For years most Muslims complacently believed the BJP would never succeed in ruling the country. With the demolition of the Babari Masjid the Ayodhya movement ran out of steam, and on the question of secularism the BJP (along with the Shiv Sena) stood isolated. The party came to be viewed as a 'political untouchable'.
Yet, a little over five years after the smashing of the Babari Masjid - one of the defining moments of post-independent India's history - the BJP has achieved its ultimate dream. What do the Muslims expect under this new dispensation?
No doubt about it: most of them are apprehensive. The national agenda, adopted as a policy framework by the BJP government, may have no reference to the BJP's pet themes - Ayodhya, Article 370 or the Uniform Civil Code - but Muslims realise that this is only to placate its numerous allies, none of whom, barring the Shiv Sena, shares its Hindu aspirations ...
While Muslims expect no major offensive against them, they are convinced that small, subtle means of cultural assimilation will be employed. "If nationalism is the BJP's main concern, why does it not lay emphasis on eradication of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment? Why concentrate only on the Uniform Civil Code? Asked a social activist in Hyderabad.
"I had expected the BJP to keep the home, human resource development (HRD) and information and broadcasting (I&B) portfolios for its own people," said ex-MP Syed Shahabuddin, "and sure enough it has done so. These are the ministries which it employs for indoctrination. We will not be sent to the gas chambers, but will be administered slow poison."
"Since the HRD ministry has been vested with Murli Manohar Joshi," said Dr Mumtaz Ali Khan, Bangalore sociologist, "we have this fear that the educational system may be tampered with to sow seeds of hatred amongst children. Grants to minority educational institutions may be curtailed or even suspended.
"It is quite possible the BJP may try to revise school textbooks in a manner that depicts Muslims as villains," feared Maqsood Ali Khan, chief editor of Salar, Bangalore.
Although the BJP government is barely a fortnight old, a number of minor developments were mentioned by Muslims as instances of what lay in store for them. The barricade on one side of the controversial Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi had been removed to enable Hindus to worship the idol of ... Shringar Gowri ... At Pirana, 20 km from Ahmedabad, a dargah had been forcibly occupied by local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers.
In Rampur where the BJP's sole Muslim MP – and now minister of state for I&B - Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi wont he poll, Bajrang Dal workers, alleged Shahabuddin, attacked a Muslim mohalla from where Naqvi had not received a single vote. "When the residents went to complain, the thanedar told them, "Yeh tho sirf shurwat hai (this is just the beginning)", maintained Shahabuddin.
It is the RSS and its parivar whom Muslims fear even more than the BJP itself. "The RSS is a mission and the BJP is its political wing," insisted Shahabuddin darkly. "It is not as if political power is its sole end, and Hindutva just a means. In that case they would have given up issues like Ayodhya, once they captured power. It is the other way round: Hindutva is the end, political power a means. The organs of the state, the media, the educational infrastructure, these too are means the RSS wants to employ in the pursuit of its end, which is to completely absorb Muslims into the Hindy fold."
Javed Ali Khan of the SP echoed this view. "We fear that institutions of the state may be subverted or misused by the BJP government in such ways that they may suffer permanent damage, which even future governments may find difficult to rectify," he said. "For instance, in UP the Provincial Armed Constabulary acquired a notorious character after certain RSS-minded officers came to occupy its top positions, and gave the entire force a certain orientation. The same may happen with the IB, CBI and RAW. By inducting communal-minded people in crucial positions, this government can wreak a lot of mischief."
Not all Muslims, however, were so pessimistic. The presence of Atal Behari Vajpayee as Prime Minister, the total dependence of the BJP on its allies for survival and the strength of the opposition were cited as mitigating factors.
"The other BJP leaders display their iron hands, but Vajpayee sports velvet gloves over this iron hands," declared Maqsood Ali Khan ...
Though a liberal by instinct, can Vajpayee stand up to the RSS? asked Shahabuddin bluntly. "SO many times his initial stand and final stand on a particular issue have been very different. He was genuinely shocked at first by the Babari Masjid demolition, but later he refused to condemn it". ...
The Muslims have clearly trusted the BJP-allied parties' protestations of secularism ...
... Not all however were willing to let the allies off lightly. "As far as Muslims are concerned, even the BJP's allies should be regarded as political untouchables," said Mumtaz Ali Khan ..
Shahabuddin too remained sceptical: "Many of the allies, such as Mamata Banerjee, have secular credentials and have won with considerable Muslim support. But they compromised their secular ideology to join hands with the BJP and share power. Will they be willing to give up power if the BJP takes steps which are not to their liking? They may well look the other way."
Agreed Dr. Rafiq Zakaria, former politician, scholar and chairman of the All India Khilafat Committee: "It may not be easy for the allies to break away as that might result in another election. I would put more faith in the opposition keeping the BJP government in check ... The government just cannot afford to ignore the opposition.
The BJP proudly claims - and the Muslims concede that the party won a small section of the Muslim vote in virtually every state ...
The BJP national vice-president Sunder Singh Bhandari claimed that in UP the party got around six per cent of the Muslim vote, and three per cent in Bihar ...
In Karnataka the BJP is making a conscious attempt to woo the Muslims. "We will be starting with a massive state level minorities convention in Bangalore in mid-May," said Suresh Kumar. The BJP is also going to rejuvenate its minorities cell in the state.
In turn what do the Muslims expect? Can the BJP ever hope to win their support? "Not so long as the BJP continues to move along the direction given to it by (RSS founder) K.S. Hegdewar and his successor Guru Golwalkar," said Javed Ali Khan. "The part has to first reject Golwalkar's A Bunch of Thoughts for reconsideration to be possible".
For Haneef Jawaid, the party has to "sever its umbilical cord with the RSs, give up once and for all those controversial issues it has merely sidelined at the moment, and accept the plurality and diversity of Indian culture".
Both Jawaid and Maqsood Ali khan strongly felt the BJP should also initiate programmes to overcome the educational and economic backwardness of the Muslims.
Concluded Dr Rafiq Zakaria. "As Oscar Wilde said, "Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future". The BJP's past does go against it, but if the national agenda is the yardstick, they deserve to be given a chance to behave better in the future"
