For the first time in the history of India’s ruling party, there is no Muslim MP. Such was the case with the resignation of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,
the BJP’s senior Muslim leader, from the Union Cabinet. At the same time, there were no more Muslim faces in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
This situation arose when Modi was talking about the BJP’s influence among non-Hindus as well as Muslims.
Minority Development Minister Naqvi resigned on Wednesday, the day before his term in the Rajya Sabha expired on Thursday.
The 64-year-old politician was the only Muslim minister in the BJP, which has about 400 MPs.
India is home to about 200 million Muslims. The country has the third largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan.
According to media reports, the BJP may consider Naqvi for the post of vice-president of India amid global outrage over the controversial anti-Islam remarks of one of its officials. However, the BJP’s party high command and Naqvi have not yet told the media about it.
Venkaiah Naidu, the current Vice President of India, expires on August 10. The country’s vice-presidential election will be held on August 8.
Incumbent President of India Ramnath Kobind’s term expires on the 25th of this month.
Ahead of his departure, India’s presidential election will be held on July 16 and the ruling party in the center of the country has also announced the name of Orissa BJP leader Draupadi Murmur as the party’s candidate in that election.
In the Constitution of India, the President and the Vice-President play a mainly formal role. The prime minister and his cabinet have executive powers.
Modi’s BJP claims to be the ‘largest political party in the world’. The party has 301 members in the lower house of parliament who are directly elected by the people.
As a result of Naqvi’s departure, there were no Muslim members in the upper house of parliament.
Experts say the absence of Muslim representatives in the BJP’s elected office contradicts the party’s repeated slogan “Sabka Saath, Sabka Bikash”.
Journalist and political analyst Arti R. Jerath told Al Jazeera that this is new and unusual. They no longer have any symbolic Muslim face.
It is clear how the BJP has changed under Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Through this, the party is quite openly saying that we have shown that we can win the election without the support of Muslims.
In the 2014 national elections, the BJP fielded seven Muslim candidates but none of them won that year despite overwhelming support among voters.
In the 2019 elections where Modi came back to power better.
In that election, the BJP fielded six Muslims, but they lost again
Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India. 19 percent of the population of this state is Muslim.
The BJP has reiterated its 2016 strategy of not fielding a single Muslim in the Assembly elections held earlier this year.
The party has done the same in the Manipur and Uttarakhand state elections.
Jamal Siddiqui, head of the BJP’s minority wing, told Al Jazeera that the party does not take religion into account when selecting its candidates.
The party allocates seats as needed and it is really very unfortunate if people look at it through the lens of religion.
Home Minister Shah Gayle cited “election victory” as the reason for keeping Muslims off the list of candidates in March.
Our tickets are distributed on the basis of victory,” he said.
Aarti and Zerath agree with the BJP’s argument. He said the party felt that if a Muslim contested on a BJP ticket, there was no good chance of winning that seat.
The main voters of the BJP are basically Hindu nationalist voters. They are hesitant to vote for a Muslim candidate.
Rahul Verma, a fellow at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, said there was “no chance of harm” in the BJP’s election as there were no Muslim MPs or MLAs.
But the party should not be proud of it. Rather, as the BJP is a nationally influential party, it needs to find a way to represent Muslims in its organization. They have to pave the way for the legislature and the ministry.
