Roti, kapda aur makaan are major topics in every election and political agendas. But beyond that, there are many other issues to be considered for the welfare of the common man and the nation.
In India, the Muslim population is the second-largestmajority – technically the largest minority, according to 2023 population reports, which state that the Muslim population is around 20 crore in India.
The Muslim minority plays a vital role in nation-building. The development of Muslims is directly proportional to the development of the nation. For development, they need proper education, health, and economic support.
To understand which issues should be considered in the upcoming elections, we have delved into dialogue with Adv. Anees Rahman, National Secretary of Students Islamic Organisation of India, and student leader Md Kaif, who is pursuing B.A Hons in the Arabic Language from JNU.
Adv. Anees Rahman, National Secretary of SIO
‘Anti-Discrimination Law’ has to be an agenda for 2024 Elections: As the 2024 Parliamentary Election is upon us, it is high time to raise the agendas that are to be discussed during the election campaign. Generally, political parties are very vocal about economic and developmental issues, which cover a lion’s share of their election manifesto. Although these are important matters in a developing country like India, there are more serious social issues to be addressed, with parity to the developmental issues or even more than that, and issues regarding minorities are one among them.
From primary education to adequate representation, minorities, especially Muslims, face numerous challenges. Furthermore, over the past 10 years, since the ascent of the Narendra Modi-led extreme right-wing government, the situation for minorities has worsened.
Hate crimes against minorities have reached extraordinary levels during this period, with mob lynching and hate speeches becoming the new normal. Amnesty International reports a 500 percent rise in hate crimes in India during this decade. According to the DOTO Database, since 2014, 1,487 incidents have been reported, affecting the lives of 32,419 victims and resulting in the deaths of 265 people due to religious discrimination. Leave aside the common people, even an elected Member of Parliament, Danish Ali, was addressed with racist remarks by Ramesh Bidhuri during a Parliament session, indicating the widespread effect of Islamophobia in the country. To resolve this critical issue pertaining to the very existence of Muslims, as well as other religious minorities, is of utmost importance.
The existing legal framework is inefficient in addressing this issue and preventing hate crimes against minorities. Just as the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, prevents atrocities against the SC and ST communities to some extent, enacting comprehensive legislation to protect minorities from discrimination based on religion and identity would be a significant step towards tackling this issue.
SIO has already raised this demand through its Students Manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha Election. SIO proposes specific legislation for the protection of religious minorities, which would address issues relating to discrimination, hate speech, and violence, protecting minorities from any form of discrimination such as verbal abuse, exclusion, harassment, unequal treatment, stereotyping, prejudice, segregation, and prevent discriminatory practices in opportunities, immigration, pay, conversion, housing, education, information, distribution of resources, schemes, and services, etc. This is our demand to all political parties who believe in social justice, that they should take this up as part of their manifesto and make it a subject for election debates.
Md Kaif,pursuing B.A Hons, Arabic Language, JNU
India is under a state of contestation among different identities. Against the values of secularism, the majority is pushing for its particular homogenizing agendas which seek to sideline the causes and issues of minorities. Central among all these questions is Muslims, as the ‘New India’ holds tendencies of ‘otherisation’ against Muslims. In these circumstances, it becomes a necessity to address the Muslim question with greater attention.
Muslims in Indian politics have hitherto been seen as a voter en bloc. This upcoming election presents the opportunity to visibilize Muslims in their multifarious dimensions, ranging from their economic backwardness to educational marginalization. As per recent reports, Muslims in India are among the least represented in electoral politics, with no Lok Sabha representation by the ruling party. The lack of representation makes the community weak in negotiating with the State; therefore, it is pertinent to develop new strategies for creating leadership from within the community.
Due to delimitation and tendencies of gerrymandering by the State, Muslims become minorities in new constituencies, which makes it difficult to create a weight of negotiation by the Muslims. Also, the rise in hate crimes and hate speech against Muslims, with increasing cases of lynching and systematic discrimination, has created an image of Muslims as ‘the other’ in the nation-state. Muslims have been made de facto second-class citizens with constant vilification of Muslim history, architecture built by Muslim rulers, and their religion.
The election must address the issue of growing schism in India’s diverse communitarian living by bringing the question of lynching and other hate crimes to mainstream electoral politics. The reaction of the State in any protest and demonstration centered around Muslims explicitly shows the image of Muslims in bureaucratic circles – savage terrorists who need to be subdued by any means possible. Hence, reports present a higher percentage of Muslims under trial and facing jails in comparison to any other community in India.
Elections must point to the causes and issues that Muslim activists face when they put forth their demands to the State. Such discrimination is also visible in educational institutions which curb the Muslim presence in Higher education, furthering their marginalization. The upcoming general election needs to address why Muslims are facing subsequent, systematic, and structural marginalization in the Indian state and why their citizenship is questioned.