Why is PM Modi silent on Muslim reservations in Andhra Pradesh?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Andhra Pradesh ended on a sober note calling upon the people to vote out the “corrupt” and “mafia” YSR Congress government. There were no emotional outbursts.

Modi confined himself to listing out a few institutions, sanctioned for the state by the Central government. Now and then he reminded the people of the need to have a double-engine government.

What was conspicuously absent in the prime minister’s campaign was any reference to reservations to Muslim minorities. Throughout his campaign which began in Chilakaluripet in mid-March and ended in Vijayawada on May 8, not once did he speak about the reservations for Muslims which have been under implementation in the state for over a decade.

Different Modi

In contrast, Modi was virulent in attacking the idea of reservation for Muslims in Telangana where the BRS government’s attempt to allocate 12 per cent reservations was a non-starter. Though the Assembly had passed a resolution to hike the Muslim reservation from 4 to 12 per cent in 2017, it got stuck at the Centre.

Addressing a public meeting in Medak district, the prime minister said he won’t allow reservations for Muslims as long as he is alive. In another meeting, he said Muslims were offered reservations at the cost of SC, ST and OBCs.

But the same Modi chose not to raise as serious an issue as Muslim reservations in Andhra Pradesh while his ally and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu has gone full throttle in support of Muslim reservations.

Naidu’s politics

Apart from assuring that he would protect the 4 per cent reservation in the state, Naidu announced a slew of schemes such as Rs 1 lakh to brides, Rs 1 lakh to Mecca pilgrims, construction of Haj Houses in Vijayawada and Hyderabad, and an Urdu University.

In fact, both the ruling YSR Congress and Chandrababu Naidu are vying with each other to placate the Muslim voters who have the potential to upset the results in more than 30 out of 175 Assembly constituencies, especially in the Rayalaseema region.

The YSR Congress has aggressively campaigned among Muslims by highlighting threats to the very existence of Muslims in the form of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

Igniting fears

In a pamphlet circulated among Muslim families and mosques, the YSRC said Muslims would become refugees in their own villages if the BJP-led NDA was voted to power at the Centre and in the state. Muslims would lose all benefits and waqf properties would be grabbed, the handbill said.

In a roadshow in Kurnool, Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy appealed to the Muslims to defeat Chandrababu Naidu for aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which he said wants to abolish welfare schemes for Muslims.

Still, there had been no counter from the prime minister.

Silence in Andhra

Why did Modi ignore his own pledge against Muslims during his campaign in Andhra Pradesh?

The Congress sees an anti-Congress strategy in Modi’s toning down the anti-Muslim rhetoric in Andhra Pradesh. “Any provocative statement against the Muslim reservations will have a potential to drive away the community to the Congress. The Congress is in revival mode. Though the party is not seen as an alternative to YSR Congress or TDP, any hike in the voter share will give the party a new lease of life which Modi doesn’t like,” said Sheikh Said, the general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Congress.

Muslim reservations

According to Said, as many as 20 lakh Muslim students got admission into various colleges including engineering and medical institutions between 2004 and 2024 because of Muslim reservations.

Stating that Muslim votes were crucial for both the YSR Congress and TDP, he said that neither the prime minister nor other BJP leaders could afford to antagonise the community in the state.

“The BJP’s aim is to see that Congress doesn’t benefit from the Muslim votes,” he said.

According to Ahmed Sheriff, a TDP leader and a former Legislative Council Chairman, the prime minister was silent because Andhra Pradesh’s Muslims were supporters of the TDP led by Chandrababu Naidu.

“Though united by Telugu language, the states of Telangana and Andhra present different political scenarios. In Telangana, there is a need for the BJP to polarise Hindu voters against the BRS and Congress. Here in Andhra Pradesh, the contest is between YSR Congress and NDA. People have rejected the Congress long back. So, there is no need for Modi to pursue the Telangana theme in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

Convenient politics

Noted political commentator and rights activist Dr A Chandrasekhar said the prime minister was aware of the futility of employing the anti-Muslim narrative in Andhra Pradesh where the INDIA block is absent and the BJP is unpopular.

He said a ferocious campaign against Muslims would be advantageous to the BJP only in Telangana where the party wants to exploit the communal division among the voters.

“Curiously the BJP, though a negligible force, is not a loser in Andhra Pradesh. While the TDP is part of the NDA, the ruling YSR Congress is a supporter of the saffron party. There is no need for him to raise communal emotions by opposing reservations to Muslims. So, he conveniently chose to avoid it and harp on corruption in the YSR Congress government,” Chandrasekhar, a former lecturer in political science, told The Federal.