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Kalyan bewilders critics by turning a friend of Muslims

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

In sharp contrast to what the Bharatiya Janata Party was being suspected of -- a "hidden" Hindutva agenda -- what the party appears to be pursuing actively in the country's politically most influential state, Uttar Pradesh, is 'operation Muslim wooing'.

That the beginning has been made from Lucknow, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's constituency, makes it all the more significant.

And sure enough, as part of an obviously discreet plan, the party has managed to make headway by breaking a deadlock over certain Islamic processions banned by successive governments for 21 years.

The first breakthrough was made by the Kalyan Singh-led BJP government four months back, when the otherwise warring Shia and Sunni Muslim sects were allowed to take out their respective processions on the 21st day of the Islamic month of Ramzaan. For Lucknow's 800,000 Muslims, who had been making futile protests against the official ban since 1977, it was a "dream come true".

And once again, Kalyan Singh, branded among Muslims as the key culprit in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, conceded the echoing Shia demand for lifting the two-decade ban on Alam processions during Moharrum. What successive governments, blatantly bragging their Muslim agenda, did not dare to touch even with the tip of a barge-pole, was done in one stroke by a government betrothed to Hindutva.

However, Kalyan Singh's nod to lift the two-decade old ban initially aroused apprehensions of a breakdown in law and order, as had been witnessed over the decades on many such occasions and which took a toll of over 150 human lives. The first major Shia-Sunni clash over the issue was reported way back in 1905, but as things worsened and the sectarian clashes in 1977 led to the killing of 52 persons, the then Janata Party government imposed a blanket ban.

The azadaari processions of the Shias, including those during Mohharum and the reactionary Madde-Sahaba processions of Sunnis became history. While Sunnis remained somewhat complacent and did not seem to mind the ban, as long as their rival Shias were not granted permission for azadaari or Moharrum processions, the Shias refused to get cowed down. And what irked them most was the ban on alam processions during Moharrum.

Defiance of the ban, culminating in Shias courting arrest by the dozens, became an annual ritual, even as attendance at these protests continued to thin, with larger sections realising the futility of demonstrations or even violence. Older leaders like Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, who also happens to be vice-president of the All India-Muslim Personal Law Board, had nearly given up on the issue, since even his ardent admirer and the much proclaimed 'Muslim messiah', Mulayam Singh Yadav, refused to oblige him during his two stints as chief minister.

It was at this juncture that Sadiq's nephew Maulana Kalbe Jawaad, rushed back from Iran where he was pursuing higher Islamic studies, to renew the Shia agitations with fresh vigour last year. The then Mayawati-led BSP-BJP coalition declined to take cognisance of the protests, provoking two Shia youths to immolate themselves. The intensified protests heightened Mayawati's ire and she ordered the young leaders' arrest and a brutal caning of his followers. Predictably, that only worsened matters.

The transfer of power to the BJP naturally further disillusioned the Shia rank and file and they virtually lost hope of any concessions from a political party that was better known among Muslims as rabidly "anti-Muslim". It was, therefore, no wonder that Kalyan Singh's initiatives in finding a solution to a vexed issue as this one have left everyone bewildered.

In fact, when Kalyan Singh detailed the then state police chief Sri Ram Arun, principal home secretary R R Shah and Lucknow's divisional commissioner D D Verma to thrash out a solution, and the first breakthrough was made in January, the BJP's critics took it as just another "gimmick that could buy only temporary peace". Yet no one could deny that they had achieved the impossible by ensuring a simultaneous peaceful turnout of both Shias (taking out azadaari procession) and Sunnis (taking out their Madde-sahaba procession).

Officials engaged in the protracted negotiations made no bones about the fact that the accord reached between the two warring Muslim sects was meant only for the January 21 processions. But the BJP government did not stop at that, and went ahead with renewed tripartite talks to work out a longer lasting solution, that came to pass on April 27.

This time the key man was Lucknow's new divisional commissioner Arun Kumar Misra, who struck a chord with representatives of both sects for not just azadaari, but also other major Islamic occasions like the Eighth of Rabi-ul-awwal, the 21st day of Ramzaan as well asbarawafat.

Asks Kalyan Singh, "Why could not the Congress and Samajwadi Party, which have been condemning us as communal, do this?" while adding proudly, "That is why I call them pseudo-secularists."

Even some vociferous Muslim representatives, who have always seen the BJP as an "enemy of the minorities", have been compelled to now admit in private, "Well, the BJP's action has proved that where there is a will there is a way." A Babri Masjid activist confessed, "I do agree that if past governments had really shown sincere commitment, they could have brought such an amicable settlement to pass." While preferring anonymity, he also did not deny, "The BJP would definitely make some political capital out of this."

The move has also helped soften a section of the Muslims towards the BJP. Particularly, the younger lot has begun to ask, "Why should we always suspect the BJP?" With a well known Shia scholar, Maulana Agha Roohi, having already thrown his lot with the BJP, top party leaders have began to look up for greater support in the long run. His disciple, Tooraj Zaidi, talks like a Hindutva activist.

While the chief minister's handing of the situation has cut much ice with Shias, a section of which had already extended support to A B Vajpayee in the last two elections, the recent accord on processions has sent positive signals among Sunnis too.

Tariq Hasan, a young shopkeeper, was candid enough to say, "I think we are victims of constant indoctrination by leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav, who believe in only terrorising us in the name of the BJP." His friend Aslam said, "Tell me, why should we fear the BJP, after all they have been here for all these months and what damage have they cause to us?" Significantly, even the larger chunk who have nothing charitable to say about the BJP, do not come out with a single incident indicting the BJP government's discrimination with Muslims.

Yet, it seems strange that the BJP hierarchy has not been able to fathom the impact of its own government's achievement, as no effort appears to have been made either at the party level or even by the sole Muslim minister in Kalyan Singh's cabinet to extract political mileage from it. Political observers wonder if "it was really the BJP's failure to realise their achievement, or was it a studied silence to ward off the message the BJP was going on a Muslim wooing spree -- something the hardliners in the RSS and VHP might find unpalatable..."

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