Truth beneath India’s poll results

Sirajuddin Qureshi, president of Indian Islamic Cultural Center made an interesting observation on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) recent electoral victory. “Muslims in large numbers came out and voted for BJP,” said Qureshi whose rags-to-riches success story has enthralled young and old alike in India and across the globe.
Being engaged in philanthropic activities for decades, Qureshi undoubtedly wields extraordinary influence within the Muslim community and knows the ground realities more than anybody else. But unfortunately, statistics flies in the face of his contention that the gap between Muslims and BJP exists no more. If it was true, how come none of BJP’s Muslim candidates, including the three-time parliamentarian Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, came out victorious? The truth is, minorities — especially Muslims — have overwhelmingly rejected the BJP despite all the big talk of the party getting popular support from them.
Had the minority populace been so enamored with Narendra Modi’s charm and poll-promises, why would they shun the BJP’s Muslim candidates in constituencies with sizeable percentage of minority vote share? Besides, the BJP has pledged in its election manifesto to construct a temple at the site of the destroyed Babri Mosque if they are voted to power with single majority.
“We wanted to come in such large number that the temple is also built subsequently and no one dares to bring the temple down” is exactly what Ashok Singhal, leader of BJP’s sister organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had stated at a victory function organized by a corporate bigwig recently. Are we to believe that the Muslim community is wholeheartedly backing BJP’s communal agenda in spite of being at the receiving end of threats and coercion from Hindutva activists for far too long?
The fact of the matter is, despite getting lesser seats in its kitty, the Congress party received the support of 44 percent Muslims — up from 33 percent that it consistently secured since 1996. It is a clear indication of polarization of Muslim votes toward the Congress at the national level. Interestingly, in BJP ruled states like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where the BJP and Congress are engaged in a bipolar contest, Muslim vote share of the Congress touched as high as 90 percent this election. Perhaps, those who are out to create a deliberate hype of the BJP having secured bipartisan support needs to be reminded that for the first time in independent India’s history, a party with absolute majority will not be represented by a member of the Muslim community in the hallowed hall of Lok Sabha — the lower house of Parliament.
Political pundits are not surprised because Muslims constituted less than two percent of BJP’s fielded candidates — 7 out of 482 in absolute terms. Given this reality, Qureshi’s words sounded like an empty flattery. He unfortunately ended up appeasing Modi rather than asking the man of the moment to genuinely become the prime minister of all Indians irrespective of caste, creed or religion. Qureshi’s eagerness to set one foot in the Hindutva boat reminded this author of a prophetic statement made by a senior political personality, who was also a decorated freedom fighter himself, during a private conversation. He believed that unrestrained rise of Hindutva politics will lead us to a time when the minority populace’s desire for opportunity will be replaced by a longing for security under a majoritarian government.
The gentleman feared that the minorities would be compelled to make critical adjustments, in contravention of their personal belief and ultimately renounce secularism. Perhaps, no metaphor describes present day India better than these feelings that came straight out of the heart of this revered freedom fighter.
Given India’s transition from a participatory to majoritarian democracy, it is imperative to remind the patriotic minority citizens that the 2014 election might be historic, but that history is of a different mode. Let us not lose sight of the fact that a publicity blitzkrieg worth millions of dollars have fetched only 31 percent support for BJP — the lowest ever vote share in Indian electoral history for a party to secure absolute majority. Moreover, the BJP could not attract more than 39 percent of young first-time voters despite the Modi-euphoria and blatant partisanship displayed by the media, corporate sector and a large section of the Indian expatriate community.
To obtain bipartisan legitimacy, Modi desperately wanted the South Asian leadership’s presence at his oath-taking ceremony notwithstanding problems with protocol. That the nation was blinded by Modi-paranoia can be ascertained from our inability to see through the incongruence in electoral outcome. Is it not unusual for the BJP to achieve a high strike rate — two out of three fielded candidates won on an average — with less than a third of Indians voting for it? True, Indian electoral system rewards parties that are the largest in each electoral district. But even the minority government of Narasimha Rao in 1991 enjoyed 38.2 percent of vote share.
So was there a rigging of electronic voting machine in reverse form, as BJP’s Dr. Subramanian Swamy had claimed before election that the Congress was manipulating these gadgets to stay in power by hook or by crook? Whatever the reasons for this aberration, there is no denying that Indian democracy was defeated in this election — not because the BJP is in power but because the first citizen has preferred to disenfranchise himself willingly to maintain neutrality.
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Seema Sengupta is a Kolkata-based journalist and columnist.
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