Hate not fear: How Muslims view Narendra Modi
by Hasan Suroor Mar 11, 2014
by Hasan Suroor Mar 11, 2014
Muslims may be forgiven for feeling slightly bemused by the current debate raging around the “Muslim Question’’ in the run-up to next month’s elections. It is riddled with flawed assumptions intended (with some deliberation, I suspect) to polarise and sex-up the political discourse.
Meanwhile, the Modi factor goes beyond Muslims and this election. It has
wider implications for the very idea of India we have to come to believe in. His
brand of Hindu nationalism should worry anyone who believes in a pluralist and
inclusive India irrespective of their religion. And that is a more important
debate to be had than whether Muslims will vote for him.
And that is a more important debate to be had than whether Muslims will
vote for him.
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hate-not-fear-how-muslims-view-narendra-modi-1428605.html?utm_source=ref_article
Hate not fear: How
Muslims view Narendra Modi
by Hasan Suroor Mar 11, 2014
#BJP #Hindu nationalism #LK Advani #Lok Sabha elections 2014 #Muslims
#Narendra Modi #Politics
inShare
135 CommentsEmailPrint
Muslims may be forgiven for feeling slightly bemused by the current
debate raging around the “Muslim Question’’ in the run-up to next
month’s elections. It is riddled with flawed assumptions intended (with
some deliberation, I suspect) to polarise and sex-up the political
discourse.
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hate-not-fear-how-muslims-view-narendra-modi-1428605.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hate-not-fear-how-muslims-view-narendra-modi-1428605.html?utm_source=ref_article
Hate not fear: How
Muslims view Narendra Modi
by Hasan Suroor Mar 11, 2014
#BJP #Hindu nationalism #LK Advani #Lok Sabha elections 2014 #Muslims
#Narendra Modi #Politics
inShare
135 CommentsEmailPrint
Muslims may be forgiven for feeling slightly bemused by the current
debate raging around the “Muslim Question’’ in the run-up to next
month’s elections. It is riddled with flawed assumptions intended (with
some deliberation, I suspect) to polarise and sex-up the political
discourse.
Modi-Jammu-Shahid-Tantray
The sheer electoral arithmetic is against Muslims when it comes to
deciding Modi’s or his party’s fate.
The way the debate is playing out there is the “Muslim factor” at one
end of the pole and the Narendra Modi “factor’’ at the other with the
entire campaign reduced to a “Muslim versus Modi” affair.
No doubt, Muslims are a factor (haven’t they been a factor in every
election in the past 60 years?) and so is Modi. But to suggest that the
fate 170 million Muslims turns on the outcome of whether Modi gets to be
prime minister is absurd. The reality is that however much Muslim wish,
they can't stop Modi. If they could they would have stopped him in
Gujarat long ago, and he wouldn't have gone on to win three successive
elections after the harrowing events of 2002.
The sheer electoral arithmetic is against Muslims when it comes to
deciding Modi’s or his party’s fate. And he knows it. Otherwise by now
he would have been down on his knees apologising for Gujarat riots and
pleading for Muslim support. His fate will be determined not so much by
Muslims as by his fellow Hindus. It is the millions of moderate Hindu
voters who are going to give him the run for his money even, if in the
end, they don’t quite succeed. Remember the campaign to hold him and his
government to account for the 2002 riots has been led mostly by Hindu
secularists and they have no intention of giving up. Forget the “M’’
factor. What he is really up against is the “H’’ factor.
Another flawed assumption around which much of the Muslim-Modi debate is
taking place is the so-called Muslim “fear factor’’. There is a general
perception, fuelled by the BJP’ opponents who are trying to woo the
Muslim vote, that the Muslim community is “scared’’ of Modi. It is
argued that the Muslim opposition to him is prompted by their fear that
they would not be secure under a Modi government. Muslims are said to be
on “tenterhooks” at the prospect of him becoming prime minister.
Given his Gujarat baggage, they are naturally concerned but there is no
panic in the community. Muslims are not paranoid, and they're not
spending sleepless nights thinking that come 16 May and they will have a
wolf knocking at the door. But, yes, there is a deep sense of
helplessness that they are not in a position to thwart his ambitions,
and this has led to a stoic acceptance of a Modi premiership. Some are
even planning to vote for him, albeit for purely pragmatic reasons (if
you can’t beat them, join them); and more might follow if he and his
party make a genuine effort over the next few weeks to reach out to
them.
Muslims don’t so much fear Modi as they hate him. I’m afraid there is no
softer way of putting it, so deep is their anger over Gujarat. They are
convinced that he aided and abetted the riots, and that violence on
such a scale was not possible without his overt or covert say-so. They
hate him for what they see as his indifference to Muslim suffering and
anguish. And they hate him for his bullish refusal to show any
contrition for what happened under his watch. The footage of Modi
refusing to accept a skullcap from a Muslim cleric on the disingenuous
plea that he doesn't believe in “identity politics” will, for many
Muslims, remain an enduring image of his hardline anti-Muslim prejudice.
But does it follow from this that they fear India will become a Hindu
state under him? Or that he would “punish” them for not backing him? The
answer is an emphatic no. Contrary to the Muslim stereotype
–“alienated” from the national mainstream and “distrustful” of the
majority community—most Muslims have sufficient faith in the inherent
secularism and moderation of the vast majority of Hindus who, they
firmly believe, will not allow Modi to run amuck.
Even within the BJP there are enough sane voices which would oppose any
attempt to turn India into another Pakistan, if for the simple reason
that it is not in the BJP's own long- term interest to be identified
with an overtly hate agenda if it wishes to prosper as a truly national
party of governance. And it knows better than to pander to the ideology
of one leader however popular he may be at a given point of time.
Indeed, Muslims have been here before. Once they hated L.K. Advani
(Modi’s original role model) with the same intensity for his role in the
demolition of Babri Masjid. But when he became deputy prime minister
and home minister, he was forced to give up his Hindutva avatar. Today,
he is regarded as a moderate and a lot of Muslims would happily accept
him as prime minister.
Meanwhile, the Modi factor goes beyond Muslims and this election. It has
wider implications for the very idea of India we have to come to
believe in. His brand of Hindu nationalism should worry anyone who
believes in a pluralist and inclusive India irrespective of their
religion.
And that is a more important debate to be had than whether Muslims will
vote for him.
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hate-not-fear-how-muslims-view-narendra-modi-1428605.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hate-not-fear-how-muslims-view-narendra-modi-1428605.html?utm_source=ref_article
Hate not fear: How
Muslims view Narendra Modi
by Hasan Suroor Mar 11, 2014
#BJP #Hindu nationalism #LK Advani #Lok Sabha elections 2014 #Muslims
#Narendra Modi #Politics
inShare
135 CommentsEmailPrint
Muslims may be forgiven for feeling slightly bemused by the current
debate raging around the “Muslim Question’’ in the run-up to next
month’s elections. It is riddled with flawed assumptions intended (with
some deliberation, I suspect) to polarise and sex-up the political
discourse.
Modi-Jammu-Shahid-Tantray
The sheer electoral arithmetic is against Muslims when it comes to
deciding Modi’s or his party’s fate.
The way the debate is playing out there is the “Muslim factor” at one
end of the pole and the Narendra Modi “factor’’ at the other with the
entire campaign reduced to a “Muslim versus Modi” affair.
No doubt, Muslims are a factor (haven’t they been a factor in every
election in the past 60 years?) and so is Modi. But to suggest that the
fate 170 million Muslims turns on the outcome of whether Modi gets to be
prime minister is absurd. The reality is that however much Muslim wish,
they can't stop Modi. If they could they would have stopped him in
Gujarat long ago, and he wouldn't have gone on to win three successive
elections after the harrowing events of 2002.
The sheer electoral arithmetic is against Muslims when it comes to
deciding Modi’s or his party’s fate. And he knows it. Otherwise by now
he would have been down on his knees apologising for Gujarat riots and
pleading for Muslim support. His fate will be determined not so much by
Muslims as by his fellow Hindus. It is the millions of moderate Hindu
voters who are going to give him the run for his money even, if in the
end, they don’t quite succeed. Remember the campaign to hold him and his
government to account for the 2002 riots has been led mostly by Hindu
secularists and they have no intention of giving up. Forget the “M’’
factor. What he is really up against is the “H’’ factor.
Another flawed assumption around which much of the Muslim-Modi debate is
taking place is the so-called Muslim “fear factor’’. There is a general
perception, fuelled by the BJP’ opponents who are trying to woo the
Muslim vote, that the Muslim community is “scared’’ of Modi. It is
argued that the Muslim opposition to him is prompted by their fear that
they would not be secure under a Modi government. Muslims are said to be
on “tenterhooks” at the prospect of him becoming prime minister.
Given his Gujarat baggage, they are naturally concerned but there is no
panic in the community. Muslims are not paranoid, and they're not
spending sleepless nights thinking that come 16 May and they will have a
wolf knocking at the door. But, yes, there is a deep sense of
helplessness that they are not in a position to thwart his ambitions,
and this has led to a stoic acceptance of a Modi premiership. Some are
even planning to vote for him, albeit for purely pragmatic reasons (if
you can’t beat them, join them); and more might follow if he and his
party make a genuine effort over the next few weeks to reach out to
them.
Muslims don’t so much fear Modi as they hate him. I’m afraid there is no
softer way of putting it, so deep is their anger over Gujarat. They are
convinced that he aided and abetted the riots, and that violence on
such a scale was not possible without his overt or covert say-so. They
hate him for what they see as his indifference to Muslim suffering and
anguish. And they hate him for his bullish refusal to show any
contrition for what happened under his watch. The footage of Modi
refusing to accept a skullcap from a Muslim cleric on the disingenuous
plea that he doesn't believe in “identity politics” will, for many
Muslims, remain an enduring image of his hardline anti-Muslim prejudice.
But does it follow from this that they fear India will become a Hindu
state under him? Or that he would “punish” them for not backing him? The
answer is an emphatic no. Contrary to the Muslim stereotype
–“alienated” from the national mainstream and “distrustful” of the
majority community—most Muslims have sufficient faith in the inherent
secularism and moderation of the vast majority of Hindus who, they
firmly believe, will not allow Modi to run amuck.
Even within the BJP there are enough sane voices which would oppose any
attempt to turn India into another Pakistan, if for the simple reason
that it is not in the BJP's own long- term interest to be identified
with an overtly hate agenda if it wishes to prosper as a truly national
party of governance. And it knows better than to pander to the ideology
of one leader however popular he may be at a given point of time.
Indeed, Muslims have been here before. Once they hated L.K. Advani
(Modi’s original role model) with the same intensity for his role in the
demolition of Babri Masjid. But when he became deputy prime minister
and home minister, he was forced to give up his Hindutva avatar. Today,
he is regarded as a moderate and a lot of Muslims would happily accept
him as prime minister.
Meanwhile, the Modi factor goes beyond Muslims and this election. It has
wider implications for the very idea of India we have to come to
believe in. His brand of Hindu nationalism should worry anyone who
believes in a pluralist and inclusive India irrespective of their
religion.
And that is a more important debate to be had than whether Muslims will
vote for him.
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hate-not-fear-how-muslims-view-narendra-modi-1428605.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hate-not-fear-how-muslims-view-narendra-modi-1428605.html?utm_source=ref_article
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