why-are-some-muslims-hostile-towards-pm-modi

The Bharatiya Janata Party in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular are being criticised for “trying to polarise” the Indian voters. 

The Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) opposition, has succeeded in building up a narrative suggesting that both the BJP and Modi were trying to polarise voters.

Prime Minister’s Rajasthan speech where he made certain references to the Congress manifesto is being cited as an example. But the opposition was accusing the BJP and Modi of polarisation for a long time.
 

The BJP needs to own up the blame, and if it can still make some corrections, for letting the Congress build up “polarisation” as a counter-narrative to BJP’s “nationalism” plank.

Whether it was overconfidence and complacency on the part of the BJP or its failure to realise the impact of the Congress counter-narrative against nationalism.

For the Congressmen of today, let it be remembered that over 90 per cent of Muslims treated the Indian National Congress as a “Communal Hindu Organisation” before partition and sided with the Indian National Muslim League headed by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. History is repeating itself. Like the Congress was accused of being communal and fascist then, the BJP is accused now. The script is so much similar.

What is the BJP really “guilty” of? It has abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution of India. The Article was temporary and could have been repealed over time. It is also a fact that Article 370 had nourished the secessionist and separatist feelings in some sections of the Kashmiri population and the result was outright insurgency backed by Pakistan and fuelled by religious extremism.

Second, the BJP brought the Citisen Amendment Act (CAA), which would allow the persecuted Hindu and Sikh population of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to get Indian citizenship. The Congress maligned and demonised the law as “anti-Muslim”.

Narrative was built up to the extent that the Muslim community living in India for generations, was made to believe that it “will” be thrown out of the country. Nothing could be further from the truth than interpreting the CAA like that. CAA only enables the persecuted minorities living in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to get Indian citizenship.

Isn’t it a fact that the Hindu, Sikh and even Christian minority communities are brutally persecuted in these countries? Check the population record of Hindus as what it was in 1947 and what it is now.

Hindus and Sikhs are gradually being cleansed out of Pakistan, while they have almost been cleansed out of Afghanistan and momentum is picking up in Bangladesh also.

The third reason is the construction and opening up of the ‘Ram Mandir’ in Ayodhya. The Congress for the obvious reason of not antagonising the majority community did not oppose the construction and opening of the temple now, although it had opposed it in the past, but the party conveyed enough signals that it did not favour the construction or the opening.

The Congress leaders declined the invite for the inaugural ceremony. The message of the Congress, as for whom it was aimed, was not lost on anyone.

Why should anyone, particularly Congress have any objections to any or all of these three things? How does any of these lead to polarisation in the country? Why should anyone have any objection to the abrogation of Article 370, the introduction of the CAA or the opening up of the Ram Mandir? Opposing these actually leads to polarisation.

Thousands of mosques are constructed across the country every year, does anyone object? Take the data of the number of mosques in India in 1947 and compare it with the number of mosques in 2024.

There will be a pattern that the number has phenomenally increased. The same is the case with the population both in terms of numbers and the total percentage and proportion in the country.

And still, some opposition parties will make everyone believe that Muslims are a persecuted community in India more so under the BJP.

The trick does seem to have worked for the opposition parties in India. The Muslim community across the country has made it abundantly clear that its vote is only for “defeating the BJP”. That means they have an innate aversion to the BJP. Nobody would force anyone to vote for anyone in particular. Right to franchise is fine. Even voting with some intent, whatever it may be, is equally fine. But proclaiming that someone is voting “against someone in particular” is only borne out of hatred.

No prominent Muslim leader has opposed or objected to the narrative of “voting against BJP/Modi”. Rather most of them have publicly proclaimed in a not-so-subtle manner that the community should vote for anyone who can “defeat the BJP”. Here starts the problem and the polarisation. It is not the BJP or Modi who are polarising people.

It is this type of rhetoric “against BJP/Modi” that leads to polarisation and nobody talks about it. The blame is laid the other way around.

Such “hateful hostility” towards a party that is supported by about 40 per cent of Indians is unacceptable. When you baselessly accuse a party, that is the choice of the majority of Indians, of being “dictatorial, communal and fascist”, you in a way are indirectly accusing those crores of Indians who have voted for the party.

The opposition parties, the Congress, in particular, must also not contribute towards this polarising debate by creating baseless insecurities among the Muslims. Muslims will do well by not allowing themselves to be used as a “vote bank” which can be swayed merely with anti-BJP and anti-Modi rhetoric, rather a few words like “anti-Muslim and fascists”.

This is the time for the Muslim community in India to realise and understand that the “idea of BJP” is integral to the idea of India. BJP and the RSS are deeply rooted in India’s socio-political culture.

They must not commit the same mistake, that their community members did prior to partition. Nobody forces them to support the BJP. They have every right to oppose the BJP. But exhibiting “hateful hostility” towards the BJP is avoidable, which they must. 

Let us not forget that the Muslim League, before partition, used to describe and believe the Congress as a “Communal Hindu organisation” and more than 90 per cent of Muslims supported the Muslim League.

And this was the Congress that had leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, who sacrificed his life for Hindu-Muslim unity and Jawaharlal Nehru, who stood firm to ensure that India remained officially a secular country.

The consequences of that thinking and mindset are before everyone. Those encouraging that mindset once again, should be aware of it, lest history repeats itself.