Ehsan Ashraf, a retired professor of philosophy at the College of Commerce, loses no time when asked why Musli... Read More

PATNA: Ehsan Ashraf, a retired professor of philosophy at the College of Commerce, loses no time when asked why Muslims in such large numbers seemed to have voted for the Mahagathbandhan. “It was the fear of Hindu radicals,” he said on Sunday, moments after results of the crucial Bihar polls flashed from TV screens across the nervous state.

It is a sentiment echoed by most Muslims here. The change of tactic by the NDA in the last two phases of polling, with the introduction of a hard narrative that spoke at length about the cow and Pakistan, had clearly backfired. While there wasn’t much evidence on the ground that Hindu votes had consolidated, there was ample proof that Muslims had come together like never before to root for the “secular politics” of JD (U).

A bunch of Muslim men TOI spoke to in the city said RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was quite a guarantee that riots would not take place in the state. Bihar, one of them said, did not witness a single major incident of sectarian violence during the Lalu-Rabri-Nitish rule earlier.

“If the government of the day doesn't want riots to take place, it will not,” Ashraf added. “Riots take place only when the administration is let loose,” the former teacher said, recalling an often-repeated statement by Lalu. He then added, “We did not like the BJP’s agenda to divide the society on communal line just to polarize the voting pattern. BJP was neglecting Muslim voters and walking on RSS agenda. The kind of hate speech by some of the BJP leaders hurt us, but PM remained quiet. This indicated that he was supporting such elements indirectly.”

General secretary of the think-tank Urdu Council Hind, Aslam Jawedan, said Muslims were always uncomfortable at the “politics of polarisation” and found it easy to ally with the Mahagathbandhan. “We remained consolidated. We were sure not to let our votes get divided -- even if it was a kin fighting from another party.” Factors like the Dadri lynching and the beef controversy that would erupt every second day in some part of the country or other didn’t help the NDA.

Muslims stand at around 16% of the population in Bihar and they came out in huge numbers to vote for the party of their choice. Areas like Kishanganj, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Katihar, with a sizeable minority vote bank, witnessed large turnouts. In fact, many Muslim voters campaigned in their individual capacities to get their friends and relatives to go for the Nitish-Lalu-Congress combine. “It was a do-or-die situation for us,” a government employee, who requested not to be named, said. He further added “There is intolerance in the country after Modi formed the government at the Centre and we did not want that to happen in Bihar. Earlier, I hardly heard of terms like beef or Pakistan, but the kind of communal politics which BJP was playing was shameful hence we kept our fingers crossed for the result.”

The Asaduddin Owaisi factor, which was supposed to divide Muslim votes mostly in the Seemanchal region, turned out to be a dud eventually – something most members of the community said they were thankful for. The AIMIM managed to get a paltry 0.2% of the polled votes.

Urdu directorate director Imteyaz Ahmad Karimi added, “Modi talked of ‘Sabka saath sabka vikaas, but he himself sidelined Muslims and his remarks like 5% of quota from backwards would never be given to minority were really hurting. We did not expect a Prime Minister to talk like this. There was a fear among Muslims, and we had faith in Lalu and Nitish. Also Nitish worked a lot for promoting Urdu.”

Urdu Academy secretary and a retired bureaucrat Moshtaque Ahmad Noori also attributed Nitish’s attempt like fencing of graveyard and reopening of Bhagalpur riot cases as major factors to win over minority. “Bahgalpur riots cases were like Pandora’s box and Nitish reopened them. Again he worked for the fencing of graveyard, and huge chunks of land were saved from encroachment,” said Noori, who was in Bhopal to attend a conference.

Muslim-dominated areas in the state capital wore a festive look. People were busy distributing sweets and burning crackers. Imarat Shariah Nazim Anisur Rahman Qasmi also congratulated the Mahagathbandhan leadership.