Modi’s Rule and Future of Indian Muslims

Modi’s unmatched and grand
victory in the Lok Sabha polls of 2014, making him the Prime Minister of the country and bringing glory to his Bharatiya Janata Party, breaking the past record of 30 years where no single political party had got absolute majority in the Indian Parliament, has dawned a new era in India. The whole county is abuzz with the hopes of ‘ache din’ (better days) that he had promised. However on the other side of the story lie quite a sizeable number of Indian populations, the Indian Muslims, who may not be very happy with this change of events. Their fear is fuelled by incidents of 2002, 12 years ago, when the whole of Gujarat burned with religious pogrom, at the receiving end of which were the Indian Muslims who were killed in large numbers. At that time Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat who was allegedly accused of not doing anything to stop the massacre of Muslims and even instigating the killings. Even though times have changed, investigations have happened where Modi got a clean chit; the fear still looms in the minds of Muslims who have suffered irreparable loss during those days. 

Many of India’s Muslims fear that Modi’s landslide election victory will once again fuel religious discrimination and intolerance leading to violence, however there are some who are optimist and are ready to give him a chance. His critics are worried that the scale of his victory, an absolute majority, will enable him with powers to run roughshod over the minorities, given his strong nationalist credentials with a strong Hindu ideology. However there are also hopefuls who believe that his promise of jobs and development will benefit the whole of India and not just the Hindu majority. Some Muslims have expressed their hope in Modi and his promise of ‘ache din’ and are looking forward to better days under his rile. They are hopeful that the economic prosperity that he was able to bring in Gujarat during his Chief Ministership will be duplicated in the whole of India as well.

On the other hand there are victims of Gujarat riot like Parveen Banu, who is a muslim widow who lost her husband and four sons in the riots of 2002, have doubts. She does feel that as a Prime Minister of the country he has far more responsibilities and would not do the foolishness of turning against the Muslims after preaching about national unity in his election campaigns. But the bloodshed of those gory days still haunts her. She hopes that Allah will show him the right way and that he will be able to win the lost trust of the Muslims.

The statics of the elections however show that the Muslims are far away from trusting Narendra Modi. Only 9 percent Muslims voted for him during the elections while 43 percent voted for Congress, known for their secular credentials. On the other hand the BJP did extremely well in Muslim dominated areas like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Hence one will have to wait and watch for the coming days for Modi to unveil his propaganda, where the wait is going to be quite anxious for the Muslims.