AHMEDABAD: The landslide victory of India’s ruling pro-Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 303 of the 543 seats in the just-ended general elections has left the country’s Muslims fretting and fuming, frightened and flummoxed.
Talking to The Doha Globe, while Ahmedabad-based Gujarat High Court advocate Iqbal Masud Khan wondered whether all 200 million Muslims would now be asked to go to Pakistan, former newspaper executive Ashfaq Kadri feared further ghettoisation of the minority community and asked why only 14 per cent Muslim population of the 74 percent non-vegetarians were being harassed for their eating habits.
Zuber Gopalani, Vadodara’s well-known educationist, hoped the new government would give priority to development in hither-to neglected Muslim-dominated areas which, he felt, sorely needed good education institutions.
“Muslims also want to contribute and participate in government. All we want is equal treatment whether it is infrastructure or job opportunities. We cannot be treated like second-grade citizens,” asserted Gopalani, who runs several award-winning schools inPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
Firoze Khan Pathan, a deputy section officer in the Gujarat High Court, claimed that the minority community was capable of fighting injustice and crimes against their members but favoured peace and social harmony.
According to a report in Ahmedabad Mirror, Prof Mohammed Sajjad of Aligarh Muslim University said that after the huge mandate in favour of the BJP and its allies (together bagging a record 349 seats), Muslims would have to live like marginalised citizens.
“Hindutva is here to stay for a long time. The leaders of our freedom struggle had a vision of a secular India but now things are falling apart”, lamented the scholar.
Maharashtra Muslim Parishad founder Akif Dafedar said that it was not good for India to keep a community of 200 million in fear “as the international community is watching us.”
Indeed, the return to power of India’s right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instilled a sense of resignation among Muslims, some of whom appear willing to concede the majority Hindus’ demand of temple at the site of razed Babri mosque in Ayodhya city in Uttar Pradesh.
Haji Mahboob Ahmad, a 65-year-old Muslim community leader who lives near the site of the 16th century mosque, told Reuters that there was no denying that there was a sense of resignation among millions of Muslims who fear further alienation but, he said, the issue of Ram temple was like the sword of Damocles.
“Let the temple come up. We need to get over it,” he said, adding that Muslims in Ayodhya would not oppose the temple in a bid to maintain peace.
Even as a court-appointed panel is arbitrating the temple dispute, another Muslim man, Azam Qadir, said: “We’ve no problem with the construction of the temple. We want peace and progress and the dispute has time and again come in the way of development.”
In New Delhi, 25-year-old shopkeeper Faizan Zafar told Al Jazeera: “This election shows that the BJP’s anti-Muslim campaign has succeeded. This time it looks like Muslims will be finished and they will declare a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (theocratic Hindu state).”
Though 22 Muslims have been elected to the lower House of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, the BJP, which steamrolled all opposition to grab 303 of the 542 seats, but did not see any of its seven Muslim contestants emerging triumphant.
According to a report in Indian Express, the BJP fielded two Muslim candidates in West Bengal, one in Lakshadweep and three in Kashmir but none got elected.
Out of the 22 Muslim candidates elected, three belong to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and three also to Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. West Bengal sent six Muslim MPs to the Lok Sabha. Out of these members, five belong to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress one belongs to the Congress.
Two candidates of the All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen were victorious – one from Hyderabad and another from Aurangabad.
At a little over 14%, India has the third-largest Muslim population in the world. There are 85 Lok Sabha seats and 720 assembly seats where Muslims constitute more than 20%. Muslim electorates are well positioned to change fortunes in many constituencies, with a slight swing in their voting preference.