Perhaps the worst is over for Muslims in India

 

An unbiased and honest analysis of Modi’s tenure has not been done in the media. The national media indulges in excessive praise for the BJP government while ignoring all its failures in the last ten years. However, many of Modi’s supporters, who are generally considered a part of the right-wing media ecosystem on social media, are underlining the failures of the Modi govt and cautioning the regime about the dangers of continuing communal politics that can exaggerate the existing social faultlines to the extent that violence can erupt. This is the only failure of the Modi government that would have far-reaching consequences for the nation, mainly on the peace and stability of our society. The tragic part is the most horrible failure of Modi has been the conscious choice of the right-wing outfit. 

During the tenure of the BJP, the representation of Muslims in all government jobs has increased, and the discrimination against Muslims has also increased rapidly. The BJP, at the Union as well as at the state level, has decided to remove the interview section from the recruitment process to ensure fairness in the recruitment process. It has benefitted all job seekers as they can rest assured that only merit is the basis of selection, and no subjective elements can impact their chances of getting jobs. That was the positive development of Modi’s policies, but the problem is Muslims cannot support Modi even after benefitting from the BJP’s welfare schemes. The reason is simple. The BJP is spreading hate against Muslims to win elections. BJP is doing it in all states. There is no doubt the Muslim community is highly conservative in India and opposes all forms of modernization. They are more concerned about their religious affairs than the economic development. The Muslim community rarely gets united over bread-and-butter issues, but they get united against personal laws based on Sharia that allow Muslim men to have four wives. 

The right-wing political outfits are aware that Muslims accept secular laws and Uniform Civil Code in other countries. Still, in India, they dismiss secular personal laws as Hindu laws and reject them. Over the past few years, the actions and popular narrative have revealed the BJP’s Modus Operandi time and again. Just before the Karnataka election, the BJP tried to raise the issue of head covering and Burqa in schools. It was an incident at the college level where a Muslim girl was coming to College in a Burqa. It is well known that the Muslim community in India resists modernization and is highly conservative. Any attempts by external forces to discipline the community or insert modernity in them only backfire, and even the liberals gang up to support the repressive practices against women like face veils and polygamy. There is no need for the BJP to intervene in the status quo and focus on economic development and liberalization, but the party looks for trouble to incite people and polarize people on religious lines before the elections. 

Indian voters are not stupid to choose their representatives based on how much they hate Muslims. People vote for the BJP for progress and economic development. Unfortunately, the state governments mostly fail to deliver progress and development. There are few notable exceptions, but state governments are generally marred by widespread corruption, inefficiency, and lack of foresight. In their report card, the state leadership has nothing to show, and there is a limit to how much Modi’s face can exploited for garnering votes. To overcome their shortcoming, the BJP indulges in communalism. It is unfortunate to watch the videos of exploitation, oppression, and violence normal Muslims face on the street these days. It would be fair to say not all incidents of bullying and violence are reported through social media. The top leadership of the BJP ignores the violence against Muslims, their license is a way of tacit approval of right-wing Hindu outfits to continue harassing Muslims. 

The BJP is still in power. The Muslims have the number, but they lack the leadership to unite the community against the atrocities on the community. During the third term of BJP, it is highly likely that low-key violence against Muslims will continue. The right-wing Hindu outfits associated with RSS continue to bully Muslim men in the name of love jihad and use every local conflict to incite people as communal polarisation. 

[Mukesh Devrari]