BJP바카라�s Pasmanda Move Pushes Muslim Politics To A New Moment

On a July evening, Sadaf Jafar tries to call her cats in the hall of her tastefully decorated Lucknow home. Four Persian cats바카라�Rani, Timur, Gabbu Singh and Bibbo, named after the character Jafar played in A Suitable Boy. Nonchalant, they wouldn바카라�t come out of their cosy hiding. The hall has a tall cat tree with scratching posts. But the cats don바카라�t scratch it, they scratch Sadaf and her two teenage children. "Cat moms," the small family calls itself. 

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A teacher and single mother, Congress leader Jafar contested the recent assembly elections from Lucknow and was among the people who were jailed during the anti-CAA protests. Her daughter Kaunain Fatima has just completed Class 12th from La Martiniere, the city바카라�s most prestigious school, and is now aiming for Delhi University. Kaunain loves Harry Potter, but not the 바카라�transphobic바카라� JK Rowling. The girl, who has published poems in English, is associated with an organisation that has been fighting for the LGBTQ rights. 

If there바카라�s a family that effortlessly demolishes the stereotypes about the Muslims, it바카라�s this. And if there바카라�s a home that underlines the economic and cultural gap between the Ashrafs and the Pasmandas, it바카라�s also this. For, at a little distance live a Pasmanda couple, Waqar Hawari and his wife Kahkasha, who speak for hours about their bitter experiences with the Ashrafs and even seem to find a poetic justice in Jafar바카라�s electoral loss. 

Such rifts exist in other communities as well, but the BJP has sensed a space here to make inroads into the Muslim community. It has already shed the image of an upper caste party. According to a Lokniti-CSDS survey, of the total BJP's Votes in 1996 LS elections, 49 percent came from upper castes, 33 percent from OBCs, 11 percent from SC and 7 percent from STs. In 2019, 30 percent of the party바카라�s votes came from upper castes, 44 percent from OBCs, 16 percent from SCs and 10 percent from ST. 

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Having won over the OBC Hindus and thus weakened the Mandal parties, the BJP is now trying to reach out to the Muslims바카라�perhaps the only community beyond the party바카라�s electoral machine. Since the upper caste educated Muslims are the most vocal and articulate opponents of the BJP, it has trained its focus on the Pasmandas, a collective term for the OBC and the Dalit Muslims. The Pasmandas are astutely aware of it. 바카라�The BJP has seen that aligning with the Ashrafs doesn바카라�t help as their community didn바카라�t come to them. We Pasmandas want to talk only about our representation. We don바카라�t want to raise any emotional or religious issues,바카라� says Waqar Hawari, the Chief General Secretary of All Indian Pasmanda Mahaz.  

The BJP바카라�s project has begun from Uttar Pradesh where they inducted several Pasmanda leaders at key positions including Minority Commission Chairperson Ashfaq Saifi, Madarsa Board chairperson Iftikhar Ahmed Javed and Urdu Academy Chairperson Chaudhary Kaiful Wara. While the party didn바카라�t give a single ticket to a Muslim candidate during the recent assembly elections, CM Yogi Adityanath has made Danish Ansari, a Pasmanda, Minority Welfare Minister. The representation of the Ashrafs is nearly zilch at key posts in the UP government.

BJP바카라�s Minority Morcha chief Kunwar Basit Ali, though an Ashraf, has given 70 percent posts in his organisation to Pasmandas, who have also been the major beneficiaries of the government schemes.  

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바카라�UP has 19.33 percent of Muslim population. As many as 39 percent beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 22 percent beneficiaries of toilet yojna, 37 percent beneficiaries of Ujjawala Yojna and 30 percent beneficiaries of Mudra Yojana are Muslims,바카라� the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister바카라�s office told Outlook in a statement. 

바카라�Around 43 lakh homes were constructed under the Awas Yojna in the state in the last 5 years. Of these 20 lakh are for the Pasmandas only,바카라� says Basit Ali.  Even BJP바카라�s opponents admit it. 바카라�Muslim could be 33 percent of the total beneficiaries of the housing scheme,바카라� Waqar Hawari says. There are also government schemes like One District One Product (ODOP) that have benefitted more Muslims than Hindus, because of the sheer number of Muslim artisans. 
 
The contestations 

Several upper caste leaders term it eyewash. 바카라�What바카라�s the big deal if you make a Muslim chairperson of the Urdu academy? If you want to give us representation, make a Muslim home minister.  If the Pasmandas take this bait, nothing can help us,바카라� says Sadaf Jafar, pointing out that the many shops of Muslims the government forcibly shut down were of the Pasmandas. 

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The BJP바카라�s plan is obvious. 바카라�The whole Pasmanda initiative is a deliberate attempt to further fragment the already fragmented Muslim vote bank,바카라� says Congress leader Yusuf Ahmad Ansari. 

The divisions emerge from the long list of allegations the Pasmandas make바카라�the Ashrafs caused the partition, Aligarh Muslim University was designed to exclude them and favour the Ashrafs, major community organizations like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board are dominated by the Ashrafs. And then they point out two infamous incidents on December 6바카라�one was in 1992, the other in 2007 when some Syeds and Pathans assaulted low caste Ansaris and Mansuris over the right to pray and drove them out of their mosque in East Champaran district in Bihar. When the Pasmandas built a thatched mosque nearby, the upper caste Muslims damaged it. 

Of the total 1288 faculties at the AMU in 2016, upper caste Muslims occupied 1138 or 88.35 percent posts, with OBC Muslims reduced to just 62 or 4.81 percent posts바카라�even lesser than the 87 non-Muslim faculties. 

The BJP is trying to exploit this sentiment, and upper caste Muslims are not unaware of it. 바카라�By raking up the partition and the AMU case, the Pasmandas are gifting a lethal argument to the BJP,바카라� cautions a Syed leader in Lucknow. 

While the Pasmandas are not aligned with the BJP, unlike the Ashrafs they don바카라�t reject the BJP바카라�s outreach. 바카라�2024 is very important for the BJP. As a professional party, it바카라�d like to increase its voter base,바카라� says Khalid Anis Ansari, who teaches at Azim Premji university.  

바카라�The political sphere has some autonomy from the cultural and economic sphere. There바카라�s a cultural project of the RSS. There바카라�s a political project of the BJP, and there바카라�s an economic project of the plutocrats like Adanis. They work together, but they also have some autonomy and there are course corrections as well,바카라� he says.  

If the academic Ansari is guarded, some Pasmanda leaders are upbeat. Hawari, who is as opposed to the hate campaign against Muslims as any of his community leader is, terms Narendra Modi바카라�s call to reach out to weaker Muslims a 바카라�good move바카라�. 바카라�The Ashrafs are worried for the first time. They are facing defeat. Most new posts in UP have gone to the Pasmandas. The BJP바카라�s move can drastically improve our situation. It will scare the Ashrafs, and they will begin working for us,바카라� he says. 

But Hawari is also aware that the BJP바카라�s scheme 바카라�can create a further divide in the Muslim community바카라�. This, perhaps, is the BJP바카라�s precise hope. 

The party seems to have left the Pasmandas in a quandary. They can바카라�t abandon their opposition to the BJP, but they can바카라�t avoid welcoming the move either. 

Challenges the BJP face 

Among the Muslims appointed by the Yogi government is Tooraj Zaidi, the chairperson of the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad Committee that looks after the promotion of Urdu, Arabic and Persian. The frail man quietly sips coffee at a Lucknow hotel and remembers the date he joined the BJP바카라�November 11, 1993, 바카라�less than a year after the demolition of the Babri mosque바카라�. 바카라�I was then among the few Muslim members in UP BJP. I brought 151 Shia families with me. When I joined, my effigies were burnt. My relatives became angry, boycotted me,바카라� he says. A satisfaction now reflects in his voice, as his choice has finally paid off.

But he is aware that his party may not easily win the trust of a community it has considered its essential other for decades. Gau rakshaks and trolls don바카라�t differentiate between the Ashrafs and the Pasmandas. 바카라�During elections you talk about 80 versus 20, of abbazan and mamazan. You insult them for wearing Hijab in Karnataka. First treat us with some dignity,바카라� says Sadaf Jafar.

바카라�A party that takes pride in not having a single Muslim representative is suddenly making an outreach. I don바카라�t see anyone in Muslim community getting fooled by it,바카라� says Congress바카라�s Yusuf Ansari.

Basit Ali understands the crisis. He admits that while despite a large number of Muslim beneficiaries of various schemes, almost all of them poor, 바카라�only one lakh Pasmandas voted for the BJP in the recent elections바카라�. 

He wants his party 바카라�to also work on the dominant and powerful Ashrafs바카라�. 바카라�The party should take them along. They will bring several other biradaris with them,바카라� he says. 

Some Muslim leaders in BJP also list a few communities that can be easily 바카라�won over바카라�, including 바카라�converted Muslims바카라� like Muslim Rajput, Muslim Jat and Muslim Gurjars, who are still closer to the Hindus in their practices and culture. They are politically powerful and hold influence over several weaker Muslims biradaris.   

A sustained anti-Muslim campaign has enabled the BJP to consolidate its voters. It has to considerably tamper its stance to have a serious stab at the Pasmanda vote. Referring to the BJP바카라�s Sneh Yatra, All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz president Ali Anwar underlines that Muslims want 바카라�samman (respect)바카라� and not 바카라�sneh (affection)바카라�, and asks Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rein in his party leaders who make objectionable remarks against Muslims. 

Also, it바카라�s not about some beneficiaries in housing schemes or posts at minority institutions, but about participation in governance and politics. While there is no reservation for the Dalit Muslims, a miniscule percentage of Muslims have been able to take the benefit of OBC reservation. A few years ago, Dalit Muslim Ejaz Ali had famously said: 바카라�Babri masjid le lo, Article 341 de do,바카라� referring to Article 341 under which a community or caste can be classified as SC. 

It will be a tall order for the BJP to secure the SC reservations for the Muslims, but if the political need to bring the Pasmandas to its fold forces the BJP to revise its stand, it may weaken the influential Ashrafs and may mark a new moment for Muslim politics.