Party believe in upliftement not representation?
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Abdul Hafiz Lakhani / Ahmedabad
Finally ruling BJP announced their candidates for 182 assembly seats in Gujarat. Despite its claim of SAB KA SATH, SAB KA VIKAS, the party has not given any tickets to Muslim workers.
Defending party stand BJP Muslim leaders and sympathizers say their party believes in upliftement of the community. They have no specific words on the community non-representation in the state assembly.
BJP sympathizers and close aid of Prime Minister Modi and VC Of MANNU, Hyderabad, Zafar Sareshwala turned the table towards congress saying it always loved the vote bank and not the Muslims. “They were giving tickets to Muslim candidates so there were more representatives in the Assembly, whereas BJP never made bone of it”.
He added that the Sachar Committee report says that Muslims never progressed in the Congress
regime, whereas there were fewer representatives in the Assembly in the past 16 years, but the community progressed a lot.
Sareshwala said that “numbers do not make a difference”. He said that from 2012-17, in the UP Assembly, there were 73 MLAs from the community, but the status of Muslims in the state was the worst. It is important that no one should be used, abused or discriminated.
Endorsing the view, BJP’s minority cell chairman Sufi MK Chisty said, though there is no Muslim from his party yet, in the past one and half decades, Muslims have progressed in the state. He claimed that the per capita income of the community has increased, so has the literacy rate. Employment has also grown.
Political developments in the past three decades have reshaped state in a big way. The cash rich and socially powerful community is demanding a lion’s share in power, whereas Muslims, who constitute 9.67 per cent of the population, have been marginalised in the Assembly.
Congress that claimed to be secular and has been known to be generous with the Muslims has allotted mere six tickets to Muslim candidates. There was a time when it used to field at least 12 to 15 Muslim candidates.
This is not the only reason for the dwindling Muslim representation in the Assembly. There was a time when people from other communities and religions were candidates, as society was not vertically divided as it is today. Even with seats like Thasara, Gandhinagar, Balasinor, Palitana, Muslim candidates have been elected to the Assembly, where Muslims were thin in number.
Political analysts say that after 1985, society was polarised. Major events like Ram Rathyatra, Babri demolition, post demolition riots in 1992, Godhra carnage and 2002 riots and Sachar committee report added fuel. Voters from before 1985 were voting for Muslim candidates because they committed to the society and their services were appreciated. That has become a thing of the past.
Sociologist Parvez Abbasi’s experience says that voters have started losing faith in their elected leaders as they never represented them in the Assembly. They lost the connection with the grass roots. This is happening with all representatives. Now, representatives have created an elitist club for them after getting elected. If representatives were honestly taking up issues Patidars would not be on agitating on streets. Same is the complaint of members of the minority community. Caste or religion are used only for vote banks.
Abbasi believes that numbers of representative don’t help much, it is qualitative representations and government intention that helps a community progress and grow. If representatives are elected in good numbers, but the party is in opposition, it will have zero impact, especially in a time when the ruling party members are also alleging of not being heard.
Congress’ minority community cell chairman Gulabkhan Rauma said that the Congress was the only party that gave a platform to Muslims in the state. During the Congress regime, the community never had to complain about scholarships not released or funds not allotted for restoration of religious places, which was common during the BJP regime.
According to Gulabkhan, the minority cell never represented a party for a ticket. When an aspiring candidate demands a ticket, the party gives it to him if it feels that he or she will win it. The fact is that the number of Muslim representatives has gone down because of polarisation in the society. The BJP is responsible for it.
The other reason given for the declining numbers of Muslim representatives in the Assembly is delimitation. There has been a consistent effort to reduce Muslim presence in the society and government by bureaucrats to ensure that Muslim dominance in a constituency is reduced, said Congress councillor Shahnawaz Abdul Rehman Shaikh.
He claimed that there were 25 seats in the state, in which Muslims have 40 to 50 per cent vote share. In 68 seats, Muslim vote share is 10 to 12 per cent. Yet their numbers is on a decline.
Notably, the polarisation is to such an extent that the Congress is now hesitating to give tickets to Muslims even for constituency which has a sizeable population of the community, for example in Kalupur, Bharuch, Godhra, Surat (west & east), Somnath and Jamnagar. Hindus have got tickets for these seats.
There was a time when voters elected Muslim candidates from Wankaner, Jamnagar, Kalupur, Jamalpur, Gandhinagar, Godhra, Thasara, Bharuch and Surat (west). With time, polarisation and delimitation brought the number down and now, Muslims are elected from Wankaner, Jamalpur, Kalupur, Dariyarpur, Vagra. The Congress is also very selective on fielding Muslim candidates. Even with seats like Kalupur, Surat (west) and Bharuch, Muslim candidates don’t get tickets now.
Congress’s candidate for Dariyapur seat and two time MLA Gayassudin Shaikh alleged that BJP does not want to see a Muslim MLA in Gujarat Assembly, for that it has encouraged many Muslims to stand as independents in Muslim dominated seats. Even AAP and Janvikap morcha were working as BJP B team.