Skip to main content

Facing 2019 elections, Muslim community's puzzle: Collective vote casting for a "secure" future

By Dr Syed Mohammad Raghib*
A week ago, an eight-year-old madrasa student Mohammad Azeem became the most recent victim of hate crime in Malaviya Nagar, South Delhi. Clearly, the hate culture continues to take new shapes. The lynching mayhem, continuing for the last four-and-a-half years in the name of ‘cow protection’, began with the murder of Akhlaque, and followed with the killing of Pahlu Khan, Junaid, Alimuddin, and Tauheed Ansari.
In Manipur, a 26-year-old MBA student, Mohammad Farooque Khan, was killed by a mob on September 14 in front of the police. In Uttar Pradesh, a series of encounters have been going on. More recently, two boy, aged 17 and 21, were gunned down in Aligarh. In Madhya Pradesh, where eight SIMI prisoners killed in a fake encounter, the government blamed them for fleeing from the jail.
Such incidents have increased manifold. They are a telling commentary on the weak law and order situation across the country. Police officers, politician and even criminals who are behind such gruesome incidents are promoted.
There is no doubt that India is a secular-democratic country, one of the peaceful places on the earth where multi-religious, multi-ethnic communities have flourished since long. Islam entered here by two routes, one from the north, Sindh, when Mohammad Bin Qasim came to India. It flourished through the Sufi tradition of the likes of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti.
Islam also came to India via the sea route, when Arab traders reached south Indian coasts, especially Kerala. Malik Dinar is one of the first known Muslims to have come to India via this route. Muslims have thrived here and coexisted with other religions and cultures and have never felt threated from the majority community at any point in time.
Over the last few years, right-wing communal forces have badly damaged the secular-democratic identity of the country for their electoral gain. Yet, majority and minority boundings are very sturdy, thanks to high level of tolerance between them. This tolerance continues despite communal violence rocking North and Central India. On an average, according to the National Crime Bureau data, on an average, 600 incidents of communal violence took place between 2014 and 2017.
The Constitution of India has given equal opportunity to every citizen of the country to lead a life with dignity and respect. The constitution has also given the right to practice religion, to run educational institutions and to have their personal laws across the country.
It is against this backdrop that the 2019 elections are seen as a significant factor for the development of Muslims. Their electoral calculations can go awry if the community votes are divided. This is what happened during the 2014 elections. The community couldn’t ensure a single Muslim candidate to the Lok Sabha from UP.
Things couldn’t turn any better during the UP state assembly elections, which took place in 2017. Though UP has a 19 percent Muslim population, 25 MLAs from the community could win, down from 68 in 2012. The community votes are divided between three or four parties such as Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and so on.
Since the last Lok Sabha elections, the community has the lowest-ever number of Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The percentage of the Muslim population as per the government census 2011 was 14.2, but in terms of representation, there are just 23 MPs Muslims, which comes to a measly 4.2 percent of the total Lok Sabha strength, 543.
A major problem for this is, the Indian Muslim political leadership lacks vision of the type one saw during the fight for India’s independence. They have failed to continue with the tradition of opening new educational institutes such as Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Ashrafia, Deoband, Falah, Nadwatul Ulema and Jamiatul Salah.
Meanwhile, the adversaries of the community have successfully engaged it in fatwas, ISI, IM, triple talaq, halala, love jihad, ghar wapsi, lynching, Muslim ghettos, National Register of Citizens, damaging its dignity and pride. Due to the false reporting and media propaganda, these adversaries achieve their target to defame Muslims. Little do they realize that in the process they are defaming our country’s reputation, weakening the root of our democratic institutions and collective culture.
The type venom the media indulges in is well known to all. Whether it is Aligarh Muslim University, whose Jinnah portrait was made a big issue, or the Alauddin Khiji-Padmavati issue across Rajasthan, every effort is made to divert the mind from real developmental issues of the ordinary people.
It is time the Muslim community across the country, forming 14.2 percent of the population, understands the importance of collective vote casting. It can help in power sharing in any government formation, even as taking care of the safety and security of the current and future generation.
---
*Post-doc student at the Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Comments

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.

Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Ban Ki-moon, others ask Bangladesh PM to 'protect' Yunus

Counterview Desk  A campaign has been launched to support Bangladesh-based economist, micro-finance guru and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, seeking signatures from citizens across the globe in order to “protect” his work, life and safety.

Electricity sharing opens up new window for India’s eastern neighbourhood engagement

By Sufian Asif* Today, challenges like climate change, pandemics, energy reliance, economic crisis, and many more are concerning us. No nation can overcome these obstacles without the assistance and collaboration of other nations. Most importantly, many of these problems have international repercussions. South Asia is facing much more difficulty when compared to other regions. In South Asia, we have some regional organizations, but they are ineffective.

Regional political dynamics 'leading to' institutional violence in SAARC University

By Sandeep Pandey*  South Asian University is a university set up in Delhi by member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Maldives – which is open to students from all these countries. However, as SAARC is receiving little attention these days because of regional political dynamics, it appears as if SAU has lost significance too. Because of the hiatus in peace process between India and Pakistan, the Board of Governors of this University is dysfunctional.

'Vulgar display of wealth': Govt of India using G20 presidency for political, electoral gains

Counterview Desk  Seeking endorsement for a public statement on India's G20 Presidency, several people’s movements, trade unions and other civil society groups have come together to say that not only will G20 and its priorities “will worsen economic, social and climate crisis”, already, India’s presidency is being used “for vulgar display of pomp & for electoral gains.”