Communal harmony is the proverbial elephant in the room in the upcoming Delhi elections with no political party comfortable discussing the matter and Muslims getting mired in a dilemma — who to vote?
The confusion dominates the chatter at dinner tables, markets and workplaces.
“We have always been told that if we don’t vote for the Congress, the BJP will win. Now the BJP is already in power (at the Centre). We need representatives who can articulate our problems,” Wasim Chaudhary, a young professional from the Chandni Chowk Assembly seat, told The Telegraph.
This time, the quandary is more acute because the memories of the counter-mobilisation against the citizenship protests of 2019-20 and the riots of 2020 are still fresh. Specific mention of these events is, however, usually kept out of conversations.
“No riots happened here. We all live here in peace,” Naim, a butcher in Mustafabad, curtly replies when asked if the riots had influenced his voting decisions.
His customer Ruksana is more engrossed with the immediate problem at hand — how much meat can her money buy? She begins by ordering a kilo. As Naim picks up a piece to cut, she asks him to give her the ribs that are cheaper than the flesh and slashes her order quantity to half a kilo. No sooner than Naim begins to slice through the meat, Ruksana says only 250gm will do.
“It’s impossible to manage expenses. (AAP chief) Arvind Kejriwal gave some relief as the government hospital in Karawal Nagar has improved. But we still need to travel there. If a government hospital and more government schools come up in Mustafabad, we will save on commuting. The men are saying that we should either vote for the Congress or the AIMIM, but I think Kejriwal is ahead,” Ruksana said.
Naim said the candidates from the AAP, BJP, Congress and the AIMIM were equally placed.
From Mustafabad, the AAP has fielded Adil Ahmad Khan, who has been with the party since the Anna Hazare movement; the BJP has nominated former MLA Mohan Singh Bisht, who is blamed by some for the riots; the Congress has chosen Ali Mehdi, the son of ex-MLA Hasan Mehdi who held the seat from 2008 to 2016; and the AIMIM has opted for former AAP councillor and 2020 Delhi riots accused Tahir Hussain.
Karawal Nagar and Mustafabad are adjacent neighbourhoods divided by a psychological barrier. The former has more Hindus and the latter Muslims. Both seats were hit by the 2020 riots that claimed 53 lives. Both are characterised by squalor, clogged open drains and broken lanes choked with traffic.
Muslims are sharply divided over who best can fix this.
“Civic work happened here during the tenure of Hasan Ahmed (the father of Congress candidate Ali),” Nawab Ansari, a resident, says.
“People will vote for Tahir Hussain only because of (AIMIM leader) Asaddudin Owaisi sahab. He speaks well for our community. But the AAP has improved medical facilities here,” says biryani seller Nomaan Siddiqui.
“The current MLA (AAP’s Haji Yunus) is too old to get any work done. We need an efficient MLA like Adil Ahmad Khan to get things moving…. But people are confused and (the BJP’s) Mohan Bisht has a chance because of this,” Javed Malik, a shopkeeper, says.
The BJP won the seat in 2015 when Muslim votes were split between the AAP and the Congress. Mustafabad is among the seven seats in Delhi where Muslims make up more than a third of the population. The community has a sizeable presence in half a dozen other seats as well.
Former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed is a voter in Okhla — one of five seats with a Muslim MLA. Delhi has 70 seats.
Hameed told The Telegraph: “Nobody is talking specifically about communal harmony. Even the secular parties are not saying what needs to be done…. If Muslims vote for the Congress, the BJP is going to win — that’s the dilemma. I see a lot of problems with the AAP but what can I do?”
Fear of the BJP trumps civic woes as a poll issue for Muslims who constitute almost 13 per cent ofDelhi’s population.
Hameed added: “While there are not enough educational institutions and no government hospitals here, there is dirt and open drains and garbage all around. However, there is no dearth of police apparatus and status surveillance here.”
Reshma, who moved to Shaheen Bagh from Lucknow in 2010, said preventing riots was a major poll issue for her but education and health were more important. “...At least under the AAP, sanitation and schools have improved. My daughter went to a government school, which is very good. The mohalla clinics are good although some tests that were available earlier have stopped. Kejriwal has done a lot of work,”she said.
Delhi votes on February 5