With Lok Sabha elections a year away, political parties in Bihar have started preparing their strategies to woo the Muslim community, which forms 17 per cent of the stateтАЩs population, and particularly Pasmanda Muslims, who constitute 80% of the Muslim population of the state.
Aware of their importance, All-India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (AIPMM) has warned more than 50 sub-castes of Muslims to beware of political parties, including BJP, for their sudden love. They have demanded that Dalit Muslims and Christians be included in the scheduled caste (SC) category and reservation for SC category be increased.
Pasmandas demand
Ali Anwar, former Rajya Sabha member from JD-U and founder president of AIPMM, said BJP and other parties have started showing special love for Pasmanda Muslims. тАЬInstead of misleading Pasmanda Muslims, the Narendra Modi government should take necessary action to include Dalit Muslims and Christians in SC category and increase reservations for SCs in jobs and education,тАЭ he said.
The AIPMM, which held a meeting recently in Patna, has warned the weaker Muslim sections about the vote bank politics. тАЬPasmanda Muslims do not support any party blindly. No party should take them for granted,тАЭ said Anwar, who had written a letter to the Prime Minister in July last suggesting that BJPтАЩs тАЬsneh yatrasтАЭ for Pasmanda Muslims тАЬwill prove effective only when communal harmony is maintained in the societyтАЭ.
тАЬEven if the BJP is extending a friendly hand towards Pasmandas for their votes, could you at least take these few steps immediately: There are about a dozen castes within the Pasmanda Muslims such as Halalkhor (scavenger, Bhangi), Muslim washer man, cobbler, Bhatiyara, Gadhedi etc for whom the Sachar Committee and the Ranganath Mishra Commission have recommended SC status. Has your government, in response to a query of the Supreme Court last year, replied it will not accept this recommendation? Will you end this religion-based discrimination by increasing the quota for scheduled castes?тАЭ Anwar has said in his letter.
The Social Justice Andolan (Bihar) and AIPMM has decided to hold a state level conference in Patna in the last week of February to decide their stand.
BJPтАЩs plan
The BJPтАЩs plan to reach out Pasmanda community started after PM Modi, while addressing his partyтАЩs national executive meeting in Hyderabad in July last year, suggested that party leaders extend their support to deprived and downtrodden sections of all communities. He also advised BJP to take out a тАЬsneh yatraтАЭ (affection rally).
тАЬThe BJPтАЩs hope of winning the support of at least a section of Pasmandas stems from the belief that they are economically, socially, and politically weak and impatient with the hegemony of upper-caste Muslims,тАЭ said Tufail Khan Qadri, president of Bihar BJPтАЩs minority cell.
тАЬWe have been organising meetings with them and they have benefitted from different central schemes like Ayushman Bharat, LPG subsidy and free ration. This has helped us win the faith of Pasmandas,тАЭ said Qadri.
тАЬThe sabka saath sabka biswas is the motto of the BJP and we are pursuing this to win their support,тАЭ said senior BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain.
Recently, in Patna, BJP MLC and former Union Minister Sanjay Paswan held an event where RSS leader Ram Madhav and prominent Muslim leaders were present. They discussed the issues affecting Pasmandas at length while the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, an RSS affiliate, is also likely to reach out to people to dispel тАЬphobiaтАЭ among the minority community created by тАЬopposition parties.тАЭ
JD-UтАЩs plan
BJPтАЩs former ally JD-U is not far behind. Chief minister Nitish Kumar recently held a meeting of Muslim leaders and warned them of Owaisi factor тАФ a reference to the presence of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi in Bihar, which had won five seats in the 2020 assembly polls.
The alarm comes from the fact that in the two recent assembly bypolls at Gopalganj and Kurhani, AIMIM played a spoilsport to the ruling Grand AllianceтАЩs plan and succeeded in taking away a large pie of their Muslim votes.
In Gopalganj bypoll, its candidate Abdus Salam polled 12,214 votes, cornering seven per cent of the total votes. RJD lost the bypoll by a mere 1,700 votes.
CM KumarтАЩs JD-U also enjoys a good support base among Pasmandas since he has launched schemes for the weaver (Julaha) and other backward castes in the Muslim community. Kumar has also given special focus to erecting boundary walls around graveyards (kabristans) and pay parity for madrasa teachers, making him acceptable within the Muslim community despite his long association with BJP.
Former director of AN Sinha Institute for Social Studies D M Diwakar believes that BJPтАЩs drive will only make a nominal impact. тАЬBJP does not give tickets to Muslims. But it may ask its allies like Chirag Paswan to accommodate them. Grand alliance constituents like RJD will have to give their representation to nullify BJPтАЩs drive,тАЭ he said.
тАЬWhether a large chunk backs BJP or not remains to be seen, but even a small faction of Muslims supporting the saffron party will help in division of votes,тАЭ said Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of Sociology, College of Commerce, Patna.
