which prevails so much during the time of elections. The single agenda of this rhetoric appears as if to create fear in the minds of the Indian Muslims and make them socially, politically and economically backward so that they vote for the so called ‘secular parties’.

The paradox here is that, the ones who claim to be their protectors have pushed them into the most horrible type of poverty and underdevelopment. The so called ‘secular parties’ and some other ‘casteist parties’ used them as a vehicle to achieve power. Thus the welfare of the Muslims has taken a backstage amid the other trivial compromises. To reiterate this, in recent times Maulana Mehmood Madni of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’s said “Don’t take the Muslim vote for granted. In the next election, political parties should not try to seek our votes by showing fear of someone, on a negative plank”. 

It is a common practice for the so called ‘secular parties’ to attack others, particularly one party for the 2002 Gujarat riots. But they have failed to be vocal enough to even deliver justice to other incidents which have taken place in the past under their rule such as the 1969 Ahmedabad riot, Nellie massacre in 1983, Meerut killings in 1987, Bombay riots of 1993 and 2012 fiasco in Assam. A recent Annual Report 2012-13 from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ on communal incidents shows that there were 668 communal incidents in the country during 2012 in which a total of 94 lives were lost and 3,117 people were injured. Also during 2011, there were 580 communal incidents reported in which 91 people lost their lives and 1,899 people were injured. The communal violence which happened in Assam in 2012 recorded a loss of 99 lives and displacement of around 4.85 lakh people. Here, our intention is not to compare riots. No riots can be justified, all are blots on the face of India. The truth that emerges from these incidents reflects how we have failed as a society.

Today the parties which are raising the issue of ‘secular- communal divide’ are themselves perpetrators in trying to hide their incompetence and double-dealings. The need to scrutinize every political party has resulted in the question - what they have actually done in terms of socio - economic and political benefits, such as education, employment, and eradication of poverty. According to the data released by the Election Commission, India is changing electorally, which shows that 2.3 crore voters are in the age group of 18-19 years. A total 10% of voters will be first-time voters out of the total 81.5 crore voters.  Among the first-time voters, Indian Muslim youths constitute a significant number. The new generation of voters will ask them why the Muslim community is still backward and lagging behind others. The bigger question to ask ourselves is; whether the achievement of the Governments so far for this community has been such that they now need a policy of reservation for their development.

The real challenge for us is to fight together against the biggest curse of poverty. It is high time for the Indian Muslims to get rid of the rhetoric of secularism and look for a change by not giving blind allegiance to any party or leader. 

Hrishikesh Thakur and Ruchinilo Kemp