Modi's election setback leaves Indian Muslims safer

Muslims in India feel more secure about their future after last month's national elections in which Prime Minister Narendra Modis (BJP) failed to secure an absolute majority in Parliament, forcing him to form a coalition with d other parties.

Before the election, national media had reported deep concerns among Muslims that the ruling Hindu nationalist party would meet expectations of a landslide victory, leaving it free to pursue policies that would further marginalize the Muslim minority.

But with the BJP constrained by its electoral failure and the influence of its coalition partners, most believe these concerns are unlikely to come to fruition.

From the start of Modi's first term [in 2014], Muslims have been targeted with an unprecedented level of humiliation, disenfranchisement and blatant brutality, at the hands of state and non-state actors. BJP leaders have openly described Muslims as traitors, infiltrators, threats to Hindus, etc., Rohit Chopra, a professor at Santa Clara University in the US state of California, told VOA.

However, after the BJP failed to secure a majority in the just-concluded general elections, many observers of Indian politics believe that the Hindu nationalist party will not be able to target Muslims with its policies and his rhetoric as aggressive and open as before. Muslims expect the worst to be over.

Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has promoted a Hindu nationalist vision that has led more than 204 million Muslims to complain of persecution and discrimination from society and the state.

Over the past decade, in many BJP-ruled states, thousands of Muslim homes and shops have been demolished by bulldozers after their owners allegedly committed petty crimes.

Justice by bulldozer

Muslim community leaders and social activists stressed that authorities only targeted Muslim-owned structures, neglecting illegal buildings owned by non-Muslims. Several legal experts, including former judges, have called so-called bulldozer justice purely illegal.

Hundreds of Muslims have been lynched by right-wing Hindu vigilante groups over the past decade for allegedly transporting cows and beef. Muslims complained that members of these groups were seen as foot soldiers of the BJP and were rarely punished, especially in BJP-ruled states.

Although rights groups complain that Muslims in India sometimes face discrimination and hate attacks because of their faith, Modi denies their existence under his government.

Our constitution, our government and we have proven that democracy can be effective. When I say deliver, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or gender, there is absolutely no room for any discrimination. [under my government]Modi told reporters last year during a state visit to the White House.

In March, the Modi government enacted a controversial citizenship law that allowed followers of various religions, but not Islam, to enter India from neighboring countries following a fast track to Indian citizenship. Critics and Muslims said the law discriminated against Muslims.

Until recently, senior BJP leaders also said that the Modi government was setting up a National Register of Citizens or, NRC, a list of Indians who can prove their citizenship by providing documents. Muslim leaders fear that the NRC plan aims to designate many Indian Muslims as illegal aliens.

For years, the Modi government has said it would introduce a uniform civil code, a single law, replacing many customs and laws now followed by different religious groups. Muslim community leaders have long insisted that this would be used to marginalize and persecute Muslims.

During the recent election campaign, Modi and his party colleagues were accused of hate speech and peddling anti-Muslim clichés. Modi called Muslims infiltrators. He also identified the community as the one with more children.

However, many of these Muslim fears faded following the elections.

BJP remains dependent on its coalition partners

Several of the BJP's new coalition partners are known as secular and enjoy good support from Muslims, who count on the parties to oppose any hardline policies perceived as anti-Muslim. Leaders of the Telugu Desam Party, one of the coalition partners, said that on controversial policies, the BJP would not take any unilateral decision.

Apoorvanand, a professor at Delhi University, who uses only a first name, told VOA that the election result certainly brought some relief to Muslims.

The BJP had sought an anti-Muslim mandate. The speeches and comments by Modi and other BJP leaders were nothing but attempts to incite Hindus to oppose Muslims. Fortunately, the election results showed that Modi's election platform was rejected by a significant number of Hindus, he said.

Muslims hope that bulldozing punishments, which had become routine for them, will now be a thing of the past. And anti-Muslim laws would be more difficult to pass now. The judiciary will show courage and provide justice to Muslims who have been attacked with impunity by state organs.

Somdeep Sen, professor of international development studies at Roskilde University in Denmark, said Indian Muslims have reason to breathe a sigh of relief.

We have seen a rise in Islamophobia over the past decade. Even the usually stoic Prime Minister took on the role of publicly demonizing India's Muslim population during his election campaign. A bigger victory for Modi would have given the ruling party an even greater political mandate to pursue Islamophobic policies, he told VOA.

However, Sen said he did not believe India was “entering an era of inclusive politics”.

Along with their electoral successes, one of the key achievements of Hindutva forces was a cultural shift that normalized the prevailing demonization of Indian Muslims, he said.

With Modi at the helm, we cannot expect a complete reversal of this cultural shift, even if the prime minister must now deal with the needs and desires of the coalition partners.