Muslims Thrive in BJP

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>[bJP News] Secular and secure

>Sat, 6 Mar 2004 08:10:19 -0800 (PST)

>

>Secular and secure

>By Harsh Vardhan

>Hindustan Times

>March 5, 2004

>http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_599367,00120001.htm

>

>

>Arif Mohammad Khans formal entry into the BJP is a natural

>homecoming of sorts. Since 1986, when he opposed the Rajiv Gandhi

>governments cock-eyed brand of secularism as played out in its

>handling of the Shah Bano case, Khan has been a symbol of protest

>for the Muslim masses whose political expression has been quite

>stunted by the mullah-secularist combine.

>

>

>The historical coincidence of his entry into the BJP and the

>passing of Sikander Bakht within 24 hours of each other cannot be

>missed. Years back, Bakht, like Khan, had braved the contempt of

>sections of the intelligentsia by becoming one of the founder

>general secretaries of the BJP. He had anticipated the changing

>mood in his community and encouraged a spirit of openness in

>Hindu-Muslim relations which was not possible under Nehruvian

>secularism. The Congress and the Left talked of engendering a

>composite culture but actually ended up creating two composites.

>One, a world of opportunities for the Hindus and the other, a hell

>for the Muslims. As a result, the two communities lived in mutual

>exclusion.

>

>

>Large sections of the national media are uninformed of the true

>history of the BJPs acceptability to Muslims. There is a tendency

>to mindlessly parrot the pseudo-secularist line that the BJP

>practises a policy of tokenism towards which-ever Muslim leader

>walks into its fold. Men like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz

>Hussein are routinely depicted as traitors who were blinded by

>ambition. They forget that Naqvi was elected to the Lok Sabha in

>1998 and was a minister of state. Shahnawaz was sent to Parliament

>by the predominantly Muslim electorate of Kishenganj in Bihar who

>had no doubt that the BJP would work for their benefit.

>

>

>In my own political career, I have detected a sense of deep

>resentment in the average Muslim at being taken for granted as the

>poor-educationally backward-religiously fundamentalist stereotype

>with a predictable tendency to be swayed by pseudo-secularist poll

>rhetoric. The reality is quite the opposite. In todays feel-good

>economic climate, there is a discernible tendency in the young

>Muslim to claim his legitimate share under the Indian sun. Khans

>move to the BJP may be the first political expression of this

>trend.

>

>

>I recall the sense of surprise I felt when, back in the early

>Nineties, while on a trip to Kerala, I learnt from a Muslim youth

>operating a speedboat for tourists on Kovalam beach that he was a

>regular visitor to an RSS shakha. Later, a fellow doctor from the

>state branch of the Indian Medical Association told me there was

>nothing unusual about it. He reported that in his own hometown,

>Tirur in Mallapuram district (a Muslim majority has voted G.M.

>Banatwalla of the Muslim League to Parliament uninterruptedly since

>1977), it was common to see Muslim boys singing Vande Mataram in

>RSS shakhas every morning.

>

>

>Around 1995, the municipal elections in West Bengal threw up a

>curious winner in the Muslim majority town of Haroa in North 24

>Parganas district. The BJP won hands down in a triangular contest

>against the CPI(M) and the Congress. How was this possible?

>Actually, the people, regardless of their religious belief, were

>fed up with the politics of terror practised by the Marxists.

>Today, the Trinamool Congress and the BJP win seats in large

>pockets of Muslim population. The voters have had enough of being

>taken for granted by the Marxists and the Congress.

>

>

>The BJPs assessment of the present politico-economic conditions

>makes its top leadership confident that the time has come to

>reassure the Muslim masses that it is the only party that is

>serious about mitigating the myriad problems experienced by the

>community. Here I am not merely talking about the low percentage of

>jobs in government held by Muslims or their insignificant

>representation in elected bodies. Those statistics are old hat. As

>a medical practitioner on the field, who has been attached to the

>World Health Organisation, hardly a day passes when I am not

>confronted with the fact that the problem of our Muslims go very

>deep indeed. It is not just poverty but the social pressure brought

>by archaic laws which keep them mentally and physically

>undernourished.

>

>

>Ignorance, often exacerbated by low literacy levels, results in

>poor Muslims being marginalised by development programmes. When I

>was monitoring the WHOs polio eradication programme in the

>villages of western Uttar Pradesh, I often noticed a tendency on

>the part of poor Muslims to shy away. The reason: somebody had

>spread the rumour that the polio drops could result in their

>children being sterilised for life! There is also considerable

>resistance to family planning. Though the Shariat carries no real

>injunction against Muslims having small families, all kinds of

>propaganda circulates in rural hamlets and urban ghettos urging

>Muslims to reject wiser counsel in favour of the two-child norm. In

>fact, the incidence of anaemia and reproductive health problems is

>proportionally higher among Muslim women than among their Hindu

>sisters.

>

>

>For Muslim women, the implications are scary. The community already

>faces a high rate of maternal mortality and pre-natal deaths is

>proportionally higher among Muslims than other social groups.

>Official apathy is commonly mistaken as secular governance. Even as

>clerics force poor Muslims to desist from sending children to

>regular schools, the State looks the other way. This is the result

>of commodifying the Muslim allowing the community to wallow in

>poverty and backwardness for fear of provoking a fundamentalist

>backlash.

>

>

>But what about the vast majority of Muslims who would like to sink

>their apparent socio-cultural uniqueness to secure better

>livelihood for themselves and their children? Their voice was not

>heeded. Now is the time to encourage Muslims to come out of their

>isolationism. Help them to help themselves.

>

>

>The Vajpayee government is serious about reaching the benefits of

>feel-good to every segment of the population. The BJP is loyal to

>Mahatma Gandhis vision of an India free of economic inequity. The

>Mahatma had said that until the benefits of progress reach the last

>Indian, we cannot perceive ourselves as a developed country. If

>India is to achieve the status of a global economic power in the

>21st century, we cant exclude the Muslims. The first term of the

>Vajpayee government saw considerable new ground being broken in

>reaching social and educational reforms to the Muslims.

>

>

>The programmes on education, health and women and child development

>have special focus on addressing the age-old problems of the

>Muslims. The minorities finance corporations have been revivified.

>No longer are they fiefdoms of the privileged members of the

>community. The government is aware of the long road ahead. That is

>why the BJP needs to break through the wall of misunderstanding

>built by pseudo-secularists between the countrys only sincere

>political party and the Muslims. Secularism, to the BJP, is no

>empty slogan. Sarva Dharma Sambhav extends to providing a level

>playing field to Muslims so that they can come out of the sidelines

>and, by contributing their mite to national growth, experience true

>pride as Indians. Hindus and Muslims have a common vision, a common

>history and a common culture.

>

>

>The writer is President, BJP Delhi Pradesh

>

 

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