Will You Walk Into My Parlour?

The BJP's chase of the Muslim voters is looking like the chase by a jilted lover of his long lost beloved.But there has never been a love-affair, not even a love-hate relationship, between the BJP and the MuslimIndians, even going back to its earlier incarnation the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS). It seems that the foundingfathers of the BJS/BJP - the Savarkars and the Golwalkars - and even their successors, right down to Sudarshan,never thought much of the Muslims;  indeed, they thought, and not only thought but wrote, awful thingsabout the Muslims which need not be repeated.

Every politically literate person in India, on this or that side of the political fence, is fully aware of thevilification, the demonisation, the vituperation, the distortion and the falsification by the Grand Mahants ofHinduvad or Hindu Rashtravad or Hindutva, to give their ideology its latest title, as they claim it is dulysanctified by the Supreme Court. Essentially, they built up their concept of Hindu renaissance as a zero-sumgame between the Hindus and the Muslims by preaching that particularly after the Partition in 1947, for whichthe Muslims were held solely responsible, India that is Bharat, was too small for both Hindus and Muslims tolive in peaceful coexistence. Either the Muslims had to be forced out or converted to Hinduism, by persistentpressure, punctuated with force and turned into 'Mohammadi Hindus' or made to learn to live as vassals and tobehave in accordance with the dictates of the Hindu majority, since India was essentially the land of theHindus. Their slogan:  'one country, one people, one culture'. 'Culture' being an euphemism for religion.

Governments came and went, but this pressure was maintained, sometimes with the collusion of theadministration, more often with the active support of the guardians of law and order. The administrativemachinery and, particularly, the security services were deliberately penetrated; the mass media wasinfluenced; bias and prejudice, scorn and hatred were sown in the mind of the common man through massivepropaganda. Thousands of incidents of anti-Muslim violence were incited, the Gujarat genocide was staged withfull participation, of the police under the direction of the state government, accompanied by the onslaught ofSangh Parivar, to teach the Muslims a lesson, to force them into making a 'choice between Pakistan andQabristan'.

The Great Oracle

But today the Great Oracle, in his unmatched rhetoric, in all its ambiguity, asks the Muslims to forgiveand forget Gujarat - when Modi, who should have been dismissed and prosecuted, continues to rule. Whenhorrifying details of rapes and killings and their cover-up are being unearthed every day and when not oneculprit has been punished and when Muslims are threatened with many more Gujarats, this is not an appeal tohuman compassion but an absolution of crime against humanity. But there have been so many. Gujarat stands outbecause the RSS, the BJP, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal were caught with their pants down and the world heardthe cries of anguish and the nation, including the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court,took notice.

But the story of the Sangh Parivar, in igniting anti-Muslim violence, creating situations of confrontation,procuring and distributing arms, recruiting, training and deploying the hate brigades against Muslimlocalities, providing the political back-up and the tactical police cover, helping them when they desired tobe protected, is too long to be repeated. And every Muslim remembers it, in every locality which was evertheir target.

The Vajpayee Government claims that Gujarat apart, for five years or more it kept the country riot-free. Thisis a lie. Its Home Minister has stopped the publication of statistics but hundreds of anti-Muslim riots haveoccurred since 1998, counting only those in which at least one human being lost his/her life, at least onewoman was raped and at least one dwelling or shop was torched. Now the Great Oracle speaks of 'chhut-putghatna' (minor incidents).  A sense of deep physical insecurity pervades the Muslim communityresulting in increasing ghettoisation. Go to any Muslim area of any town and find out the cost of land orprice of dwelling space. You will be shocked to find that the going rate in Muslim slums is comparable to theelite colonies.

Religious Siege

Hinduism is, by definition, tolerant of religious and denominational diversities, but it has the historicalpropensity to absorb all alien religions and find their 'gods' and prophets a place in the Hindu pantheon. Sothe Muslim Indians are today in a state of religious siege. The sinister and senseless campaign against theirreligious institutions -- the Masjids, the Maktabs and the Madrasas -- as dens of Pakistani espionage andtraining ground for the terrorists (though Home Minister Advani has not been able to identify and prosecuteany Imam or Ustad); the systematic occupation of Muslim graveyards and prayer grounds; the 'conquest' ofMuslim shrines as in Baba Budhangiri caves in Karnataka, because Muslims in their innocence opened the doorsto the Hindu devotees; the permanent lock-out and deliberate neglect of 'Protected' Masjids and thestep-by-step conversion into Hindu temples as in Kamal Maula Masjid in Dhar;  the persistent claim on30,000 Masjids and shrines across the country, including Dargah Khwaja Saheb in Ajmer and Jama Masjid inDelhi, on the false assumption that they were all built on the sites of pre-existing Hindu temples afterdemolishing them; the systematic saffronisation of school education and of school culture to brainwash andHinduise Muslim children; the routine tearing and burning of the Quran in all anti-Muslim riots and even inbroad day light in the capital city of Delhi (what happened to the inquiry Vajpayee had ordered?), all showthe Sangh Parivar's implacable hostility to Islam, the Holy Prophet and the Quran. How can the Muslims feelreligiously secure if their faith is permanently under attack?

BJP Record

At the time of election, the BJP leaders are offering equal treatment to Muslims. Putting aside their massiveunder-representation in the Parliament (55%) not to speak of state legislatures (upto 100%), and even in theCivil Services (75%), Vajpayee, Advani and Co. and their other shining stars should place before the Muslimcommunity the proportion of Muslims the Vajpayee Government has recruited in non-gazetted jobs with variousministries, departments and their attached and subordinate offices as assistants, clerks, messengers, drivers,police constables and army jawans? At least, let them give the names of Muslim Indians nominated as directorsof government corporations, public sector undertakings, banks and other financial institutions and as memberof various autonomous bodies like boards and authorities during the last 5 years.

That they have just one Muslim in the council of ministers is explicable. After all, the BJP had put up onlyfour or five candidates for the Lok Sabha, only two from Muslim concentration seats - old and tired warhorseNaqvi from Rampur and the young, inexperienced Shahnawaz Husain from Kishanganj. Naqvi lost. Shahnawaz won andbecame a minister of state, and then a minister. He has paid his keep through regular paeans of praise to hisnew gods. But he has done nothing for the community, not even recruited Muslim 'loaders' in the airports. Howcan he, poor fellow? It is all done by merit or money. The Muslim youth is genetically devoid of merit, and ofcourse he has no money.

Backward Class

The Muslims constitute a Backward Class in every sense of the term, by every nationally accepted parameter.The Supreme Court does not bar reservation on the basis of religion if a religious group is backward. TheVenkatachaliah Commission affirmed that there was no constitutional bar and that it was a matter of politicalwill. But the Vajpayee Government has ignored the advice and so far it has not provided reservation in publicemployment for Muslims, as a whole or even a separate quota for the Muslim sub-communities which are on theOBC list.

We have no figures. But the Muslim community knows that under the Vajpayee dispensation, the doors ofpublic employment even in Category D are firmly closed for its youth. Before seeking Muslim vote, let theVajpayee government remove the feeling of economic insecurity by putting in the public domain the statisticsrelating to the proportion of appointments, grade-wise and department/authority-wise made during the last 5years that has reached the Muslims. Public employment provides the major financial input not only forconsumption but for savings and investments. Today the Muslims are more deprived than ever before and thegovernment is simply unconcerned that 1/8 of the national population continues to live a sub-human life in astate of deprivation.

Education

The BJP spokesmen will repeat the half-truth that the Muslims shun modern education. But let Dr. Joshi, theMinister of Human Resource Development, put before the country and the Muslim community the additional numberof government primary, upper primary, middle and secondary schools, established in Muslim concentrationvillages and urban Mahallas (above 20% Muslim population) since 1998-1999 or under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA;Education for All) and compare them to their entitlement under the national norm of ONE Primary School for aPopulation of 300. Dr. Joshi has also to explain why the schools, opened under the SSA with central funds, donot teach Urdu or teach Urdu-speaking students through the medium of Urdu, at least at the primary level inareas of Urdu concentration.

False Claims

Dr. Joshi waxes eloquent about funds allocated to the National Council for the Promotion of Urdu during hisyears in office but Urdu calligraphy, Urdu computer and Urdu distance education or even the ill-conceived andill-motivated intervention in Madrasa education in the name of modernization are not a substitute for primaryand secondary education of uniform quality. And how much does it all come to? The total expenditure on thepromotion of Urdu, Persian and Arabic through the NCPUL and otherwise over 5 years 1998-2003 comes to no morethan 35 crores!

The drumbeaters of the Vajpayee government speak of economic and educational development of Muslims throughthe National Minorities Finance and Development Corporation, the Abul Kalam Azad Education Foundation, theCentral Wakf Council (the Scheme of Commercial Development of Wakf Properties) but the total amount investedin economic and educational development of a community of 150 million over 5 years comes to less than 100crores!

And speaking of wakfs, the parting kick of the Vajpayee Government, which has done almost nothing tovacate wakf properties under government occupation, was to trifurcate the Punjab Wakf Board. This willdeny the flow of the surplus income from the wakfs in Punjab, which has a very small Muslim population,for the much more numerous Muslims of Haryana! Today the Imams and the Muezzins of the Masjids and theteachers of Maktabs and schools in Haryana are not being paid and yet the President of the All India Imam'sOrganization is one of the accredited darbaris of the Vajpayee court.

Building Bridges?

Today, the BJP is anxious to build bridges with the Muslim community. But the Muslim Indians would like toask: have they, PM or the Home Minister, taken any interest in the community during the last 6 years? Havethey ever invited any Muslim organization of national eminence, the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Musahwarat, theAll India Milli Council, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, the Jamaat-e-IslamiHind, the All India Shia Conference, the Markazi Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, the All India Momin Conference or'granted an audience' to them for a submission or representation, not to speak of discussion or dialogue, onmatters of concern to them or for explaining government policies and programmes?

Some members of the elite were invited to the darbar from time to time. Some had their own reasons toshow their face. Some appeared reluctantly but out of courtesy. Vajpayee, more than Advani, had manyphoto-sessions with a Muslim coterie consisting of a few non-entities, persons who lack standing in the eyesof the community.

After Chennai Declaration, Bangaru Laxman took the initiative to draw the Muslim close to the BJP but theinitiative died with his exit. Since the dark shadows of Gujarat fell upon Muslim community's relation withthe Vajpayee Government, there have been many sammelans - organized by the Muslim show boy ShahnawazHusain or by the Social Welfare Minister Jatiya or by various bodies like NMFDC, the NCM, the MAEF or the CWC.But did the sammelans lead to the adoption of any concrete programme of action and installation of amechanism for the periodical monitoring?

Far from it. The Vajpayee Government has never taken any steps to ensure that the Muslims at the grassrootslevel get their due share of the welfare and development programmes funded by the union. No direction was everissued that the religious minorities at the Panchayat/Block/District level, should receive their due share inthe distribution of facilities and benefits. What is worse, the government has simply forgotten about the PM's15-Point Programme and, to the best of our knowledge, has not issued any progress report on its working andresults during the last 5 years.

And now Vajpayee, Advani, Venkaiah Naidu, Naqvi and Shahnawaz Husain in order to show off their latest catchArif Mohd. Khan and the hired busloads from Rampur and Kishanganj, organized the Rashtriya Muslim VikasMahasammelan which proved to be no more an exercise in rhetoric. Even Jaswant Singh did not announce anyconcrete programme of vikas (development) for the community.

The Electoral Proposition

The Muslim Indian is no longer a babe in the woods; he understands why he is in the news, why he is beingassiduously wooed, why he is being offered regrets and apologies and promises and asked to forgive and forgetand why he is being invited to join, in a fresh start, to trust the BJP.

The answer is very simple: The BJP secured 23.75% of the votes polled in 1999 i.e. less than 15% of the totalelectorate, more or less in line with its performance since 1996. The BJP has realized that in its drivetowards a monopoly of power, it had struck a plateau, and that to make further progress it had to make aquantum jump. In terms of votes, it had wrung the last drop of juice from the Hindutva ideology. In Gujarat ithad a 'landslide' victory but its votes did not exceed 35%. Neither did they in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh.Its strategists have realized that it has to broaden its social base, and wear a secular mask to hide itsfundamentalist, fanatical and fascist face, in order to attract the liberal and secular Hindu voters who aresitting on the fence to jump on its bandwagon. It is to make its brand new secular mask credible that the BJPhas suddenly discovered the Muslims and is showing concern for their welfare and progress and inviting them togive it a try.

The electoral proposition is very clear: If 10% of Muslim votes can be attracted to the BJP, it will mean only1% increase in national terms but even this small but visible shift will make an impact on the secular andliberal Hindu voters who are disenchanted with the secular parties and do not vote. Thus another 4% non-Muslimvoters who were sharply critical of the BJP's anti-secular ideology and policies may be attracted. With 5%additional votes, the BJP may even secure a majority in the Lok Sabha and form a government on its own andthus become free of the compulsions and unreliability of a coalition and implement its real agenda.

But what is then the game plan? Once in a majority, the BJP can do what it likes - ride roughshod over theConstitution and the laws, and all the democratic and secular conventions built painstakingly sinceindependence, rub out the last traces of the heritage of the Freedom Movement, make India a de jureHindu State, though the BJP-led NDA government has already made it a de facto Hindu state, with theSarvasanghchalak (Chief) of the RSS as the Rajguru and RSS activists and shakha graduatesadoring the offices of the ministers, siphoning off national resources in land and money for their projects.Then it can move towards its ultimate goals - promulgation of Hindu Rajya, adoption of the Hindu agenda,formulated by the VHP and emasculation of religious minorities through religious assimilation and culturalsubmergence, in the name of Cultural Nationalism.

It is debatable whether the latest moves for friendly relation with Pakistan and dialogue with the Hurriyaton Kashmir are also part of their Muslim strategy or an effort to promote the agenda of peace and development.But unfortunately they are being presented to the Muslim community as the reasons why the Muslims shouldembrace the BJP. This very approach shows the communal conviction of the Sangh Parivar that all said and done,the Muslim Indians have at least a special place for Pakistan in their hearts, even if they do not yetconstitute Pakistan's fifth column in our country!

Simple Demands

All parties, on the eve of election, make promises, give assurances, even write them in their manifestos, buthardly ever keep or fulfill them. So the Muslim community should not take the BJP's love-calls at their facevalue. But it should put a few simple demands to the BJP to prove its love forMuslims and commitment to secularism:

1. Will the BJP severe its links with the RSS and disown the ideological heritage of Savarkar and Golwalkar?Will it allow the RSS Chief to act as extra-constitutional authority? Will it stop making specialdispensations in favour of the RSS-linked organizations, institutions and individuals?
   
   
2. Will it stop performance of Hindu rituals at State functions?
   
   
3. Will it let the law take its course on the Ayodhya question, commit itself to the execution of the finaljudicial verdict and the implementation of the October, 1994 road map of the Supreme Court? Will the BJPcommit itself not to repeal the Religious Places (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 and protect all places ofworship as they were on 15 August, 1947?
   
   
4. Will it promise the enactment of a comprehensive law on Social Violence, in all its forms andmanifestations, providing for investigation by a federal agency, prosecution by Special Courts and payment ofuniform compensation for loss of life, honour and property and imposition of collective fine? Will it applythe law retrospectively to all anti-Muslim and anti-Dalit cases since 1999?
   
   
5. Will it establish primary and secondary schools in adequate numbers in all areas of deprivation, villageby village, ward by ward, in accordance with the national norm, with the mother tongue as the medium ofprimary instruction and the teaching of the Mother Tongue as Compulsory First Language and of the PrincipalLanguage of the State as Compulsory Second Language to all students belonging to linguistic minorities andintroduce secular textbooks and non-denominational school culture?
   
   
6. Will the BJP introduce reservation for Muslims in Legislatures (under joint electorate), in publicemployment including security forces, in higher education, in welfare and development benefits and flow ofbank credit, in proportion to their population at the operational levels?
   
   
7. Will the BJP ensure against State intervention in matters of religion including religion-based family lawsand against any tilt in situations of inter-religious conflict?
   
   
8. Will it guarantee full and unrestricted exercise of freedom of religion under Article 25?
   
   
9. Will the BJP nullify the trifurcation of Punjab Wakf Board, restore wakf properties in the hands ofthe state and include public wakfs in the list of public premises?
   
   
10. Will it give its tickets to at least 50 Muslims for the Lok Sabha, even to its faithful acolytes, old andnew, and get them elected from safe seats?
    
    
11. Will it commit itself to include at least 10% Muslims in the council of ministers?
    
    
12. Will the BJP commit itself to include one Muslim among 10 government nominees in all statutory andnon-statutory bodies?
    
    
13. Will the BJP stop the vilification of Islam and demonisation of Muslims, by word of mouth or in writing,as terrorists, subversives, infiltrators, criminals, as Babar-ki-aulad, as historic adversaries?

We know that the BJP will not; it cannot. The BJP cannot rise above tokens and symbols, above ambiguousrhetoric and emotional appeals. But, sitting like the spider at the centre of its web of deceit, conspiracyand subversion, the BJP will continue to invite the fly to its parlour.

We know that the BJP will use every trick in the trade to divide Muslim votes and reduce their turnout andthus their impact particularly in Muslim concentration seats. We know it shall coerce, browbeat and even bribesome influential Muslims in the country to sell the BJP - the changed BJP - as a strategic investment forMuslim future in Hindu India. We know that in power, it shall use all its strength to make some handpickedMuslims sign a surrendernama for the Babari Masjid site and then give signal to the Sangh Parivar forbuilding the Mandir in Ayodhya.

But 50 years later, the Muslim community knows the difference between flawed democracy and fascism, betweenflawed secularism and communalism and will say NO, a loud NO to the spider!

By arrangement with Milli Gazette. Syed Shahabuddin, former chief of the All India Babri MasjidMovement Committee, has recently joined the Congress Party. He has been a Rajya Sabha member (1979-84) andrepresented Kishanganj (Bihar) in the Lok Sabha (1984-89 and 1991-96)