Opinion - News Analysis

'Fatwa' politics is not the answer

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI MAY 3. A report from Lucknow speaks of attempts being made to get a "fatwa'' issued against the Muslim legislators of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The reason for this exertion is reported to be the BSP leader, Mayawati's joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a government in Uttar Pradesh. The immediate provocation to "ex-communicate" these Muslims MLAs is the failure of the BJP Government to protect the minorities in Gujarat.

Reprehensible indeed is the Modi Government's connivance, and even sponsorship, of violence against the minorities; but the invocation of religious figures and religious instruments cannot possibly be the most ideal way to preserve the secular fabric. The protection of lives and liberty of all sections of society is a Constitutional promise, and is a matter of concern and contention between civil society and the government of the day. The religious forums and religious sanctions of any kind have no role in matters between the state and the citizens. This is the basic lesson learnt in Punjab.

According to newspaper reports, a body called "the Muslim Forum'' has urged the social boycott of these MLAs because their association with the BJP is "anti-Islamic''. This call for a "fatwa'' raises serious issues for all genuine secular voices. The call for a "fatwa'' may be a sign of desperation by the Muslim community over its helplessness in Gujarat, but a temporary roadblock cannot become an excuse for introducing a religious by-pass.

It is not yet clear whether this invocation of religious sanction of social boycott is at the instance of the Samajwadi Party or other political rivals of the BSP-BJP axis. Nonetheless, the sane and sober elements within the polity cannot be seen as countenancing the involvement of religious institutional personalities in matters legislative and political. The Narendra Modis, the Advanis and the Arun Jaitleys cannot be defeated by an alliance with the most unenlightened functionaries of the Muslim community. The secular voices cannot allow their fury over the BJP's complicity in the Gujarat carnage to blind themselves to the dangers of "fatwa'' in legislative alignments.

It would, for example, be in order if a charge of political opportunism were to be made against Ms. Mayawati. But this is not the first time that the BSP leader is opting for a course that many consider as sheer opportunism; nor would it be the last time. Nor, it must be noted in all fairness to the BSP leader, has Ms. Mayawati kept the electorate in any doubt about her highly individualistic approach to conventional moral correctness. But the correctives would have to be provided by the political leaders and parties, not by imams or mullahs or muftis.

Ms. Mayawati has, to her credit, cobbled together a Dalit-Muslim alliance; this kind of social "pact'', even if inspired only by electoral considerations, can be a useful antidote to the communalism of the majority community. In fact, it can be argued that had there been a Mayawati in Gujarat, perhaps Mr. Modi's calculations could have been easily thwarted.

And, if attempts are now to be made to incite the Muslim clergy to create a divide between the Dalits and the Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, this could only help advance the communalists' divisive agenda.

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Stories in this Section

• A balancing act
• The voter's right to know
• A different summit
• Food security
• Communal raj and criminal society
• Use of Article 355
• 'Fatwa' politics is not the answer
• Tough, persistent
• Questions for home
• Parade them
• Not BJP alone
• Hidden agenda
• Self-defeating
• Contradictions

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