Dr Syed Ali Mujtaba
MUSLIMS in India have continued to navigate the country’s complex political landscape for the last 75 years but have not been able to figure out how to improve their declining presence in legislatures. The electoral process has changed the lives of many smaller communities but Muslims, despite their electoral clout, have not been able to win seats commensurate with their population and dominance in several constituencies.
Muslims have to realise that they have the capacity and the means to shape their political future. And they can only achieve this by extracting gains from the democratic process and not by playing the blame game that is seen after each election.
Almost all these years Muslims have, by and large, remained captives of one political party which only treated them as its vote bank: used them during elections and discarded them conveniently later. When this realisation dawned on Muslims, they shifted their allegiance to caste-based regional parties. This also proved not a good bet, and they tried their own community-based parties but to no avail. Eventually, some Muslims contested unsuccessfully as independent candidates.
So even after seven and a half decades, Muslims are unable to figure out what kind of politics they may choose that could be beneficial to them directly. Muslims have engaged in soul-searching and make strategies to carve out their political future. However, given the community’s diversity, a consensus has eluded them on positive ways and means to navigate the electoral process. The issue needs soul-searching and brainstorming if Muslims want to have any share in the political power in the country.
One suggestion is that Muslims should do their political planning with both long and short-term visions. In the long-term plan, Muslims should work at the grassroots level and in the short run, they must consolidate their efforts and energies themselves in facing the political battle. It is only after doing the grassroots politics Muslims can expect some change in electoral results and this momentum has to be sustained.
The first step for Muslims is to form a non-governmental organisation at the parliamentary constituency level and work for community development. Muslims should forget their differences and support one such organisation and silently work 24/7 for five years. This could be a capacity-building effort to face the electoral battle as two or three weeks of the electioneering process is not sufficient to mobilise the community. In this effort, Muslims should give due care to the problem of splitting of their votes, which is a regular feature in every election.
Unlike traditional campaigning that starts with the announcement of election notification, Muslims should take up elections as a full-time vocation. They should start working with a plan on the electorates daily. They have to reach their voters through a direct contact programme and should do door-to-door visits and personal conversations with the electorates. They should get to know their problems and offer meaningful solutions. This would help build trust within the community and send the message that there is someone who cares about their welfare.
The campaign message of such an organisation should revolve around specific issues facing the people. It can be financial help, admission to schools and colleges, medical needs, employment, etc. The campaign should be with the vision of transforming the community and not to get their votes. In this campaign, the NGO should take the help of influential Muslims whose voice matters to the community. This approach may ensure the participation of the community and unite them for a purpose.
Such an outreach should be brainstormed first and packaged with some meaning before approaching the targeted audience. Volunteers should foster a sense of security among Muslims that they are standing behind them in their thick and thin. Such activity should be done with a sense of responsibility to motivate the community to make it understand how unity would be beneficial to it.
Muslim women should have their roles cut out for the political mobilisation of the community. The Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has set an example of how Muslim women can play a seminal role in mass mobilisation. Similarly, Muslim women have to step out of their homes and embark on door-to-door campaigns with an emphasis on community service.
Female volunteers should educate Muslim women about the importance of democracy, the electoral process, social and political activism, etc. Such a silent campaign should be behind the scenes and at the grassroots level, throughout the year, ensuring a robust interaction between women volunteers and the Muslim electorate.
When it comes to political mobilisation, Muslims should have a deep understanding of the electorates in the community-dominated constituencies. Muslims should have some psychologists from the community who can guide the kind of campaign to run to entice the voters. This is a specialised job and many volunteers in the community can take this up with serious enthusiasm.
The most crucial aspect of the political mobilisation process is to choose a political candidate and the political party that the community may like to back. This is the most difficult task as many political parties and independent candidates are assiduously working on ways to divide the Muslim votes. This is where Muslims need coordinated effort, bury their hatchet, and zero in on the candidate they may like to support. This should be done by keeping the Muslim strength and weakness in a given constituency. In the electoral process, Muslims must seek tactical support from other like-minded groups that can give strength to their candidate.
Last but not least, elections are decided on the polling day. Muslim volunteers should be tasked to manage the Muslim-dominated polling booths and ensure that everyone participates in the poll process.
The booth management activity is crucial to converting defeat into victory. Volunteers should work tirelessly to bring every Muslim voter to the polling booth. They should arrange transport to bring and take them back. Such an effort to mobilise voters should be made with a sense of unity of purpose. It is only through enhancing the maximum turnout of Muslim voters that some favourable results could be expected.
To achieve this, Muslims should do proper planning before plunging into the electoral battlefield. The long-term vision should be geared towards community transformation and the short-term objective should be to achieve the political goal.
The positive aspect of this political challenge is that the voting strength of Muslims has not yet been explored. Their weakness is always encashed in each election, leaving Muslims red-faced. Muslims must realise that the biggest asset they have is their electoral strength and they should play the game of democracy on the strength of their numbers. This can be done by the optimal utilisation of their political strength.
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Dr Syed Ali Mujtaba is a Chennai-based journalist. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
