Muslims Relieved Modi’s Lost His Majority But Don’t Know if Things Will Improve for them

Muslims breathed a collective sigh of relief when Modi lost his majority but they don't know how much things will improve for them: Prof. Mujibur Rehman, to Karan Thapar for The Wire.
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In an interview to discuss how India’s 200 million strong Muslim community has responded to the fact that the BJP has lost its majority in the Lok Sabha and ended up with the worst results it’s faced in 10 years, Prof. Mujibur Rehman, a leading scholar and author, says Muslims breathed a collective sigh of relief on June the 4th when the election results were announced but adds they are not at all sure how much the situation will improve for them.
In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Prof. Rehman, the author of a recently published book ‘Shikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims’, says Muslims are not confident that Narendra Modi’s anti-Muslim rhetoric will cease or even diminish. Nor are they confident that BJP MPs and MLAs will stop referring to them as Babar ki Aulad and stop telling them to go to Pakistan. Prof. Rehman said that he himself is not confident that the presence of parties like the TDP and the JD(U) in government will place a check on either the Prime Minister’s behaviour and rhetoric or that of his party men. This is because both these parties have been BJP allies before and did not check or restrain the BJP in any meaningful way. He is, therefore, doubtful they will do so now.
Prof. Rehman said if once again there are no Muslim faces in the new government - and it’s unlikely there will be - it will strengthen and corroborate the feeling many Muslims have that they are being treated like colonials. He corroborated his point by citing the famous American Revolution slogan “no taxation without representation”, adding this is a colonial policy.
Prof. Rehman said in India, although the country is governed by a secular constitution, “the political system has changed and has become what I would call a ‘saffron system’ … the prospect of violence against Muslims not only remains but state complicity has become normal confirming the fear that the state is increasingly going against Muslims”.
Prof. Rehman said “the political future of Indian Muslims is irretrievably threatened … Indian Muslims are seen as a problem, a threat or even an internal enemy”. He said the change in government is unlikely to meaningfully alter this.
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