Systematic targeting of Muslim leaders and activists across the country since 2014, raises fairness concerns
NEW DELHI — The country’s Muslims are increasingly living in fear and anxiety, with citizens and political leaders alike feeling vulnerable every passing day. This sense of unease has intensified under the current BJP dispensation, where Muslim leaders and politicians have faced repeated crackdowns. Over the past over a decade, numerous Muslim politicians have been jailed, disqualified from assemblies, or slapped with charges that many consider unfair. This trend has significantly impacted Muslim leadership in the country.
The situation is further exacerbated by the rise in hate crimes and mob violence targeting Muslims. From boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses to lynchings based on false accusations, Muslims are frequently targeted without due process or justice. The mere mention of a Muslim’s name can spark anger among crowds, leading to mob attacks and vigilantism. This atmosphere of fear and hostility has overtly created a sense of uncertainty and insecurity in the Muslim community.
In recent times, in Uttarakhand, a crowd tried to attack a Muslim truck driver. In Jalgaon, Maharashtra, a group killed a Muslim man because he loved a girl from other community in his area. These events are making normal Muslims and their leaders scared. Muslim leaders, who should speak up for their people’s problems or protect them, are now living in fear themselves. Apart from Member of Parliament (MP) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who bravely questions the government on open issues and fights for Muslim matters, most other Muslim leaders seem pushed aside, fighting just to stay in politics.
The fear among Muslim leaders shows in what they say. A recent statement from Maharashtra legislator and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abu Azmi proves this worry. He said, “Muslims are not being allowed to live. Sometimes their shrines are demolished, sometimes mosques are attacked, and sometimes a mob beats a Muslim youth to death. If the country has such a problem with Muslims, then just poison them and be done with it.”
Fear and worry are seen at every level, from normal Muslims to their leaders in politics. This is strong during the BJP government’s time, with several reports of actions against Muslim leaders emerging. But a key ruling came from the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday. In a hate speech case, Muslim legislator Abbas Ansari got big help when the high court changed a lower court’s ruling that awarded him two years in jail and eventually ended his membership of the assembly.
Though the court order restores his membership, it raises a big question because, from the national parliament to state assemblies, many leaders have crime records, but often only Muslim leaders face action. This way of doing things is making fear and worry deeper among leaders from small groups, raising big questions about how fair democracy is. This is why even well-known Muslim leaders feel unsafe.
Since the BJP took power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, with Yogi Adityanath as leader, there have been moves to remove Muslim leaders one by one, while building up other leaders. A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) after the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections shows that out of 403 new MLAs, 205 (51%) have crime cases against them. Of these, 158 (39%) face serious charges like murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and crimes against women.
The ADR report says five MLAs face murder charges under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302, 29 face attempted murder charges under IPC 307, and six face charges for crimes against women, including one rape case. But it seems only Muslim leaders get punished. For example, Azam Khan and others have gone to jail and lost their MLA seats over small cases. The push to remove Muslim leadership started with Azam Khan and has not stopped. In fact, it has spread to many states. Azam Khan was found guilty in a hate speech case, but has any BJP leader ever been punished for hate speech? The answer is always no. While Azam Khan was jailed for hate speech, in the BJP, hate speech seems like a way to get ahead.
Uttar Pradesh’s well-known leader and former minister Azam Khan has been in jail for a long time, facing charges of usurping land, stealing books and goats, corruption, angry speeches, and fake papers. In 2022, he was found guilty in one case, and his MLA seat was taken away. His son, Abdullah Azam, lost his MLA seat because he did not meet the lowest age of 25 when he ran for election.
On 16 December 2019, Abdullah Azam’s seat was taken away. Later, he got help from the Allahabad High Court and was elected again as an MLA in 2022. But a special court in Moradabad gave him two years in a 15-year-old case, and on 13 February 2023, his seat was taken away again. In the same way, Azam Khan’s wife, Tanzeem Fatima, was elected as an MLA in the 2019 Rampur by-election but lost her seat on 10 March 2022 after being found guilty in a case.
Political expert Shams Siddiqui thinks Azam Khan was a big face in Muslim politics, which is why he was hit again and again. Even when courts gave help, new cases kept coming against him. Azam Khan’s case shows how far law traps and political fights can go to make strong leaders weak in Indian politics. This has pushed Azam Khan and his family to the edges of Uttar Pradesh politics.
Uttar Pradesh has many strong leaders, from east to west and north to south. But political experts say that under Yogi’s government, there has been a planned plot to target Muslim leadership. Mukhtar Ansari and his family were made to suffer in a planned way. First, Mukhtar faced law actions, and his family was also targeted. In May 2023, SP MP from Ghazipur, Afzal Ansari, was found guilty by a special court under the Gangster Act for a 2005 case about the murder of MLA Krishnanand Rai and the kidnapping of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Nandkishor Rungta. The court gave him four years in jail and imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on him.
After the court’s ruling, the Lok Sabha office took away his MP seat. But the Allahabad High Court changed the lower court’s ruling, bringing back Afzal Ansari’s seat and giving him big help in politics. Meanwhile, Mukhtar Ansari’s son, Abbas Ansari, was given two years in a hate speech case, and his MLA seat was taken away. But on Wednesday, the court overturned that ruling.
In 2022, a Kanpur special court gave SP’s Sisamau MLA Irfan Solanki, his brother Rizwan, and three others seven years in jail in an arson case. On 3 June 2024, the court found them guilty, and the four-time MLA Irfan Solanki had his seat taken away and was banned. He is now in jail. Without him, his wife ran in a by-election on an SP ticket and won, becoming an MLA. Irfan Solanki won the 2022 assembly election on an SP ticket, but his guilty ruling was a big hit to his political work. This case was talked about a lot in Uttar Pradesh politics.
On 15 January, Kairana police caught SP MLA Nahid Hasan in a Gangster Act case. He was in jail for over ten months, moved from Muzaffarnagar jail to Chitrakoot district jail. While in jail, Nahid got worried about losing control of his area, so he put his sister, Iqra Hasan, forward to keep his grip on Kairana. As a result, Iqra Hasan won the Kairana Lok Sabha seat on an SP ticket. Nahid Hasan is seen as a strong Muslim face in western Uttar Pradesh politics, and cases against him often start political talks.
After Yogi Adityanath assumed power in 2017, actions against politician Atiq Ahmad got stronger. Atiq was already blamed in many crime cases, but after 2017, the actions got harder. His properties were confiscated, and strict laws like the Gangster Act and National Security Act (NSA) were used against him. In 2019, he was sent to Sabarmati jail in Gujarat in a kidnapping and attack case. After that, court hearings in his cases gathered pace. In 2023, after the Umesh Pal murder case, pressure on Atiq and his family grew. While in police custody in Prayagraj, Atiq Ahmad and his brother, Ashraf, were gunned down in broad daylight. Since 2017, Atiq’s political influence was weakened step by step.
Jharkhand’s former minister Alamgir Alam was caught by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case about taking cuts in passing tenders. The blames were that big wrongs happened in the Rural Development Department’s deals, with crores of rupees taken as cuts. During ED searches, huge cash was found at the home of an acquaintance of his private secretary. The ED said they found key papers and proof about deals. The ED saw it as a crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), saying Alamgir had a direct role and took bribes. He is now in jail, but his supporters claim that he has become a victim of politics.
Bihar’s former MP and strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin slowly left politics after 2014. At one time, his hold on Siwan was so strong that he was seen as unbeatable, but after the year 2000, growing crime cases and court rulings weakened him politically. In 2017, the Supreme Court ordered his shifting to Tihar jail in Delhi, further shrinking his political reach. Even with links to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the party moved away from him. Mohammad Shahabuddin died on 1 May 2021 in Tihar jail from COVID-19. He was taken to Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where he died. His supporters still think the BJP government got him eliminated through a well-crafted political plot.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik is a key figure in Maharashtra. After Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was linked to a drugs case, Malik blamed then-ATS officer Sameer Wankhede and started a fight against him. Later, Malik himself was jailed on allegation of money laundering and links to Dawood Ibrahim gang. He was arrested in February 2022 and got bail after 17 months. Malik said he was punished for being Muslim and had no links to the Dawood Ibrahim gang. It was thought that the action against him was a lesson for other leaders.
It is not that all blamed Muslim leaders are perfect. It is a hard truth that in a country like India, no honest person can become a leader. To become a leader, one must use money, power, punishment, and tricks. Those who do not follow this will fall behind in politics. India’s Parliament and state assemblies have a long list of leaders with crime records, but only Muslim leaders seem to be hit under the cover of law and order or corruption.
The role of strong leaders in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar politics has always been talked about. In Uttar Pradesh, names like Brijesh Singh are among the top strong leaders. His life shows a mix of crime, power, and political pull. Brijesh Singh is a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, and was granted bail in 2022.
In the same way, Dhananjay Singh’s pull in Jaunpur was such that people called him “Robin Hood.” He faced many criminal charges, but his public image stayed strong. In Pratapgarh, people are still scared of Raja Bhaiya, or Raghuraj Pratap Singh. It is said that where Kunda’s border starts, the government’s pull ends. Harishchandra Tiwari from Gorakhpur is seen as the origin of crime in Uttar Pradesh politics. His supporters openly threatened all and sundry. After losing elections, he gave his political work to his son, Vinay Shankar Tiwari. Yet, the government never acts against them.
This raises the question: Is the BJP on purpose hitting Muslim leadership in its ruled states to stop their growth? Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid both faced sedition charges. Kanhaiya got bail and is now a Congress leader, even contesting the Lok Sabha election on the party ticket from Delhi. But Umar Khalid has been denied bail and stays in jail. Similarly, JNU researcher Sharjeel Imam has been in jail for five years without bail.
According to the opposition and Muslims, the BJP does not allow Muslim leadership even in its own party. The party does not give tickets to Muslims in the Lok Sabha or state assembly elections. Even loyal BJP leaders like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain have been pushed aside. In Uttar Pradesh, Danish Azad Ansari, the Minister for Minority Welfare, is the only BJP minister who is a member of the Legislative Council. But how much can Danish Azad Ansari alone fight the party’s coldness towards Muslim leadership?
To add more, reports from groups like Human Rights Watch and others show that hate speech against Muslims has gone up under the BJP, often linked to leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. They say policies and actions target small groups, making Muslims feel left out. For example, during the 2024 elections, hate speech peaked, mostly against Muslims.
On social media platforms, people talk about this a lot. One post said, “Hate speech in India rose 74% in 2024, primarily targeting Muslims, linked to BJP leaders Modi and Shah’s rhetoric.” Another noted, “BJP leaders routinely vilify Muslims as infiltrators and terrorists, telling them to ‘go to Pakistan.'”
BJP leaders deny these allegations. They say the party is against favouring small groups, not against small groups themselves. Senior BJP leader Syed Zafar Islam said, “Violence between Muslims and the Hindu majority is deep-rooted but only makes headlines now because political rivals use it to target the party when it holds power.” He added that welfare plans reach all people, and Muslims gain the most from some schemes. No major riots have happened in the past 10 years, he claims.
But critics point out that the BJP has no Muslim MP for the first time in history after Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was dropped. The party says it picks its nominees based on need, not faith. Jamal Siddiqui, head of the BJP’s minority wing, said, “The party assigns seats depending upon the requirement and if people see it from the glasses tinted with religion, then it is really very unfortunate.”
Experts like Aakar Patel list ways through which the government targets Muslims: no political roles, laws that hurt Muslims, and allowing anti-Muslim talk and acts. But BJP says it welcomes Muslims, like in Kerala where it fielded a Muslim candidate, M Abdul Salam, who said, “The BJP respects minorities and welcomes Muslim leaders.”
Even with these views, the pattern of cases against Muslim leaders raises questions. While some non-Muslim leaders like Brijesh Singh and others (a la the convicted rapists of Bilkis Bao) get bail easily, Muslims face delayed judicial proceedings and are more often than not denied a bout of fresh out-of-jail breath.
In the end, the worry among Muslims stays high. As one analyst said, “Muslims continue to be persecuted in India despite the government claims that it works for all. But, actions and words from leaders tell a different story. With elections and court rulings continuing, the fairness of how Muslim leaders are treated is a key issue for the country’s democracy.
