Minorities pushed into an unjust covenant

In the recent elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the Indian National Congress’ landslide victory with 135 seats is being attributed to a host of reasons, including a tight and focused campaign that the party ran, serious allegations of corruption against the BJP, a section of the Lingayats shifting their support to the Congress, and the consolidation of the Dalits behind the party.

What these analyses ignore is the support that the party received from Muslims and Christians in the state (according to the 2011 Census, the two communities constitute 12.97 per cent and 1.87 per cent of the state’s population, respectively). Various pre-poll surveys showed that an overwhelming number of Muslims voted for the Congress. Allowing for sampling errors, this number could be higher, meaning that it is safe to assert that Muslims voted for the Congress. The response of the Christian community has not been recorded in these surveys, but anecdotal evidence suggests that even they supported the Congress. What were the reasons for the religious minorities to support Congress?

Also Read | Congress doesn't want to get involved in polarisation issue, leave it to BJP, says D K Shivakumar

The BJP, led by B S Yediyurappa, toppled the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in 2019. One of the first decisions that Yediyurappa took was to cancel Tipu Jayanti. His tenure also saw the passage of the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020. To his credit, he did not allow the more rabid elements within the wider Sangh Parivar to run amok, but this changed when he was unceremoniously removed from the CM’s position. Basavaraj Bommai, who was appointed in his stead in mid-2021, made his strident ideological position clear soon after he became CM when he justified the actions of vigilantes in coastal Karnataka.

Contrary to his socialist credentials inherited from his early political life in the Janata Parivar, Bommai, with his tacit silence, emboldened the stormtroopers of Hindutva to directly target religious minorities. The passage of the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022 (anti-conversion law) was preceded by a spate of attacks on churches that were poorly investigated. This was followed by attacks on the rights of Muslims to freely practise their religion: Muslim girls were prevented from wearing the hijab, while a campaign was also launched by Hindu right-wing groups against halal meat, Muslim traders, and the azaan.

The BJP leaders endorsed the canard that Tipu Sultan was killed by two Vokkaliga soldiers with the intention of driving a wedge in the Vokkaliga-Muslim bonhomie of southern Karnataka. Closer to the elections, the BJP also scrapped the 4 per cent reservation given exclusively to Muslims. Considering these, it is no surprise if the minorities were enraged with the BJP.

Also Read | Unity, meticulous campaign behind Congress’s impressive performance in Karnataka

Except in a few constituencies where JD(S) candidates were front runners, Muslims and Christians voted for the Congress, bolstered by quiet campaigns from within the community and by civil society groups. These communities supported the Congress unconditionally, even though the party gave tickets only to 15 Muslims and two Christians. Of these, nine Muslim candidates and one Christian candidate won.

Three legislators belonging to religious minorities have been appointed as ministers, while U T Khader has been made the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. When one places these meagre rewards in the context of the overwhelming support the party received from the two communities, it increasingly reveals the limited bargaining power of the religious minorities in Indian democracy. Electoral contests have emerged as spaces where “deals,” stated or unstated, are struck with castes and communities. And in this, the unjust covenant that the religious minorities have made in Karnataka (and in most other states) is that they will accept depleted representation if they are left in peace to practice their religion. That is a dismal comment on the state of our democracy.

(The writer is the founding vice chancellor of Bengaluru City University and a visiting professor at NLSIU.)