Understanding AIMIMs rise: Muslim voters have rejected the counterfeit liberalism of secular parties – Economic Times

The spectacular, but not totally unexpected, electoral success of Asaduddin Owaisis party, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), in Bihar has been linked directly to the erosion of tolerance and pluralism under the Modi regime. The sense of unease in left-liberal circles over the rise of AIMIM is best reflected by the label Muslim BJP. The phrase is for most parts intended to warn fellow travellers against the pitfalls of rooting for a for, by and of Muslims party a mirror image of the Hindu BJP.

But thats not the only reason for hyphenating AIMIM with BJP. The moniker is a dog whistle aimed at elevating anxieties about minority alienation arising from BJPs perceived majoritarianism. It is as if to suggest that if it were not for BJP and its emphasis on a muscular Hindu majoritarianism Muslims would not have been persuaded to vote for AIMIM.

But is this a reasonable inference? Has Indias tolerant pluralism not been challenged in the past by Sikh, Kashmiri, Tamil, Maratha and Naga chauvinism? Didnt each of these sub-nationalisms spawn political parties whose appeal for votes would subvert laws discouraging sectarianism? These movements, after all, preceded what historian Romila Thapar has called the syndicated Hinduism under BJP. Indeed, are the authors of the Hindu BJP appellation in a position to say with certitude that a BJP-Mukt Bharat would be any closer to becoming a model inclusive democracy than it is today?

It would be an omission not to concede that power has had a tempering influence upon BJP. As things stand today none of NDAs policy decisions have been struck down as discriminatory by the courts. The decision to nullify the special status given to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370, linked to RSSs divisive Hindutva project, does quite the opposite. It arguably strikes at the very root of sabka saath annulling discrimination in the Kashmir Valley. Even the notification of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, widely described by BJPs ideological opponents as an anti-Muslim legislation, has precedent in similar laws in some of the worlds most established democracies.

NDAs approach to governance since 1998 has shown us that, just like the Christian Democratic parties in Europe that won power, BJP too has moderated its ideology. Today, the party is not just more palatable to voters beyond its upper caste constituency but also open to them.

Some would counter that the party doesnt hand out tickets to Muslims in adequate numbers. However, it was Mohammad Karim Chagla, the first chief justice of the Bombay high court, who remarked, If it is communalism to pass over and ignore a man with merit simply because he happens to be a Muslim or a Christian or a Parsi, it is also communalism to appoint a person merely because he happens to be a Muslim.

In sharp contrast, the inclusivist Congress party has seen its vote bank shrink. Today, as the Bihar elections have demonstrated, even Muslims have begun to break away from Congress, despite its leadership championing secularism and tolerance. For sure, secular parties like Congress have unlocked the key to power for Muslims and other marginalised groups, but have they empowered them?

Sadly, under Congress secularism has become a means to an end: a carrot to dangle in the hope of capturing a vote bank. And from 2004 for ten years UPA dangled many of its own carrots. Harking back to its electorally finessed identity-centric approach to governance UPA contemplated several morally elastic schemes: from batting for minority quotas to exempting minority educational institutions from a mandate to reserve seats for lower castes. There were also attempts at cringe-worthy sentimentalism: one UPA minister went as far as to claim that Congress president Sonia Gandhi reportedly wept bitterly on seeing images of the Batla House encounter site in Delhi where security forces took out alleged Islamist terrorists.

Even the Sachar Committee, set up by UPA Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, concluded that beyond mawkish tokenism very few policies pursued by Congress improved the lives of minorities in India.

It hasnt taken long for Muslims or voters of other denominations to reject the counterfeit liberalism of Congress and some of its ideological bedfellows. AIMIM is but the latest alternative for Muslims to try out. However, as history has taught us, sectarian alternatives often turn out to be insidious and those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Understanding AIMIMs rise: Muslim voters have rejected the counterfeit liberalism of secular parties - Economic Times