New Delhi: Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs – MJ Akbar, Syed Zafar Islam and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who are also ministers in the Union Council, will have no Muslim representative in the Rajya Sabha after their term ends in June. -july.
Akbar, who was also the junior minister of foreign affairs until October 2018, will retire on June 29, and Islam and Naqvi will retire on July 4 and 7 respectively.
In the Lok Sabha, Mehboob Ali Kaiser of the Lok Jan Shakti Party is the only Muslim representative of the NDA.
According to the 2011 census, Muslims constitute a little over 14% of the population.
While the absence of Muslim faces is seen as under-representation of the minority community in the party, BJP leaders say that not giving tickets to Muslims to contest elections in the Assembly and Parliament is not a reflection of the party’s policies.
“The law cannot be stopped or passed just because of the support of one community, you need the support of different parties,” a BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity.
The leader said the separation between the party and the community, which is manifested by the lack of electoral representation, can also be attributed to the lack of response from the minority community.
“Since there is no backlash, the party has decided to end tokenism and focus on its core constituents.”
A second BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said that the party does not follow a policy of boycott, and blamed the situation on a narrative that its political opponents have woven over the years, which, according to them, allow Muslims to themselves. Keeps distance from Celebration. “There is a sense of alienation… and it has strengthened over the years. None of the policies of the Modi government can be faulted for being anti-Muslim, but did the community give up its apprehension and dislike for the party? Is?” The leader asked.
The BJP, which won 303 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, won West Bengal with only Khan. In 2014 also, the party had given tickets to two Muslim candidates in West Bengal, one each in Lakshadweep and Bihar and three in Jammu and Kashmir, but none of these candidates were elected.
Another BJP leader claimed that though the number of Muslim MPs increased from 22 in the 16th Lok Sabha to 27 in the 17th, the overall trend shows that other parties are also weighing their choices.
“It is a myth that the BJP is somehow responsible for the under-representation or lack of representation of Muslims in electoral politics. If you only want to take up the matter of Lok Sabha, the representation has been more or less the same time. In 1952 they were about 4% Muslims in the Lok Sabha, this trend continued for a few years and in 1980 this figure increased to 9%. But then it started declining again and hovered between 5 to 6%,” said another leader.
He further said that even “so-called secular parties” like the Congress have given fewer tickets to Muslim candidates over the years. “One should also take a look at regional parties; Barring the Samajwadi Party and TMC, which count Muslims as an important vote bank, most other parties have also given nominal representation to Muslims.
BJP’s Minority Morcha national president Jamal Siddiqui said that the party does not believe in propaganda of vote bank politics. “The country’s first education minister was a Muslim, yet look at the level of literacy among the community. To assume that a person from a particular community is in a position of power, will only work for the betterment of that community, is wrong. When the minister When they take oath of office, they take a pledge to serve all and this is also at the core of Modi government’s governance mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.
What its critics call anti-minority sentiment, the BJP claims it is the opposite of appeasement. Addressing the media on Monday, party president JP Nadda, while addressing the media on Monday, said the party believes in “justice for all and appeasement of none”.
The BJP is attempting to form an alliance of Hindu castes with its ideological mentor, the RSS, and the “not appeasement, not token” sentiment is seen as an attempt to keep its flock of supporters close.
Sanjay Kumar of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies said that the BJP is clear in giving the message that it is not interested in appeasement of minorities. “…and when I say minority, I mean Muslims. The party does not see the absence of a Muslim representative as a move that will make a mark nationally or internationally. On the contrary, it is their main support. Will help strengthen the base.”
