Keeping up with UP | The divide and the invisible silver lining

One of them was Padma Shri awardee and renowned cardiologist Dr Mansoor Hasan who is considered an authority on the epic Mahabharat and can recite its spiritual message with fluency. Yogi’s decision to make the first courtesy call on a Muslim had taken many by surprise.

The BJP swept the polls winning 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats (including two of its ally Apna Dal-Sonelal). The BJP claims that they received support from Muslim women who supported the party for its commitment to abolish ‘triple talaq’ by including it in the poll manifesto.

Within months of getting elected for the second time in 2019, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government declared ‘triple talaq’ (the practice of divorcing women by repeating the ‘talaq’ word thrice) unconstitutional and punishable, a move that was also upheld by the apex court.

The government’s decision on July 31, 2019, however, evoked a mixed response from the community with some dubbing it an interference in their personal laws.

The debate was still ongoing when on December 11, 2019, Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), triggering violent protests across the country as they feared being rendered stateless. Anti-CAA protests claimed the lives of 22 people in Uttar Pradesh, several were injured and properties were vandalised.

The wounds are still fresh in the community’s memory as the government publicly named and shamed the protestors by putting up hoardings at vantage locations.

It’s August 2023 and the Lok Sabha elections are barely months away.

And, now, the BJP is launching a ‘Pasmanda Muslim Sneh Yatra’ in their quest to reach out to the community amid the ongoing legal battle over the Gyanvapi Mosque in Kashi, the controversial Uniform Civil Code (UCC) besides other issues of safety and security.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on Pasmanda (meaning backwards or ‘left behind’ in Persian) Muslims at the party’s Hyderabad meeting in July 2022, the BJP in UP has attempted to woo them with representation in local bodies.

Members of the ‘Pasmanda’ have been offered tickets to fight local bodies’ elections and they have been nominated for the UP Legislative Council, which for the first time has four Muslim BJP MLCs – two of them Pasmandas.

Former Aligarh Muslim University vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor has been appointed national vice-president by BJP national president JP Nadda in a recent organisational shake-up; Mansoor is a Pasmanda as well.

The question that Muslims would want to ask BJP, however, is whether the party will allot even a single ticket to the community for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections: In 2014, not even a single Muslim MP had reached Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. While the BJP did not give tickets to any Muslim candidate, the ones fielded by opposition parties lost in the polls.

Yogi, when earlier asked the same question by HT, had said: “It will depend on their support for the party.”

This dual messaging from BJP is sending out mixed signals to Muslims: Caught between aggressive Hinduism and simultaneous political overtures, the community is at a crossroads.

Uttar Pradesh (UP) has 403 assembly constituencies and Muslims form 19.06% of the state’s population of 22.42 crore. They account for 30 to 40% of the population in about 10 districts and 12 to 30% in 33 of the 75 districts with the majority from the community living in western UP.

Muslims account for about 30% of 65 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. That explains the BJP’s desperate bid to create a wedge in a vote bank that has by and large voted en bloc in elections, and that too for opposition parties.

Though the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is not a part of the opposition conglomerate called I.N.D.I.A, the coming together of Congress and the Samajwadi Party can avert a split in Muslim votes.

The BJP’s plan is to carve out a chunk of the Muslim vote as the Pasmandas, for example, form 75% of the total Muslim population in India. The plan is to woo them through welfare schemes.

Danish Azad Ansari, minorities welfare minister in the Yogi government, insists that the basic issues Muslims face today are welfare and progress. For instance, Muslim weavers from Kashi had consistently demanded flat rates for their looms, which Yogi sanctioned earlier this year.

While more complicated issues like Uniform Civil Code and Gyanvapi mosque will be decided by the courts, Muslims are also noting BJP’s efforts to reward them with various positions in boards like Madrasa Board, Urdu academy, Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards etc.

For instance, Ansari, a Pasmanda, replaced Mohsin Raza, a Shia in the council of ministers though the latter was equally active and vociferous on community issues.

That Muslims, at least some in the community, have started supporting BJP is reflected in the elections of BJP candidates in Azamgarh and Rampur by-polls in which the party wrested the seats from the Samajwadi Party.

Fear of getting marginalised

Since the 2019 general elections, many in the Muslim community have been apprehensive about becoming politically isolated and marginalised if they were not part of the political mainstream.

It’s not BJP’s politics alone that worries the community.

The watering down of the Muslim agenda – or issues that are particular to the community – by the opposition parties worries them. “Temple run (What is a temple run?) is fine, but no one is raising our issues. There was a time when political parties vied with each other in offering quotas to Muslims from 4% to 9%. Today, we are the new untouchables, " said a Muslim trader, who did not wish to be named, from Gonda.

A student in Kaiserganj, Mohammad Akeel, had told HT before the 2019 polls, “We have always been a vote bank. But today, our support may be valuable but no more indispensable. We have lost constituencies with 50% of our votes.”

A Muslim resident of Bahraich, who also asked not to be named, said angrily, “It is understandable that the politics of the state has taken such an unusual turn that even non-BJP parties do not wish to be publicly identified with Muslims as they fear it alienates Hindus from them. Why? Aren’t we getting completely isolated in the process?”

Aftab, an educated youth, said, “We live in constant fear on the street and in trains. Mob lynching is scary.”

Waseem Ansari of the weaver-dominated Shahpur village in Barabanki said, “We are beneficiaries of PM’s scheme but their hate speeches worry us.”

“We, as a community, have nothing against the BJP. But they should also take some steps to win our confidence by dropping divisive issues,” added Ansari. Is anyone listening? Nothing has changed since then, they assert.

The ally route

In the May 2023 by-elections, the BJP had carried out a successful experiment in the Muslim-dominated Rampur district.

Its ally, Apna Dal (Soneylal) contested the crucial Suar assembly seat (vacated by the disqualification of Abdullah Azam, son of senior SP leader Mohd Azam Khan). The Apna Dal (Soneylal) fielded a Pasmanda Muslim candidate Shariq Ahmad Ansari, who comfortably defeated the Samajwadi Party nominee amid allegations of misuse of the official machinery.

Though seat-sharing with allies is easier in assembly elections as compared to Lok Sabha, the BJP’s ally Nishad party has already offered them tickets in their weak areas.

Nishad Party chief Dr Sanjay Nishad had told HT that a large section of Pasmanda Muslims is willing to support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

"During our meetings in Muslim-dominated areas, we are highlighting that the Pasmanda community was forcibly converted to Islam by ruling Islamic dynasties. Members of the Nishad community, who used to weave fishing nets, were referred to as 'jullahas' (weavers) after their conversion to Islam. Now, the Nishad Party has opened its door to the Pasmanda community," he said.

Nishad added, “I am in contact with Pasmanda Muslim leaders since the launch of the All India Backward and Minorities Welfare Mission. The Nishad Party will focus on Muslim-dominated seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Nishad Party-BJP alliance will win a majority of the seats.”

However, there is also the view that backward Muslims, despite the BJP’s overtures, are upset at being harassed by the local administration.