The Muslim Vote Bank

It’s funny how every passing election; vote bank becomes an issue for the BJP as well as the Congress, one attacking, and the other defending the Muslim Voter.

I have always wondered if the Muslim Vote bank is for real or a myth, the reason as far as I am concerned is, if it is for REAL then there should be Muslim leadership that is in a position to deliver the Muslim vote en block to a particular party in every election.

If we looked around to get a feel of the Muslim leadership in India, it is rather saddening to see that a community of more than 170 million Muslims in this country is represented by Mulayam, Mayawati, Nitish, Lalu, Jaya and Karuna neither are any one of these leaders Muslim nor do they represent the community as a whole.

This is not funny any more, since half these leaders were or are in coalition with the BJP, look at Tamil Nadu where both the Dravidian parties enjoy a fair share of the Muslim vote and both have been BJP’s allies in the past and have no qualms aligning in the future and the Muslims continue to vote for these regional satraps knowing pretty well that post election anything is possible.

It is time for BJP and Congress to shut up and stop fooling each other since neither are going to represent the Muslims, If these National parties want to make a real difference, they have to look at an inclusive growth and carry the Muslims along, If they REALLY mean well for the community and the country.