The Precarity of Muslims

The results of the Bihar election indicate the ugly ghettoisation of Muslim representation

- Tanvir Aeijaz

KEEPING at bay, for the moment, the allegations and controversies surrounding the Election Commission of India (ECI) for not conducting fair elections in Bihar, the election results have foxed many political pundits. It failed the expectations of exit-pollsters by giving them much more than their anticipations. The scale of victory for the winning coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in terms of vote share and seat share is unprecedented, with the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) strike rate almost crossing 90 per cent, and that too without a visible wave, seems pretty unconvincing and unnatural. The squeezing of the Opposition to the level of insignificance may not auger well for the smooth functioning of procedural democracy. Democracy is robust when there is a significant possibility, or at least hope, for the Opposition to win the elections. Bihar elections have enfeebled, in a variety of ways, the oppositional politics. Also, the results have triggered, among others, a big churn in Muslim politics in India.