Janata Dal (United) will not allow anti-Muslim campaigns while in power with BJP: KC Tyagi

The Janata Dal (United) will not allow the incoming National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre to propagate campaigns against Muslims and other minority communities, the party’s National Spokesperson KC Tyagi told digital news channel Red Mike on Friday.

The Janata Dal (United) is a key ally in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition.

“While we are there [in power with the BJP], no anti-Muslim, anti-minority campaign will be run,” Tyagi said, boasting of his party’s credibility among Muslims.

Responding to a question about whether the Janata Dal (United) would push for a more secular approach to governance after the BJP’s vitriolic Lok Sabha campaign targeting Muslims, Tyagi said, “The issues that were used to rake up muck in the elections should be forgotten.”

Tyagi said that his party’s candidate, Mujahid Alam, had placed second in the Lok Sabha polls from the Muslim-majority Kishanganj constituency in Bihar, ahead of the candidate fielded by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. The Congress party’s Mohammed Jawed won from the constituency.

Tyagi said that the Janata Dal (United) believes in “building a consensus all communities and sects” and that, as part of the incoming Union government, it would advocate for broader discussions on policies instead of “enforcing them on people”.

On the matter of the Uniform Civil Code, Tyagi said that his party was “not anti-reform” but clarified that “all stakeholders, chief ministers, political parties and sects should be consulted to prepare a draft” of the code.

The Uniform Civil Code, an ideological plank of the ruling BJP, is a proposed common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, the personal affairs of different religious and tribal groups – except in Uttarakhand and Goa – are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.

Legal experts have said that the code could lead to the erasure of the personal law practices of minority communities, particularly Muslims, who constitute around 14% of India’s population, according to the 2011 census.

In May, Union home minister Amit Shah had said that the Uniform Civil Code would be implemented nationwide within the next five years if the BJP came to power in the Lok Sabha polls.

Tyagi also said that the Janata Dal (United) would support the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “One Nation, One Election” proposal.

The BJP has been pushing for simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies on the grounds that holding elections every year was a burden on the government, businesses, courts, political parties, candidates contesting elections and civil society at large.

Tyagi also clarified that his party opposes reservations in government jobs and education on the basis of religion. “If reservations are granted on the basis of religion, then the rights of socially and educationally backward Muslims would be snatched,” he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, had promised during elections rallies to do away with “religion-based reservations” if they came to power in the general election.

A total of 14 states and Union territories include Muslims in their list of Other Backward Classes, based on socio-economic indicators. Gujarat, where Modi was the chief minister for 12 years, also lists Muslim communities among Other Backward Classes. In an interview to ANI two years ago, Modi had boasted about 70 Muslim castes getting reservation benefits in the state.

On Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 240 Lok Sabha seats, 32 short of the simple majority required for it to form the next government. This has left the party dependent on its National Democratic Alliance partners, which includes the Janata Dal (United) with 12 Lok Sabha seats.

Also read: ‘A little less suffocating’: Why many Muslims view the Lok Sabha verdict with cautious hope