Muslims in 2014 parliament: a debate
In the 18th May edition of Indian Express Christophe Jaffrelot and Gilles Verniers raised a very much expected topic of Muslim representation in the new parliament. There was a quick and sharp rebuttal from Mr. M. G. Vaidya, the veteran RSS thinker, which was also published by Indian express, perhaps as an indication of change.
Newsbharati captures the gist of the argument of Jaffrelot, the counterview presented by M. G. Vaidya and adds its own data analysis on the points raised by Mr. Vaidya.
Invisible in the House: The Jaffrelot analysis
In 2014, Muslims represent 4 per cent of the LS whereas their community represents 13.4 per cent of the population according to the Census.
Where do they come from? From neighbouring Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, but only to a limited extent, since these states have elected four and three Muslim MPs, respectively. The largest contingent comes from West Bengal, with eight Muslim MPs distributed across three parties. The Trinamool Congress had distributed a large number of tickets to Muslim candidates (23), but only five in West Bengal, where they actually stood a chance to win. Four, though, have been elected. Beyond that, the usual pockets sent their lonely or couple of MPs: Hyderabad, Lakshadweep, the IUML pocket in Kerala, and Assam, where Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front succeeded in wresting three seats from the BJP.
Some regional parties also tend to distribute a larger number of tickets to Muslims, such as the SP (36 out of 195), the CPM (14 out of 95) and the BSP (48 out of 501). But barring the CPM, the majority of these tickets were distributed outside their regional strongholds, in Gujarat for example, where the SP lined up six Muslim candidates. In 2009, a significant number of Muslim MPs had been elected on BSP tickets. But then this time, the BSP has no seat at all. The party that has the largest number of Muslim MPs this time, the TMC, fielded 23 Muslim candidates out of 130, that is, 17 per cent of the total. But despite the TMC’s good performance, only four were elected.
So, if one takes a bird’s eye view on party affiliations, it is striking to observe that the 23 Muslim MPs come from eight different states and 11 different parties, which will not help them to build a cohesive presence in the House nor to weigh much within their own parties. If one excludes Muslim independent candidates, the percentage of Muslim candidates hovers slightly below 10 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But the proportion of the successful candidates among them has dropped to 4 per cent, as mentioned above. Which means that the success rate of Muslim candidates is rather low, and there may be even fewer Muslim candidates next time.
It is up to the new government to decide if it will take it up or not, signalling, in the process, if Heptulla’s presence in the cabinet is merely symbolic. But given the new balance of power in the Lok Sabha, it remains to be seen if anyone will lend their voice to a minority that is increasingly absent from public life at the national level.
For One India that is Bharat: M. G. Vaidya
I read with interest, an article titled 'Invisible in the House', published in the Indian Express of 28th May, written by two scholars Christophe Jafferlot and Gilles Verniers. They appear to be concerned about the percentage of Muslims in the Indian Lok Sabha. May I request these two scholars to find out and publish, the number of Roman Catholic M. P.s in the British Parliament and the number of Catholic Ministers in David Cameron's Cabinet. I presume, subject to correction, that the population of Roman Catholics in UK must be arount 10%. Has any Catholic ever become the P. M. of the UK? We only know that a Prince of Wales, was denied the titular crown of the State, because he wanted to marry a Catholic woman. Can we call UK a communal nation? I hope we cannot, because UK is not India that is Bharat.
Let us now turn to the USA. The USA has 24% Roman Catholic population. But in its history of more than three centuries, only one Roman Catholic could become the President of the USA I mean John F. Kennedy. But he too was not allowed to run the full tenure. He was killed. Since then no Catholic ever adventured to contest the Presidential election? Is not the USA a communal nation? No, because UKand USA are not India. The Britishers who ruled for about one & a half century, never thought that India that Bharat was one country, and our short-sighted and narrow-minded politicins, inherited that vicious mindset. They are unable to understand that with all the manifold religions, languages, castes and creeds, India that is Bharat is one country, with one people, one culture i.e. one value-system and therefore one nation.
I wonder whether the Indian Express, which meticulously searched the caste of each member of the Modi Cabinet, and published it, will like to publish this piece.
Newsbharati fact-sheet
We are sure that Christophe Jafferlot and Gilles Verniers are not going to analyze the data as suggested by Mr. Vaidya. But the facts reveal some interesting details about USA and UK.
USA
In USA 78 % population is Christian and they bagged 88% Senate seats in current Senate. Jews are about 1.7% in population and have 10% seats in Senate. The third largest religion of USA is Islam, is not represented by even a single member in Senate and that has been a story for a long time. Only in 2006 the first Muslim Senator could be elected. The first Muslim elected in Congress was Keith Ellison in 2006, followed by Andre Carson in 2008. There is no Hindu senator yet. In fact the only non Christian senator is a Buddhist, Mazie Hirono elected from Hawaii State on Democrats ticket.
UK
The 2011 census shows 17.9% of the UK resident population in non-white groups and 82.1% white. The non white groups are pre dominantly non Christian. However there are only 27 ethnic minority MPs in British Parliament which amounts to 4.2% of the total 650 MPs. Before 2001, there were only 12 ethnic minority MPs. Interestingly the first MP ethnic minority who completed his term in British Parliament was the legendary Dadabhai Naoroji. He was elected Liberal MP for Finsbury Central from 1892 to 1895. Naoroji was a critic of British rule in India and prominent pro-British Indians decided to put up their own candidate, Mancherjee Bhownaggree (later Sir Mancherjee). He was elected and represented Bethnal Green North-East from 1895 to 1905: the second Indian of unmixed parentage and the first minority ethnic Conservative to sit in Parliament. They were followed by Shapurji Saklatvala who was a Parsi born in Bombay and represented Battersea North for Labour from 1922 to 1923 and as a Communist from 1924 to 1929.
But after 1945, it was only in 1987 that 4 minority ethnic MPs were elected again.
Europe
In 2012, 1.5% of members of the French National Assembly were from an ethnic minority, compared with an estimated 12.6% of the general population. The latest figures for Germany in 2007 were 1.3% of members of the lower house representing 4.8% of the general population, and for the Netherlands 8% and 10.9%.
The difference between and EU, USA, and Bharat
Then there is the big difference to remember. In Europe, religious and ethnic minorities are almost one and the same. But in India, maybe there are religious minorities, but certainly there are no ethnic minorities except Parsis and Jews and they are perfectly happy living in this land.
Perhaps it is difficult to digest to the secular camp that with Muslim vote being effective in more than 50 constituencies, it is quite possible that Muslims have actually voted for BJP or the Hindu candidates of other parties.