How Kejriwal’s ‘soft Hindutva’ has alienated Muslims

It might be too early to start speculating about the outcome of the Delhi assembly election, which could be held as early as November in the unlikely event of Arvind Kejriwal getting his own way.But irrespective of when they take place — now or in February next year when they are normally due — there’s one bit of bad news for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that’s unlikely to change significantly.And it comes from the Muslim ‘mohallas’ and ‘kuchas’ of Old Delhi — the backbone of AAP’s diverse support base.From being a darling of Muslims and hailed as a breath of fresh air in the capital’s ossified politics — an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress — AAP is now widely viewed with suspicion by large swathes of the Muslim community.The community is particularly concerned over what is seen as the party’s creeping ‘saffronisation’ coupled with an attempt to distance itself from Muslims as a nod to the Hindu right. To dispel any impression that it is pro-Muslim.This has sparked a quiet Muslim backlash against Kejriwal, who they hold personally responsible for AAP’s transformation from a sensible middle-of-the-road party (an antidote to the stridently right-wing BJP and an anodyne Congress) into a cynical vote-getting operation.For the first time since AAP made its electoral debut in Delhi in 2013, the party goes into an election with the city’s 1.6mn-strong Muslim community sharply divided over whether it should continue to support it.And it’s not Muslims alone who are no longer enamoured of Kejriwal’s one-man band.There’s enough anecdotal evidence to suggest a steady erosion of support for it among its traditional voters across the board amid a growing weariness over its chaotic style. medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/Re46Udw6bB4?si=FSmZzuXwMeLh8k52Frankly, Kejriwal has turned politics into a bit of a circus where the clown-in-chief is so busy picking fights with everyone around him that he forgets to notice that there’s an audience (read voters) who have paid to be served.Every so often, he walks out in a huff protesting against something or the other, leaving people wondering why they ever bothered to turn up.And he has done it again.How many will turn up this time to say “encore” remains to be seen.Meanwhile, disillusioned Muslims face an acute dilemma.Unlike their Hindu peers who — at a pinch — can still vote for the BJP or the Congress with gritted teeth, most Muslims still can’t imagine themselves voting for either of them.The BJP is a big “no no” for obvious reasons and the Congress remains in the doghouse, having done little to repair its relations with them.Even those Muslims who might be inclined to vote for the Congress are discouraged by a lack of confidence in its potential to win.The party didn’t get a single seat in the last Delhi assembly election and still looks nowhere near like a winner.And a vote for it is seen as a waste. medium nocaptionhttps://www.youtube.com/live/pb-jSrT8OrM?si=Z6u7cbAeEdBSeOljMoreover, a split in the ‘secular’ vote would only benefit the BJP without necessarily strengthening the Congress.It is this fear that will still drive a significant number of Muslims to vote for AAP. Not because they wish to.But that’s like trying to hold on to a collapsing marriage for the sake of the kids.The day a ‘secular’ alternative looks like emerging either in the form of a revived Congress or some new kid on the block (an AAP breakaway?), Kejriwal will be toast.So, how did it come to this?The turning point in Muslim-AAP relations came during the 2019 Shaheen Bagh protests against the new citizenship law when Kejriwal doggedly refused to meet the protesters (mostly Muslim women) for fear of being dubbed a Muslim appeaser by the BJP.This despite the fact that the local MLA belonged to AAP and the party owed its constituents a duty of care.Kejriwal did the same thing during the 2020 communal riots in north-east Delhi. medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/D-k_RQ1Xqfc?si=-3qZf7kCis1rJ_xPAnd ditto the 2022 riots in Jahangirpuri. He studiously avoided any engagement with Muslims despite concerns over alleged police harassment — and bulldozing of their homes.The community was also cheesed off by the manner in which the Delhi government dealt with allegations that a gathering of Tablighi Jamaat activists in a Nizamuddin Muslim centre in March 2020 had been instrumental in spreading Covid across the country.So, the tension has been building up over a period of time and Kejriwal can no longer afford to ignore the danger signals without the risk of losing Muslim support.As The Hindu reported: “In recent times, sections of voters have been compelled to rethink their decisions (to support Kejriwal) owing to his silence on Muslim-related issues… Muslims may not matter electorally to the AAP at the national level, but they make up a significant portion of the anti-BJP vote, which will be crucial in order to compete against the BJP.”There are echoes here of the slide in Congress-Muslim relations, which was triggered by the party’s handling of the Ayodhya dispute.AAP’s ambiguous stand on the Shaheen Bagh protests was a watershed moment in its relations with Muslims in the same way as the Congress’ wishy-washy approach to the Ayodhya/Babri Masjid issue.It’s no coincidence that whenever the chips are down for Delhi’s Muslims, AAP is mysteriously missing in action.More often than not, on such occasions, it has appeared almost embarrassed of associating itself with Muslims — and mortally afraid of falling foul of the Hindu right. medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/7OGfi7XrRRo?si=J8lPqhYufoD9QZXnThen there’s the little matter of its attempts to imitate the BJP to assert its Hindu credentials.Its widely publicised public pujas attended by Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues — and broadcast live on major TV channels and social media platforms — were classical examples of its pathetic “me too” plea to right-wing Hindu voters.But the issue is not pujas which Kejriwal and his colleagues have every right to perform.The issue is that here’s a self-avowedly secular party, which loses no opportunity to accuse the BJP of playing the “Hindu card”, scrambling to catch up with it.Remember Kejriwal’s gratuitous call for printing images of Lakshmi-Ganesh on currency notes to help India’s economy grow faster?The Congress has long accused AAP of behaving like the BJP’s ‘B team’ — most recently last week amid a row over its reluctance to form an anti-BJP alliance in the forthcoming Haryana assembly election.It’s a view that resonates with many Muslims.But, more than anything else, what they resent is a sense of being taken for granted by AAP on the basis that they have nowhere else to go.The Congress paid a heavy price for making a similar mistake. And it doesn’t look good for AAP.Read more from the author here.