First Past the Post (FPTP) is a voting system in which the candidate who polls the most votes (not necessarily a majority) is elected. FPTP voting system is primarily followed by the UK, US, India and a number of other countries. However, a growing number of countries have devised alternative systems of voting like multiple winner and proportional representation. Some argue for the importance of ‘representativeness’ and demand that there must be a clear relationship between the proportion of votes polled and the number of seats a party gains in the legislature. The opponents to this proportional representation methodology say that the primary objective of an electoral system is to produce single party majority governments that are clearly accountable to the public. They are advocates of FPTP wherein the person with the largest votes wins.
So far Muslims have made good use of FPTP as they influence the outcome of the elections by tactical voting. They try to keep communal forces at bay by voting en bloc for the secular candidates with the highest possibility of winning. This style of voting has mostly benefited the Indian National Congress and other parties like the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, the Leftists, etc. The problem is that the so-called secular parties have done nothing for the Muslims and so although FPTP works in favour of Muslims for ensuring the defeat of communal forces in some seats, it has also resulted in the complete negligence of Muslim issues and demands in the constituencies where Muslim votes do not matter.
Numbers paint a rosy picture
180 million Muslims of India are its single biggest religious minority comprising 14.4% of India’s population. According to reliable evaluations, out of the 543 seats for the Lok Sabha, nearly 218 constituencies have Muslims making up more than 10% of the vote share. There are 14 Muslim majority Lok Sabha constituencies in India, 4 in Assam, 3 each in West Bengal & Jammu and Kashmir, 2 in Kerala and one each in Bihar & Lakshadweep. There are 13 seats where Muslims constitute more than 40% of the population.
Thus, Muslims can decide the winner in almost 27 Lok Sabha seats. They can influence the outcome of the election to a fair degree in at least 50 Lok Sabha seats. According to estimates, there are as many as 101 Lok Sabha seats where Muslims constitute more than 20 percent of the electorate. Therefore, it is quite possible, according to very optimistic calculations, that the consolidation of Muslim votes can decide MPs in approximately 220 Lok Sabha seats.
discriminatory “delimitation”
So, statistically speaking, Muslims must occupy substantial space in the Lower House of India’s Parliament but according to an IOS (Institute of Objective Studies) report, the representation of Muslims MPs in the 96 Lok Sabha constituencies where Muslims make up more than 20% of the population, has been between 4% to 9%. Of these 28 seats are in Uttar Pradesh, 20 seats in West Bengal, 9 each in Bihar, Assam and Kerala, 6 in J&K and 5 in Maharashtra. Of the 16 times that the Lok Sabha has been constituted, Muslim representation has been between 2% to 8% with the seventh – 1980 Lok Sabha having 10% Muslim MPs.
One of the important recommendations of the Sachar Committee Report 2006 was – “Establishing a More Rational Procedure for Delimitation of Constituencies”. The report says: “Another issue emphasised before the Committee was that a number of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies with substantial Muslim voter population are reserved for SCs while the SC population was not high there. Contrarily, constituencies with comparatively lesser Muslim voter population remain unreserved even though they have sizeable SC population. It was suggested to the Committee that it would be more equitable to reserve those constituencies where voter population of SCs is high rather than those where it is low and, instead, Muslim presence is high.
The Committee also recommends the elimination of the anomalies with respect to reserved constituencies under the delimitation schemes discussed in Chapter 2. A more rational delimitation procedure that does not reserve constituencies with high minority population shares for SCs will improve the opportunity for the minorities, especially the Muslims, to contest and get elected to the Indian Parliament and the State Assemblies. Apart from these two initiatives it is important to evolve other methods to enhance political participation of the Community”.
Muslim political decline
The political decline of Muslims in India is a vast subject that requires deep introspection and rigorous academic research. Apart from discrimination at systemic level through “delimitation”, Muslims have now become political untouchables for almost all mainstream national political parties. The bogey of “minority appeasement” erected by the fascist forces has become so powerful that no political party wants to risk being seen as “Muslim-friendly” and hence avoids stage sharing with Muslim leadership and skips any public talk of justice for Indian Muslims.
In fact, the Congress party seems to have taken the recommendations of the AK Antony Committee set up by Sonia Gandhi to analyse the defeat of Congress in 2014 elections, quite seriously. The Committee said: “Fighting the polls on a ‘secularism versus communalism’ plank hurt the Congress that was identified as pro-minority, resulting in substantial electoral gains for the BJP. The Congress also failed to drive home the point that minority and majority communalism were equally dangerous for the country”.
In contrast to this “keep a safe distance from Muslims” policy by all “secular” parties, the manner in which the “secular” leadership is visiting Hindu temples and displaying their “Hindu-ness” is not only hypocritical but also reflects their tacit acceptance that doing “majoritarianism” politics is kosher and obligatory for one’s political survival. This sorry state of affairs is in a sense a victory for the “Hindutva” ideology which is best espoused in their exclusivist slogan – “whoever talks of Hindu interests, alone shall rule India”.
The Road Ahead
There are a lot of challenges that Muslims must undertake in India if they have to ensure their political survival. While education and economic upliftment will always remain a top priority, the need of the hour is for pious and righteous Muslims to commit themselves to public life. Remaining pure and virtuous in your own private individual life is not enough if you aspire to change the fortunes of your community. These good Muslims doing community service or social work in their individual capacity is also not enough. If these pious Muslims unite and base their individual and collective conduct on the principles of truth, fair play, righteousness, sincerity, honesty and firmness of purpose and if they adopt a constructive programme for the satisfactory solution of life’s problems and for administering the affairs of the world in an equitable manner, there is not a shadow of doubt that the organised forces of evil despite their numerical strength shall recede and the forces of truth shall triumph. Muslims must start caring and working for all humanity and not just their own community. They must develop the capability to solve the problems of the world and lead from the front when it comes to standing up for justice. It is a tall order. But do we really have any other choice?