By Sushil Kutty
The true story is buried in the creases and folds of the Janata Dal (U) and the Telugu Desam Party. What coerced them to dump their loyal Muslim vote-banks and align with the “Muslim-hating” Bharatiya Janata Party in amending the Waqf bill? There is no guarantee Muslims (even the Pasmanda!) will hereafter, after the passage of the amended Act, vote for the BJP (and its allies!) in a sense of gratitude. Also, why weren’t these Muslims voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the first place?
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu owe explanations to Muslims who voted for their parties; the same Muslims who refused to touch the BJP with a barge pole even after pocketing ‘Awas’ and ‘Ujawala’ and what have you not!
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his quest for ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ tried every scheme in his bag of tricks to lure the Muslim, but always failed to get the average Muslim, forget the ‘privileged Ashraf’, to vote for the BJP. Modi is on record that Muslims will never vote for the BJP. He specifically asked “party MPs and ministers” to keep “talking to Muslim voters”, regardless.
Who doesn’t know of the Uttar Pradesh village of “542 Muslim families”, all of which got PM Awas Yojana houses but not a single one of them voted for the BJP, Muslims who despised the BJP and took the “awas” as a right and not as a bribe to vote for the BJP! Brings us to the question, “What was driving Prime Minister Narendra and the BJP up the garden path?”
The outpouring of BJP love for the Muslim had to be seen to be believed! Would Modi call it “watershed moment”? “Meelkapathar” is more like it for the party of the “baniya and the brahmin.” The Hindu-nationalist BJP has morphed into a pale version of the candidly clear “Muslim-loving secular party.”
And, curious though it might sound, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “watershed moment” coincided with President Donald John Trump’s momentous ‘US Liberation Day’, cementing the belief that vainglorious men always lay claim to personal infallibility.
Henceforth, everybody will be watched! From Modi to Trump. From Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin to Congress LoP Rahul Gandhi, for both of whom getting the Muslims to vote to avenge the Waqf loss will be the biggest achievement of their careers. From Nitish Kumar to Chandrababu Naidu.
Numerous politicians like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar too will face the test of their political lives. They’re all back to square one with the safe passage of the Waqf amendments. In fact, winning the Muslim trust back will be one tall mountain to climb for almost every second secular politician worth his bitter salt.
Especially, when the Muslims themselves are a demoralized and defeated debacle in their heads and hearts. Amit Shah made it clear in the Lok Sabha that the BJP will rule for “three more terms” and the braggadocio “wait, and we’ll show you” was common to both sides. Shah’s warning that those who dared to deny the amended Waqf Act would be severely dealt with wasn’t an empty threat.
The amended Waqf Act will forever be a symbol of “at your own peril.” The “Muslim Street Veto” is no more. AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi tearing up a copy of the “Wakf Amendment Bill” was his last show of temper even as Owaisi will be in the thick of the crosshair of the amended Wakf Act.
The amended Waqf Act might be an anachronism doled out in the twin houses of Parliament, “my way or the highway” clothed in subterfuge and why did Nitish Kumar all of a sudden go off-kilter? The question returns to what kind of coercion compelled Janata Dal (U) and TDP to vote for the Waqf amendments despite warnings they stood to lose Muslim votes? The upcoming Bihar assembly elections will tell the story.
It is hard to believe the Muslim vote has now split down the middle; a fallout of the amendments made to the Waqf bill? Is this another “watershed moment”? Did the BJP with its brand of appeasement succeed in playing one section of Muslims against another section of Muslims, divide and profit? Aren’t Muslims the famed “unified in Ummah”?
While on this latest assault on Muslim matters, don’t forget the BJP never gives “MP and MLA tickets” to Muslim politicians. So, there must be another reason why certain Muslim leaders were compelled to toe the BJP line, what could that reason be? What about the all-powerful pull of the Muslim holy book, which binds all Muslims together?
If Modi’s welfare schemes and freebies could not get Muslims to toe the BJP line, why would the Waqf amendments succeed? Is it that the Waqf amendments promise something substantial than 5 kilos of rice, dal and atta? What about ‘Gazwa-e-Hind’; will the Pasmanda and the Sufi and the Shia and the various other denominations of the Islamic world forget the long-term goal for the short-term expediency?
Let’s not also forget that the buck stops in the Sangh Parivar at the RSS Sanghchalak’s door, who has his own plan for Indian Muslims as well as for Indian Hindus and the BJP is working to the RSS plan. PM Modi posted on X: “The passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill and the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal)…marks a watershed moment in our collective quest for socio-economic justice, transparency and inclusive growth.”
“Transparency and accountability” were two bywords of the debates. But to many Hindus, the BJP’s love for Muslims was hard to stomach. It must have also rattled hundreds of thousands of allegedly impoverished Muslims watching from their hovels in the ghettos strewn across the length and breadth of India that is Bharat.
The BJP’s sudden display of love for the Muslim is one for Ripley’s ‘Believe It Or Not!’ INDIA bloc parties have called the amendments “anti-Muslim” and “unconstitutional.” Prime Minister Modi says the amended Act will build “a stronger, more inclusive and more compassionate India.” Modi lives in a comfort zone and cannot shove ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ down every Indian throat. Where he should have taken decisive action, he amended. In the process, he alienated two sets of people, hardcore adherents to each their cause, with his notorious ambivalence. As always it is in the character of the man! (IPA Service)
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