Why Muslims feel besieged

Muslims worry that the Opposition’s palpable fear of annoying Hindus might deter it from promoting the community’s legitimate interests. Representation Pic

Muslims will measure from tomorrow's election results the depth to which the hatred against them has plummeted. An outright victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party would mean a frighteningly substantial segment of Indians have bought into the party's merciless demonisation of Muslims. It will have them shudder over their future in the Republic. Even a hung Lok Sabha will not reduce their fears about their diminishing status as citizens.

The demonisation of Muslims in the 2024 elections was altogether of another order. They were othered not for their cultural practices or dietary choices, or for being progenies of Muslim rulers who demolished temples - for the first time, Muslims were othered for ostensibly benefiting from reservation at the expense of Hindu subaltern groups.

Worryingly, it was none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi who stoked the fears of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes that without him helming the country, Muslims will gobble up their share of government jobs and seats in educational institutes reserved for them. In this context, he projected the grant of minority status to educational institutes as a Congress ploy to deprive the SCs, STs and OBCs of their quotas in order to benefit Muslims. Minority institutes are exempted from providing reservation to Hindu social groups.

Weeks before the general election was announced, the Modi government supported the challenge to the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University in the Supreme Court, which has reserved its judgment in the case. Jamia Millia Islamia will perhaps be the BJP's next target, for Modi cited it as an example of institutions where reservation for Hindu subaltern groups was "eliminated."

It would seem India is being nudged into thinking that every seat a Muslim occupies in an educational institute is one seat less for Hindus. This is a scary prospect for Muslims, who are now ranked last among all communities on employment and education indicators.

No less worrying was Modi's bewildering charge that INDIA would carve out a subquota for Muslims from the larger OBC reservation pool. This system, in fact, already exists in some states. In Tamil Nadu, there is a 3.5 per cent subquota for backward caste Muslims. In Kerala and Karnataka, all Muslims are categorised as OBC on the ground that they are largely converts from lower castes. In both these states, they have a subquota of their own.

It would seem Modi raked up the Muslim subquota issue to trigger the anxieties of voters in north India, where OBC Muslims and OBC Hindus compete for the OBC reservation. In no north Indian state do OBC Muslims have a subquota of their own. The subcategorisation of OBC and Dalit communities - which involves splitting them into subgroups and granting each a quota - ensures a handful of relatively better off castes do not appropriate all gains of reservation. For instance, a separate subquota for Muslims in south India guarantees them a minimal representation.

Modi himself is not opposed to sub-categorisation. During his first tenure, he appointed the Rohini Commission to sub-categorise the central list of OBCs. Can, then, Muslims be faulted for believing that Modi opposes a subquota for OBC Muslims, let alone for the entire community, only because of their faith? This thought deeply upsets them.

Academics Christophe Jaffrelot and Kalaiyarasan A have argued for granting reservation to the entire Muslim community, based on their finding that the difference in the per capita income between OBC and upper caste Muslims is just four per cent, against the 64 per cent difference on the same ground between OBC Hindus and upper caste Hindus. The Supreme Court, in Indra Sawhney, said there is no constitutional bar on providing reservation for the entire Muslim community in any state as long as it is determined that they are socially and educationally backward.

Muslims know an exercise to determine this is impossible to carry out during the high tide of Hindutva. Worse, a BJP majority might be a harbinger of the SCs, STs and OBCs coming around to believing that every reserved job for a Muslim is a job less for them. A sense of foreboding haunts them.

A hung Lok Sabha or an improbable Opposition victory will not annul the anxieties of Muslims. They have seen the constituents of the Opposition field fewer Muslim candidates in this election than before, in the hope of obviating Hindu consolidation. Muslims do understand the Opposition's compulsion, yet they also worry that the Opposition's palpable fear of annoying Hindus might deter it from promoting the community's
legitimate interests.

Indeed, in the contrasting fates of Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, the fears and anxieties of Muslims are best grasped. Both were booked for sedition in 2016. Not only has Kumar left his past behind, he has emerged as an important youth Congress leader, handpicked by Rahul Gandhi to contest in the election. Khalid's fate has worsened since 2016: booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a case widely considered dubious, he has been languishing in jail for nearly four years now. Seldom has an Opposition leader spoken for him. Khalid being in jail is a trope for the Muslim community under siege.

The writer is a senior journalist.
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