Muslims in U.P. ‘adapt to times’

They have realised that their projection as adversary in election campaign should be minimised on the ground

“Every time I take her to mate, I take a letter from Kaptaan sahib [Superintendent of Police] to that effect,” said Mazahir Hussain, a retired head constable, one of the very Muslims who keep a cow in Dhakiya Chaman, a tiny hamlet in Amroha, alongside Delhi-Moradabad expressway. “For if I don’t,” said Mr. Hussain, there was every possibility that he was stopped by some lumpen elements who would either ask for a cut or make his derriere swell by at least two inches. Mr. Hussain gestures with his fingers the size of the potential swelling. “I passed her on to a Gurjar farmer but he failed to feed her properly. So, I brought her back,” he said.

In Budhana, Muzaffarnagar, an aged ironsmith Karimuddin said Muslims in villages in the region had stopped lifting even dead cows. “Now ‘they’ suffer,” he chuckled.

In the ongoing Assembly polls, one thing is clear that Muslims across rural Uttar Pradesh have learnt to live with the BJP. They are diplomatic, less vocal and the sense of fear that used to prevail among them has given way to a quiet, pragmatic approach and a realisation that their projection as the adversary in the election campaign should be minimised on the ground.

Unlike the Jatavs, Muslim respondents start by praising the BJP rule for providing regular ration and better law and order situations. It is only when you spend time with them that they talk about how the everyday hate that is being injected is worse than the periodic riots that used to happen earlier. But in the same vein, they would say hateful messages had become hackneyed in this election.

In Titwai village of Muzaffarnagar, an aged farmer Kamre Alam said the pandemic had played a role. “People knew everybody had to go to the same resting place but the deaths in the second wave refreshed the teachings. In villages, people attend each other’s funerals. When you have to go to a burial and cremation ground every day, differences also get buried.”

Observers said its impact could be seen from the way the BJP has been forced to import the ‘Muslim issue’ from other States and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held very few rallies in the first two phases has finally addressed the issue of stray cattle.

The day Mr. Modi linked the Samajwadi Party’s cycle symbol with terror, he also, for the first time, admitted that stray cattle were a real problem. In Unnao public meeting, he said that after March 10 a comprehensive plan will be prepared to get rid of the “ chhutta pashu” (cattle on the loose), which Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath loves to call nirashrit (shelterless). He repeated it on Tuesday in Baharaich.