Short Takes
The need to remove confusion
By Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam
As the general elections draw close one comes across a substantial degree of confusion in some sections of Muslim society. Strange logic is forwarded for voting BJP. We need some clarity on that. The logic goes something like this:
“I will not vote for the Congress Party.”
“Then, whom you will vote for?”
“I have not made up my mind, yet.”
They are not clear on the point that the contest for prime ministership (and hence, Union government) is going to be between Congress and BJP. Not voting for Congress would mean supporting a BJP government. BJP being a Sangh outfit it is intrinsically hostile to Muslims. The Third Front is still shaky.
Nobody can think of an anti-Muslim riot without Sangh organisations behind them. This is the case for the last 66 years. There is no point in strengthening the Sangh either directly or by default.
Over the years we have been asking the government for a judicial commission to look into the modalities and mechanisms of riots over the last few decades. Such a commission will bring to light the hands and faces behind the recurring episodes of communal violence.
Some among us have a stranger argument for voting BJP. They say (something to the effect): “Like the snake charmer, we want to give milk to the BJP snake in the form of our vote, so that it does not bite us.” Quite obviously, there is a basic flaw in this snake analogy.
Unlike the would-be Muslim voter of BJP, the snake charmer does not feed milk to its snake because he fears it, but because the snake is the source of his livelihood. Secondly, he does not dance to the snake’s tune, but the snake dances to his tune. Thirdly, the snake does not in any way control the charmer, but the charmer is in full control of the snake.
We can easily see how futile this analogy of the prospective Muslim voter of BJP is. Voting somebody for his or her nuisance value, bully tactics or the threat to inflict mass violence is not a good strategy. We must vote for positive values: peace and harmony, inclusive growth, rule of law, equality of opportunity and equality before law, among other things. We are not going to get all this from BJP, which has a poor record on all these.
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