Uniform Civil Code Can Be A Double Edged Sword For Narendra Modi

By Sushil Kutty

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Pasmanda outreach marginalised Muslims are on test. Will they rise above identity and embrace an opportunity to enhance socio-economic circumstances which had kept them tied to the lowest rungs of Indian society? Ironically, and quite paradoxically, the Pasmanda, or the “left behind people”, are being seen as the saviours of the BJP at a time when the perception is building that Prime Minister Modi’s stock is falling and there’s newfound confidence in the opposition parties stacked up against his decade-old “misrule”.

It is being said that Modi would die of despair tomorrow if the Pasmanda tweeted tonight that they stood with their Ashraf brothers and that they preferred “identity” over lowlife socio-economic circumstances. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been engaged in social-engineering in the Muslim context ever since mid-2022, juxtaposing the “high-castes” Ashraf and the left-behind Pasmanda while ruling that the Pasmanda were the victim, and Ashraf the oppressor.

To an extent, this worked and 61 Pasmanda Muslim candidates won in the recently held UP local bodies elections on the BJP ticket. The plan is to take that initiative right into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections though it will be a toss whether Hindu nationalist party BJP will go for such a radical move and nominate Pasmanda candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Over the course of two Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party had not fielded a single Muslim candidate. Therefore, the importance being given to the Prime Minister’s “Pasmanda outreach” and whether Pasmanda Muslims should leap at the opportunity, no questions asked? This, despite Ashraf-efforts to continue to present a monolithic Muslim front.

The Ashrafs, who wield political power within the Muslim community and consider themselves direct descendants of Mughal and Arab, are banking on a single Muslim identity to stave off Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to drive a wedge between Pasmanda and Ashraf,  which is the time-tested ‘divide-and-rule’ concept perfected by the British Raj in India.

Modi is, however, going all out to win over the Pasmanda. His government has rolled out scores of major and minor Pasmanda-centric schemes including scholarships for “IAS coaching” and increased representation in other government jobs. That said, the focus is primarily on Uttar Pradesh which sends the most number of Lok Sabha MPs to Parliament.

The BJP has more or less come to believe that without the Pasmanda, there wouldn’t be a third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This mindset has permeated all levels of the saffron party, right down to the lowest minion in the BJP IT Cell, whose Chief Amit Malviya is in dire police trouble.

A far cry from as recently as two years ago when the Indian Muslim considered the BJP anti-Muslim to the core and the RSS an existential threat. But, how successful has Modi’s Pasmanda outreach been is mostly in the realm of speculation, especially after the Karnataka elections which saw Muslims ganging up against the BJP like their lives depended on it.

For the first time in decades, Muslims voted en bloc for the Congress, the memory of which will haunt the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where assembly elections are to take place later this year.

But, it’s in Uttar Pradesh that the BJP cannot afford to fail with its Pasmanda outreach. Therefore, the almost total subjugation to the Pasmanda “santhustikaran”, leaving no stone unturned to please Pasmanda outpourings and scrounging resources from any and all quarters to take forward the Modi brand of Pasmanda appeasement.

Flats have been built on land “grabbed” from slain gangster Atiq Ahmed and have been “distributed” to Pasmanda beneficiaries. It is almost like the Yogi government was waiting to grind the Atiq Ahmed mafia to dust to get hold of his ill-gotten land for Pasmanda appeasement. And for once, the BJP was not complaining about “four wives and 10 children each wife” when handing over the flats to the Pasmanda beneficiaries!

So, while the BJP goes ahead with its Pasmanda outreach, the Pasmanda believe they can renegotiate their standing with the dominant Ashrafs in the changed socio-economic ground realities. But while Pasmanda women may fall for Modi and Yogi’s game because of the flats and homes given to them in their names under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, there’s no guarantee the entire household will vote for the BJP.

The plight of Pasmanda Muslim notwithstanding, Muslim voting has not seen any marked change though the UP local bodies elections saw some BJP victories in a few Muslim-dominated areas. The BJP nominated Muslim candidates in 395 seats and won in 61. Then, a BJP Muslim candidate won the assembly by-election in Suar and the party also tasted victory in the Rampur Lok Sabha and assembly byelections.

The only glitch that can upend Modi’s Pasmanda plan is the Unified Civil Code (UCC), which has brought all Muslims — both Pasmanda and Ashraf — under the same big tent of the Muslim Ummah. The UCC is seen as a threat to the entire Muslim brotherhood and it looks like Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a bite bigger than what he could chew. With Muslims also in the fray, the UCC is a double-edged sword and it can cut deep, and fine. (IPA Service)

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