August 24, 1998

The party's brief fling with Muslims appears to be souring, though a few loyalists remain committed.

By Saba Naqvi Bhaumik

For most Indian Muslims, being in the BJP is akin to supping with the devil. That is why Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, minister of state for information and broadcasting, frequently gives interviews that carry the headline: "I am a Muslim ..." The awkward baggage of being the odd representative of the minority community in a party famous for the chest-thumping slogan, "Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain (Say with pride that we are Hindus)".

In the pre-election euphoria early this year, several Muslims joined the BJP, including former Congress MPs like Aslam Sher Khan and Abrar Ahmed. Muslim party workers were routinely paraded at the BJP headquarters, the party held a convention for Muslim youth, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee often posed with a skull cap at iftar parties. The idea was to soften some hard edges so that the minorities didn't vote tactically against the BJP.

But the hype has suddenly evaporated. Ahmed recently returned to the Congress, charging the BJP with working against minority interests. The Rajasthan-based Ahmed can be accused of political opportunism as Congress fortunes are perceived to be on the upswing in the state where assembly polls are due later this year. Similarly, the disillusion of Aslam Sher Khan, who went public with a letter charging the BJP with not keeping its promises to the community, is understandable. He was clearly disappointed at not getting a ticket from Madhya Pradesh and also for being ignored once the party came to power. "I had the impression the BJP wanted to project credible Muslim faces. I was wrong," he says. "Besides, there were several Muslim workers who joined the party and have not yet got any opportunity."

Combine this with the growing communal polarisation in Gujarat and the BJP's brief fling with the minority community appears to have soured. The visit of the Minority Commission to the state to investigate allegations of attacks on Christians and Muslims served to further vitiate the atmosphere last week. While the VHP and Bajrang Dal boycotted the commission, the state Congress used the visit to score some political points. "The dangerous aspect is that the government machinery is working as an agency of the Sangh organisations," said Irshad Mirza of the Congress.

One of the Sangh Parivar's charges against the Muslim community in Gujarat is that its men seduce, kidnap or coerce hapless Hindu girls into marriage and conversion. Recently, the elopement of two tribal girls with Muslim boys led to violence in Randhikpur village; VHP retaliation forced the entire community to abandon the village. It is an article of faith with the VHP that while Christians indulge in open proselytisation, Muslims follow the insidious route of marriage and conversion.

There is subtle irony in the fact that to prove its point the VHP need look no further than the BJP. There is an interesting commonality between Naqvi, Industry Minister Sikander Bakht and Muzaffar Khan, a prominent member of the BJP in West Bengal. All three are married to Hindus. Muzaffar Khan does not consider himself an oddball in an overtly Hindu party. "The BJP is a family of people from all faiths," he says, adding, "I celebrate Id and Durga Puja with equal fervour."

Bakht is equally proud of his family's mixed marriages. Son Anil is married to a Kashmiri Pandit and son Sunil to a Sikh. "We are an Indian family." The Urdu-spouting Bakht remains an intriguing contradiction. The elegance of his language can shame many heavyweight Muslim leaders. Yet, he does not bat an eyelid before declaring, "If this was not a Hindu-dominated country, I would be living in a theocratic state." At the same time, Bakht blames hard-line Hindu groups for riots in old Delhi during his marriage in 1952. "I know that it was the same VHP-Bajrang Dal that was behind that violence. Today, Bakht reserves most of his ire for those who call him a BJP puppet. "Was Maulana Azad not called a showboy of the Hindus?" he asks.

Naqvi too is at peace in the saffron world. It is the outside world that threatens him. He has been roughed up several times in Muslim localities. "It takes a while for a BJP Muslim to be accepted," he says ruefully. There was opposition from his family too, particularly during the Ayodhya movement. But the never-say-die Naqvi did not fault in his kar seva and remains as committed to the cause as any RSS cadre.

The newcomers, however, distance themselves from the Hindutva agenda. Says Aslam Khan: "If the BJP is the political wing, it has to follow the writ of the people, not the Parivar." Aslam Khan, following his recent meeting with L.K. Advani, appears inclined to stay in the party. As he says, "In the Congress there are so many Muslims. Here I am still an exception."

The most intriguing is the case of Captain Ayub Khan, former MP from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. After being refused a Congress ticket, he almost joined the BJP till last-minute opposition by the state unit left him ticketless. Ayub Khan is still vacillating between the two parties, and will probably end up with whoever fields him from the seat he has won twice. Bakht speaks out strongly against such blatant party hopping: "Let them first work for the BJP and then covet tickets and posts."

However, there is one thing on which all the Muslims in the BJP are in total agreement: the party's Minority Cell should be abolished. "It is utter stupidity, I dislike its existence," says Bakht. Naqvi calls it "tokenism". Aslam Khan says he is opposed to such cells as they suggest Muslims are separate from the mainstream.

As separate, perhaps, as the Muslims in the BJP, who are clearly swimming against the tide in their own community. Bakht says he has often spoken against the Minority Cell, but adds revealingly, "I am not a strong voice in the party."

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