The Prime Minister made certain important statements during his interaction with his party workers on Tuesday in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal. His answers to questions asked by the party cadre created quite a stir because of the pitch he made for the Uniform Civil Code. But not many have been speaking of his outreach to the Muslim community, made during the same programme, which is in keeping with his assertion post the landslide win in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2019 victory speech he had spoken of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, with the last one, “everyone’s trust” being added to “with everyone, development for everyone”. Trust deficit has marked the minorities’, particularly the Muslim community’s relationship with the Central government ever since 2014. This deficit has been aggravated by various interest groups, who have made use of the faultlines of history and contemporary events to mobilise the community to create street unrest, as it was witnessed during the Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The intent of the CAA, which is about fast-tracking the citizenship of the persecuted minorities coming from India’s neighbouring countries, was misrepresented as an exercise towards disenfranchisement of the Muslim community. As logic fell victim to propaganda, even the most intelligent could not see through the absurdity of the claim of disenfranchising over 200 million people overnight. It resulted in a whole community out on the streets, protesting, sometimes violently, against an imaginary enemy—the Indian state in this case. This unnecessary protest added to the narrative of an intolerant and undemocratic India, which by then had been escalated to global levels, with those unable to counter Mr Modi, bringing in reinforcements from abroad to spread canard against the Prime Minister and then gradually against the majority community. It’s laughable that the bogey of imminent genocide of the Muslim community in a “Hindu India” is being kept alive even after nine years of the Modi government being in power—nine years that have not seen any large-scale communal disharmony in the country. Ironically, the relatively large scale communal problems that have taken place are mostly in so-called secular states such as West Bengal, among others. Meanwhile, there is no one to call out the actual extermination of the minorities taking place in Pakistan.
Historically, “secularism”—a term introduced in the Preamble to the Constitution undemocratically in 1976, during the Emergency—has served as a political tool by self-proclaimed “secular” parties to win elections, where Muslims are treated as a bloc and appeasing the clerics and elites ensures en bloc voting. As a result it is the clerics and the elites who have cornered the doles of appeasement, while the poorer Muslims have led a hand-to-mouth to existence. To give an example, in a state like West Bengal, where the Chief Minister compared this minority group to a “milch cow” for their vote-giving capacity, the state government has been accused of doing nothing for artisans, metal or zari workers, the farm labour and the like among Muslims, who continue to be dirt-poor. At the same time, Bengal has allowed a large number of clerics to become a law unto themselves, entrench themselves politically and rouse the rabble at will. The situation is similar throughout the country, only the degree varies. In fact this treatment of the poorer Muslims can be compared to the way the underclasses, the Scheduled Castes in particular have been treated by the caste-based parties. In this case too, the riches had stayed confined to the creamy layer, with benefits not trickling down to the ground. It was PM Modi who was the first to address this problem in 2014, when the benefits started reaching the grassroots and a welfare state started budding. The PM’s attempt has been to shift the focus from identity politics to development politics. When there is no discrimination in government policies or schemes, and development starts reaching the ground cutting across religious and caste lines—after all, free ration during Covid and later, does not discriminate between Hindus and Muslims—it’s but natural that it will have an impact on the minorities too. This is becoming evident in a state like Uttar Pradesh, where a slight shift seems to be taking place in Muslim voting patterns, with the BJP succeeding in a Muslim dominated seat such as Rampur in a recent bypoll. The Prime Minister was speaking of this underclass, the Pasmandas, who are among the poorest and who comprise 85% of the Muslim community—the people who are thought of as “untouchables” as per the PM. It’s a bold outreach and a win-win policy, where not only do the minorities benefit, but also the BJP. As for those among the right-wing finding this overture to be “anti-Hindu”, they need to realise that a democratic and fast moving India cannot let its minority communities to become a drag on its progress. There has to be understanding and meaningful dialogue. There is a difference between development and appeasement. Appeasement is exclusionary. Development is inclusive and progressive. The PM is speaking of the latter.
JB