Muslims aren’t panicking over BJP’s 2026 assembly polls results—Liberals are |
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Muslims aren’t panicking over BJP’s 2026 assembly polls results—Liberals are
Under the BJP’s rule, the lot of the Muslim has been more or less the same as that of Hindus across every comparable category and socio-economic index.
As the Modi juggernaut rolls on, the aftermath of elections has predictably become a season of mourning for the liberal-secular establishment. After every election, they count the number of Muslims elected and go into a tizzy of lamentation at their growing political irrelevance. One wonders whether this beating of breasts is at their own irrelevance or the Muslims’. Under the BJP’s rule, the lot of the Muslim has been more or less the same as that of Hindus across every comparable category and socio-economic index.
If anything, along with other Indians, they have also seen unprecedented prosperity. This is evident not only from regular parameters of growth but also from the mushrooming madrasas, the mass production of maulvis, and the pervasive construction of swanky mosques with tall, slender minarets.
But Muslims are less interested in economic prosperity and more in political parity with Hindus. Thus, during the “Jungle Raj” in Bihar, they didn’t ever complain as the state descended into dystopia, because they lived under the illusion of being co-rulers alongside the Yadavs. But under BJP rule, even as they consume more Biryani per capita than ever before in history, they are most worried about India’s “falling GDP”, simply because this party doesn’t give two hoots about their vote bank.
For the liberals, however, the new grammar of politics has spelled a tragic story. It was they, and not the Muslims, who actually benefited from the vote bank politics. It’s the liberals, and not the Muslims, who lost power as the elementary arithmetic of democracy put paid to the hallowed calculus of secularism.
As the dialectics of the Muslim vote bank created its inevitable antithesis, the liberals lost both their bark and their bite. After every election, when they lapse into mandatory mourning at the diminishing number of Muslims elected, they actually mourn their own fate. They grieve the loss of their own relevance when they condole the Muslims for the irrelevance of their vote bank.
The Ashrāf obsession with power
After every election, Muslims display a peculiar obsession with tallying the numbers of their co-religionists elected. They do the same, year after year, when the UPSC announces the results of the civil services examination. This strange fascination with counting the number of MPs, MLAs, IAS and IPS officers, etc, is not without reason.
The Muslim political discourse, rooted as it is in the power theology of Islam, has been shaped by the descendants of the old ruling class—the elite Ashrāf class. Their gaze has remained fixed on the seats of power. As the economy grows, education spreads, and society becomes prosperous, the number of Muslim doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, academics, journalists, and entrepreneurs has also grown exponentially. Yet these professions, no matter how important, are not considered significant indices of the community’s growth. The reason: these are not the sovereign domain of the state. Muslims want power, not prosperity.
It may be asked what one measures when one counts the number of Muslims elected. Does one measure the depth of Indian secularism, or the relative strength of two religions at war? Is it about the willingness of Hindus to vote for Muslims, or the ability of Muslims to attract Hindu votes? What is at stake — the........