It’s election season again — that time when suddenly every political party discovers the existence of “minorities.” And by minorities, of course, they mean only one community — Muslims. The rest, like Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, or Parsis, might as well be invisible. Their votes apparently don’t come in bulk or swing margins. Political mathematics, after all, isn’t about fairness — it’s about headcount.
With the Bihar assembly elections and several bypolls looming, including the high-profile Jubilee Hills seat in Hyderabad, the non-BJP brigade is already in full appeasement mode. Every “secular” outfit worth its salt — from the RJD-Congress combine in Bihar to the Congress and BRS in Telangana — is competing in the race to become the most minority-friendly. And, as usual, “minority-friendly” is a polite code for “Muslim vote-bank friendly.”
In Bihar, the so-called Mahagathbandhan — a chaotic coalition of dynasts, corruption veterans, and the ever-self-righteous Left — is dangling the promise of a Muslim Deputy Chief Minister. False assurances of jobs, minus any talk of governance or development, dominate their speeches. The only qualification that seems to matter is which community’s name can fetch more votes.
Meanwhile, in Hyderabad, the Congress appears to have mastered the art of political tokenism. To woo Muslim voters ahead of the Jubilee Hills bypoll, the party has dusted off its old mascot — former Test cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin. Never mind that he lost miserably the last time and that the Congress finished a distant third while the BRS took the seat. Facts are irrelevant when there’s minority arithmetic to be recalculated. The Congress hopes that inducting Azharuddin into the Cabinet will magically charm the minority voters, never mind the rest of the constituency.
The irony is rich. The same Congress that claims to represent “all Indians” sees no contradiction in crafting policies, appointments, and slogans around a single religious community. The BRS, on the other hand, is not far behind — promising heavens and subsidies to “minorities,” but carefully avoiding mentioning who exactly they mean by that word. Spoiler alert: it’s not Jains or Buddhists.
And what are the Hindus doing while all this unfolds? Dividing themselves further — by caste, creed, and sub-caste — and then acting surprised when their collective voice gets diluted. Some proudly declare themselves as “upper caste liberals,” others as “backward class progressives,” and still others as “Dalit activists,” each more eager than the other to criticize their own faith and culture. If this isn’t political self-sabotage, what is?
Let’s face it: the so-called secular parties have thrived on Hindu disunity. They’ve built careers, dynasties, and empires on the premise that Hindus will never vote as one — that they can be fragmented, guilt-tripped, and manipulated through caste lines. Every time Hindus fail to consolidate, it strengthens the very forces that mock their festivals, rewrite their history, and trivialize their beliefs in the name of “secularism.”
It’s time this changed. The Muslim community votes en bloc — as a matter of strategy and self-preservation. There’s nothing wrong with that; in fact, it’s smart politics. But it’s high time the majority community learned a similar lesson in unity. Hindus must stop being apologetic about asserting their interests. Protecting one’s culture, faith, and civilizational identity isn’t communal — it’s common sense.
So. when parties flaunt “minority empowerment” in their manifestos, Hindus must ask: which minority, exactly? And why does empowerment always come at the expense of the majority’s silence?
India’s democracy depends on balance — and that balance can’t exist if one community’s vote is courted while another’s is taken for granted. The message for Hindus this election season is simple: wake up, unite, and vote like your future depends on it — because it does.
