJP has decided to hard sell Hindutva card to off-set the minority appeasement of the UPA and other secular parties. Like Uttarakhand and Punjab, the BJP president Rajnath Singh said that the party would make minority appeasement a major election plank in Uttar Pradesh. Talking to reporters in Lucknow, the BJP general secretary Vinay Katiyar said: “We will make recital of Vande Mataram mandatory in schools if voted to power in the state.” The raising of Vande Mataram singing issue is an obvious proof of the BJP reverting back to its hardcore Hindutva policy. No wonder, while the party has given almost half of the tickets to OBCs, only one Muslim figures in the party’s candidate list for the Assembly elections. Whether it was political subterfuge at its best or a work of overenthusiastic supporters, the release of a twin pack CD-UP Victimised- by BJP has increased the communal entropy of the state. Fearing a strong reaction from the Election Commission, BJP has disowned and withdrawn the controversial CD but might have succeeded in convincing its supporters of its returning back to hardcore Hindutva politics. Meanwhile adding a new twist to Muslim politics in the state, the Allahabad High Court on April 5 ruled that, taking into account the 1951 and 2001 Census, Muslims can no longer be treated as a religious minority in the state. The judgement spells enormous implications for Muslims. If Muslim institutions lose their minority status, they won’t be able to reserve 50% seats for their community. Besides, they would have to implement general reservations. Finally, they will miss out on minority welfare funds and grants. The reactions to the Allahabad HC judgment have been on the expected lines. While the Congress and SP have called for the immediate review of the judgement, the BJP seemed evasive yet appreciative of it. The UP government has filed a review petition in the Allahabad HC against the judgment. As Sachar Committee has pointed out, despite all the talk of Muslim welfare by successive governments, they have been progressively lagging behind even the Scheduled Castes in many socio-economic indicators. Minority politics in general and Muslim politics in particular has been more of symbolism and less of the substance. History might be repeating in UP again.