Iftar diplomacy by political parties must go beyond just tokenism

Iftar diplomacy by political parties must go beyond just tokenism

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Monday, 27 June 2016 AT 12:55 PM IST

   

http://goo.gl/xxvF0d 

Ramzan, Iftar party, political parties, Muslim community, Muslim vote, RSS, BJP, Camil Parkhe, Sakal Times

It is the holy month of Ramzan and a period for various political parties to show bonhomie with the Muslim community. As Ramzan Eid approaches nearer, various political parties and organisations are vying with each other in hosting the Iftar parties. In the past, this practice was confined to a few parties like the Congress. The BJP and the Shiv Sena who were most certain of not winning the Muslim votes had never resorted to the Iftar dinner diplomacy. But now the trends have changed. Having realised that they cannot afford to totally ignore the minorities now even the BJP and also RSS leaders have started hosting or attending Iftar parties, although many of them may not go to the extent of donning the skull caps. It is indeed a welcome change.

However, come elections and all political parties will follow caste, regional and communal cards to capture various electoral seats. When the agenda of development or governance is unlikely to bring the votes into their kitty, political parties then fall back to the shortcut of caste or communal planks to gain victory.

The country’s unique characteristic is its cultural and religious diversity and it is laudable that political parties respect it by being part of festivities of various sectors. But it should not be a mere token participation. The steps taken by various political parties in relation to various minorities are not consistent with their professed claims.

Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have been wooing the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh while the Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD have been on the same track in Bihar. The BJP, which basically follows Hindutva agenda, is too happy if there is clear communal polarisation during the elections as in that event it is confident of winning the majority seats. But the experiences in the past few decades have revealed it is difficult to bring in a fresh issue for a communal divide. There is also a realisation that a party may not always succeed in dividing the voters on communal basis, there are a large section of voters who would the game plan in the communal divide and would instead vote for the issue more dear to their hearts.

That is the reason why even a saffron party like BJP would sometimes like to keep aside its Hindutva agenda and seek votes on the planks of development or good governance. Hosting Iftar parties during the holy Ramzan month or seeking blessings of the Christian clergy during elections in Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu or northern states is part of the larger plan of political parties to win over the minority votes and the concerned voters are indeed aware of intentions behind these moves.

What is sad is that most political parties have not been going beyond this token appeasement of the minorities. No measures are taken up to deal with basic problems faced by these minorities like large scale illiteracy and unemployment. It is an easiest step for most political parties to promise reservation to a particular community to win their votes but now the courts have been consistently setting aside these measures as ‘unconstitutional’.

Encouraging leadership among the minority communities would be one way of paying attention to their social, economic and political issues. Unfortunately, no political party has ever allowed cultivation of mass-based leadership among the minorities. After the death of Abdul Rehman Antulay, the party does not have a prominent Muslim face in Maharashtra. In the past, a representative of the Christian community used to be accommodated in Maharashtra Cabinet. The situation has now worsened. For the past several years, there is not a single Christian person elected to either the either houses of the state legislature. For the first time in the history of the nation, the BJP, the ruling party at the Centre does not have a single representative of the Muslim community in the Lok Sabha. This means all political parties need to do much more than just hosting functions for the minorities to win their trust.

The country’s unique characteristic is its cultural and religious diversity and it is laudable that political parties respect it by being part of festivities of various sectors. But it should not be a mere token participation. The steps taken by various political parties in relation to various minorities are not consistent with their professed claims.

- CAMIL PARKHE