Muslims will vote Congress but remain fatalistic of outcome

PORBANDAR: As the two principal contenders slug it out to gain control of Gujarat, one community has virtually been forced out of the frame. Despite comprising 9% of the electorate, Muslims are, once again, getting reconciled to occupying the status of a fringe player.

Despite the high-voltage campaign launched by the Congress to seize power in the state, members of the minority community are veering round to the prospect of spending another five years under saffron rule.

You only have to scrutinise their body-language and responses to come to the conclusion that members of the community were not really pinning their hopes on the principal `secular player’, the Congress, to bail them out.

While most Muslims interviewed by this correspondent refused to identify themselves, those who opted to reveal their names felt that, notwithstanding all the talk of a resurgent Congress and a despondent BJP, Mr Modi was set to stage a comeback.

``We’ll vote for the Congress, that’s for sure. But that’s not going to stop the BJP from coming to power,” observed Siddiqui Bhai, a resident of Navagadh, which is part of the Jetpur assembly constituency falling in the Rajkot constituency.

Famous for its cotton sari printing industry, Jetpur is home to a substantial number of Muslims. ``After the Lehva Patels, Muslims comprise the biggest chunk. They will all vote for the Congress, but it’s the BJP which will emerge victorious,’ observed Mohammed Hussain, a taxi-driver. ``Here, the BJP holds sway. The Lehva Patels are all saffronites,’’ he added.

Despite the passage of five years since the Godhra train carnage and its bloody aftermath, Muslims, it is clear, continue to live in a perpetual world of fear — a factor which has prevented them from coming out in the open. ``Nothing has changed for us,” quipped a businessman from Porbandar, who did not wish to be identified.

The businessman was sharply critical of the Modi government, asserting that it had done nothing to change the qualitative lives of people. ``There is a lot of poverty in Porbandar. Power-supply is erratic, and we get municipality water for only one hour. Besides the Saurashtra Chemicals factory and fishery, there is no industry here. There is, therefore, a large-scale migration every year either to a foreign country or to Kutch,`` he argued.

Despite all this, he was not very hopeful of the Congress being able to outflank Mr Modi. ``The BJP will come back to power, with a reduced majority,” he reckoned.

While the BJP, living up to its billing as a pro-Hindu party, has denied any ticket to Muslims, it is the attitude of the `secular’ Congress which has come as a big disappointment to the community-members. ``We comprise a little less than 10% of the electorate in Gujarat, but the number of tickets allotted to the members of our community by the Congress — five — is terribly shocking,” observed a farmer from Malyasi, a village falling under the Wankaner assembly constituency in Rajkot district.With the Congress too ‘toeing a soft Hindutva line,’ Muslims realise that they’ll continue to remain a fringe player in the state.