The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : In Rajasthan, Muslims face a dilemma

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Tuesday, Apr 06, 2004

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National - Elections 2004

In Rajasthan, Muslims face a dilemma

JAIPUR

Rajasthan's Muslims face a dilemma when it comes to the elections this time. While tactical voting as a strategy to maximise political gains has worked for them in the past, it is not likely to pay dividends this time with the Congress voted out of power in the recent Assembly elections in the State. .

The Muslims, who constitute 11.3 per cent of the desert State's population, face a difficult problem: how to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from winning the parliamentary elections while ensuring that "non-communal and secular" candidates romp home. The community finds it difficult to make a choice, which is both discreet and viable.

The conspicuous absence of Muslim candidates in the lists announced so far by both the Congress and BJP — the principal contenders in the electoral battle — is the topic of heated discussions among Muslim social organisations and political groups, as well as in informal gatherings across the State. Muslim voters are not flattered either by the likelihood of the Congress fielding a Muslim candidate from Ajmer.

Such is the disenchantment with the election campaign that there is hardly any sign of mobilisation of the community for exercising its franchise. This is in sharp contrast to the Assembly elections of 2003, when the State unit of the All India Milli Council launched a campaign in 20 districts with an appeal to Muslims to vote en masse in favour of the Congress candidates.

"The situation is different this time. The Muslims' vote is no more relevant to the main business of politics. The Congress has taken the community for granted," Abdul Qayoom Akhtar, the Milli Council's State general secretary, points out. There is hardly any scope for tactical voting in the absence of a strong third force, he says, referring to the "unknown faces" of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in the fray.

The perceptible disillusionment of the Muslims with the Congress is likely to result in a poor turnout on polling day. Despite having voted for the Congress in the Assembly elections, a wave of dissatisfaction has swept across all sections of the community — artisans, labourers, craftsmen, daily wage-earners, religious preachers and the intelligentsia.

"In the five years of Congress rule in the State, the party could only boast of providing physical security to Muslims. It took no action for their social, economic or educational development," says Irshad Hussain, a dhaba owner in a crowded Muslim locality in the Walled City here. At the national level too, Muslims have their reservations against the Congress.

Though the Muslim organisations in the State, such as the Rajasthan Muslim Forum, the Jamat-e-Islami Hind and the Milli Council, are worried about the possibility of the secular vote getting divided, they are unable to come up with a strategy to prevent this from happening. The Milli Council's recent call to the secular forces to close ranks and defeat the BJP found few takers in Rajasthan.

The Muslim electorate has a significant presence in about a dozen Lok Sabha constituencies in the State. However, in the prevailing scenario of dejection and discontent with Congress, the BJP is likely to reap the benefit of the Muslims staying away from the polls.

The Muslims are also apprehensive that the BJP-led Government in the State, which has so far refrained from scuttling the minority institutions, would implement its "real agenda" after the general elections are over.

Mohammed Iqbal

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