Is NaMo reaching out to the Muslims? Not in Uttar Pradesh

Rajnath Singh (left) and Narendra Modi

The importance of Uttar Pradesh in India’s electoral politics needs no elaboration. With 80 Lok Sabha seats, no party that wants to form a government at the Centre can ignore the state. Elections over the decades, with a few exceptions, have shown that the party which wins UP either forms the government at the Centre or becomes a major ally in a coalition running the government in New Delhi. Another reason that keeps UP in the spotlight is that it is home to many high-profile constituencies, like Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi, Lucknow, etc. Varanasi, in UP, will probably be the most-talked about constituency as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal are contesting from here. That Mr Modi chose Varanasi as one of the two seats he is contesting from reflects the state’s importance to the BJP.

Narendra Modi with Muslim leaders

With Muslims forming about 18% of the state’s population, their importance cannot be overlooked. Given this, it is surprising that of the 75 candidates the BJP has announced in UP, there is not even one candidate from the Muslim community. On the face of it an analysis on religious lines is not always the right approach, but, for a party that is claiming to be more ‘inclusive’ and keeping a distance from the hardline Hindutva it has been associated with, this void is glaring. The BJP, especially under Mr Modi, has made an effort — or it seems — to reach out to the Muslim community. Party president Rajnath Singh’s “try us once…” comment was widely perceived as an effort to bring the minority community closer to the BJP and thereby boost its chances in the elections. The party was quick to clarify that Mr Singh’s comment was not an apology for the 2002 riots in Gujarat, but an assurance that it will not shy away from apologising for any future mistake. Its list of candidates from UP, however, tell a different story.
The BJP is counting on the upper caste votes and is building on the support of the OBCs. Back-of-the-envelope estimates predict around 40 seats for the party in the state. In the state’s crowded electoral pool this is a commanding figure. But the party will have to put its money where its mouth is. This also gives other parties, especially the Congress that has fielded 11 Muslims from the state, a stick to beat the BJP. This is a criticism the BJP cannot wish away.

Protest benefits: AAP's idea to reward lawbreakers is bad

Shocking decision

Break the law and we will reward you — this seems to be the message from the AAP government in Delhi to the people. Its decision to foot 50% of the electricity bills of consumers who defaulted on their payment between October 2012 and December 2013 and to waive any penalty on these bills is unviable at best and unfair at worst. The government has identified 24,036 such defaulters who will be rewarded and this move will cost the state exchequer `6 crore. The Arvind Kejriwal government has already subsidised water and electricity tariffs at a cost of `200 crore. Cabinet minister Manish Sisodia’s statement that “the people who supported us during the andolan….should benefit now” puts the government’s move in perspective — `6 crore of the taxpayers’ money is being used to ‘benefit’ a few party supporters.
In Indian politics there is nothing new in a political party or government announcing sops in the hope that the intended group of beneficiaries would vote for the party. From cycles, televisions, mixies to laptops and even regularisation of illegal settlements, political parties, both at the central and state level, have tried to outdo the other. However, AAP’s move takes populism to a new level.
The AAP government in Delhi is in a tearing hurry, and in eagerness to sprint ahead it does not seem to ponder too much about the consequences of the statements and decisions it is taking. The subsidy can only be seen as a move to ‘reward’ those who stood by the party in its ‘bijli-paani andolan’ days. It sends out a covert message to AAP supporters that ‘if you stick by the party in all its decisions, you will be rewarded’. This move mocks the consumers who stuck to the law and did not heed Mr Kejriwal’s call to default on bill payments. This also sends out a wrong message to political parties like the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which is on a protest against toll taxes in Maharashtra, that they can break the law and also to the people that if they go against the law they will be rewarded, not punished.

AAP vs Delhi Police: Kejriwal defends the indefensible and stoops to 'politics'

No one expected AAP to have a smooth ride, but no one quite expected its ministers to turn out to be its worst enemies. Faced with growing internal spats, with MLA Vinod Kumar Binny accusing the government of moving away from the party’s goals and members like Captain Gopinath and Mallika Sarabhai questioning the government’s actions, it now has added problems. Last week, Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, along with a few volunteers, demanded that the police raid a house in South Delhi saying that he had information that the foreign nationals — from ‘Nigeria or Uganda’ according to Mr Bharti — living there were pushing drugs and running a prostitution racket. According to media reports, two women were forced to undergo medical examination in the night. It seemed to have slipped Bharti’s mind that it is illegal for the police to raid a place without a search warrant and as per the Code of Criminal Procedure the police cannot take action against women after sunset. On the same day, women and child welfare minister Rakhi Birla accused the police of shielding suspects in a dowry harassment case.
The Delhi Police ‘refusing’ to co-operate with the state government, as pointed out by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a press conference on Thursday, points to a larger issue of who controls the police control and police reforms that needs to be addressed on a policy level, and not on the streets of Delhi in the night by people who are not authorized to do so. The irony in Kejriwal’s statement “We warn the Delhi Police to mend their ways….the police are only shying away from their duty” cannot be missed as it was the same AAP, under Kejriwal’s leadership, which attacked then CM Sheila Dikshit when, after the December 16 gang rape, she said that her government had no control over the Delhi Police which comes under the Union home ministry. Kejriwal holding dharnas till the cops who did not comply by the ministers’ orders are suspended will not improve the security situation in the capital.
 Many of the government’s actions seem to show that AAP is yet to move from an activism mode to understanding the intricacies of running a government. The people have reposed great faith and hope in AAP and are ready to give it a very long rope. This is all the more a reason for AAP to be extra cautious before resorting to insensitive statements and acts of vigilantism.