What explains PM Modi's call to party workers to reach out to the Pasmanda Muslims?

Pasmandas - roughly translated from Persian to describe a community that has been "left behind"- have been the worst victims of incidents of mob lynching and communal rights in recent years. Second rung BJP leaders including Tejaswi Surya have often and disparagingly referred to the Pasmandas as "puncture wallahs".

Addressing party workers at the recent meeting of the party national executive at Hyderabad, the Prime Minister not only called upon partymen to extend the benefits of the "sabka saath sabka vikas" policy to Dalits and Pasmanda Muslims, but also asked party workers to take out "Sneh yatras" (Rallies to spread affection) in areas inhabited by the community. After having openly pursued the "Hindu First" approach in the last eight years, the Prime Minister's sudden Pasmanda outreach raises questions. 

After censure from world bodies and the international press on the Indian government's poor performance on the human rights index, is the Modi government wants to undertake an image makeover as an inclusive and accommodative party? Is the party working at expanding upon its electoral base by reaching out to the Pasnandas, who constitute roughly 80 percent of India's Muslim population? Or, is the BJP trying to split up the Muslim vote bank by playing upon the divide of the Pasmanda Muslims versus the Elite Muslims?

Who are the Pasmandas

While India's Muslim political leadership has largely remained with elite Muslims who go by surnames such as Sayyeds, Sheikhs, Pathans and Mirzas, the Pasmanda Muslims - who constitute the majority of the Muslim population - had largely remained faceless and voiceless.

Until 1998, when former Janata Dal (United) MP Ali Anwar Ansari launched the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, the term had not been part of the political lexicon. In the last two decades, however, the Pasmanda factor has been emerging as an important component of the country's political matrix.

In the 2005 Bihar assembly elections, when sections of Pasmandas deserted the Rashtriya Janata Dal to extend support to Nitish Kumar's JD(U), Lalu Prasad's party lost the elections, with his famed Muslim-Yadav (MY) combination having developed cracks.

In the run up to this year's assembly elections, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh had taken on board at least four Pasmandas in various state or central administered boards or corporations. The Yogi government had also organised "Hunar Haats" or artisan camps for the Pasmandas and provided them with financial assistance as well.

After being elected as Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath appointed Danish Ansari, a Pasmanda Muslim, as a Minister of State for Minority Affairs. The point is this: The Pasmanda Muslims have been emerging as an important vertical of Indian politics. 

The BJP strategy 

While the BJP has been able to establish political and electoral dominance across the country, the party's acceptability remains weak on moral and ethical grounds.

BJP-ruled states have often had to resort to bulldozer tactics to establish their writ, as students, farmers or other groups have been protesting every now and then.

Within the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), there has been a debate on this question: How to fill up the secular space of Indian polity that has been left vacant by the weakening of the Congress.

One strand of thought within the BJP is that the party can truly establish its complete hold over the country's polity if it begins to be seen as an inclusive and multicultural party.

The Pasmanda outreach, therefore, appears to meet the BJP's long term plans. But, to be able to achieve such goals, the BJP will need to move beyond tokenism. Ali Anwar Ansari, for instance, poses these questions: Is the BJP willing to concede the demand for inclusion of Pasmanda Muslims in the SC category? Is the government willing to compel the private sector to provide reservation to the Pasmandas in private sector jobs? Is the Central government willing to conduct a caste census to determine the actual population of the Pasmandas? Will the Pasmanda Welfare Board be set up? 

If the ruling party's answers to these questions are in the affirmative, the party's core Hindu constituents are unlikely to accept the situation. The Pasmanda leadership, therefore, believes that it will be tough for the Prime Minister to walk the talk.