NATIONAL POLITICS

Muslims as Voters

Editorial, The Indian Express, 2 Jan., 1996

The Congress' failure to organize the Ahmed Raza memorial conference in Kanpur because of the violent reaction from a section of the Muslims is a setback for the party's attempt to woo the Muslims in UP. The efforts are in recognition of the disenchantment of the Muslims with the Congress after the demolition of the Babari Masjid. In the elections held after that, he Muslims have not only voted against the Congress but have even gone to the extent of casting their lot with the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in Maharashtra. Naturally enough, the Congress hope of returning to power hinges on how much support it gets from the Muslims. Since the community is believed increasingly to vote end masse, it is thought to be in a position to tilt the balance in several constituencies. However, appeasement of the Muslims has to be ruled out as it can antagonize a section of the majority community. The PM's visit to Bareilly to lay a chadar on the tomb of Imam Raza, where he announced a new train between Bareilly and Ajmer, the recent increase in the Haj quota from 20,000 to 50,000 and the move to raise the salary of the imams show how keen the party is to regain its influence over the Muslims.

While electoral compulsions persuaded Mr. Narasimha Rao to ask his Home Minster to attend a religious gathering in distant Kozhikode and some of his senior colleagues to open a dialogue with eminent Muslim scholars, it does not redound to the credit of the community to let an impression gain ground that it can be influenced in this manner. The Muslim tendency to vote more as a community than as individuals might have helped them in the past to secure some concessions, but it has also stigmatized them for their supposed herd mentality. That is why political parties have come to see them as vote banks which can be cultivated at the time of elections and then forgotten. While the interests of the community are important, there are other considerations to go by such as the reputation of the contestants and the record of the various parties. Such an approach has no place for either appeasement or fatwas.

Shahabuddin's Reply to The Indian Express,

 3 January, 1996

Please refer to your editorial "Muslims as voters" in your issue of January 2, 1996.

Despite the contention of political Pandits, the fact remains that the Muslim Indians have never voted as a national vote bank for any political party, at least since 1971, which can be cultivated at the time of elections by the political party and then forgotten. The fact is that in as many as 80-100 Parliamentary constituencies, their votes are decisive if they choose to vote unitedly and massively but they do not because they are asked by the vote brokers to vote for a particular party in the whole country or at least in a State. Also because in Muslim candidates try their luck, some at the behest of those concentration constituencies, a large number of Muslim political parties which would like Muslim votes to be divided and not to be effective against them.

 In my mind, there is no clash between the interests of the community on one hand and the reputation of the candidates and the records of the parties on the other. The interest of the community demands that communal parties should be shunned as well as ineffective candidates. The Muslim community, as a religious minority, has no option but to support the secular parties, but not necessarily the same party if it wishes to contain the forces of Hindu communalism and chauvinism. At the constituency level, it must vote massively and unitedly for the candidate, whichever his party, who is in the strongest position to defeat such forces.