The previous month has seen several much nuanced changes in the way the Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly the way its top leaders Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh, have tried to reach out to the Muslims, an continuing process which is titled “Muslims for Modi, Modi for Muslims”.
The programme, which the party’s senior Muslim face Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi calls “an ongoing conversation” with the community, is sewedtogether by the RSS with political participation by Muslims at all levels in the party.
In his last rally in Bihar, Modi had quoted to a great extent from the Sachar committee report on the socio-economic status of the Muslims, a report which the party had distanced itself from when it first came out, till it discovered that it was in fact favourable to the Gujarat government’s record on inclusion.
Party president Rajnath Singh too spoke of “asking for forgiveness” from the community if they felt wronged by the BJP in any way. “The attempt here is to make Modiji appear as a face of development rather than fear,” said Naqvi.
As per the study done by the party, the main concern of the community is said to be a sense of security and employment, issues which the party aims to tackle. “We will move away from the typical issues which the Congress and so-called secular parties have been talking about, like the Hajj subsidy and Waqf property,” said Naqvi.
A senior member in the RSS said that there were approximately 3 lakh polling booths in Muslim-dominated areas where it is drawing upon local youths to man them. “These are booths where BJP would not even send a single representative, but this time we are working with younger members of the community and making them participate in the BJP’s political fortunes,” said a senior RSS office bearer.