MP: MODI WOOS (SOME) MUSLIMS
The timing of his outreach to the Bohra community fuels speculation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lavish praise for Dawoodi Bohras barely two months from the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections has raised many eyebrows, with parallels being drawn with his 2011 fast for harmony and peace in Ahmedabad where he had famously refused to wear a skullcap offered by a maulana.
Things were different this time. The prime minister not only took time out to personally call on Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the spiritual head of the Bohras, in Indore on September 14, he let the world know of his appreciation for the Ismaili Shia sect. Modi walked the premises adjoining the Saifi mosque bare feet, declaring during his address later that his “fond association and the community’s support had drawn him to Indore”. Describing the Bohras as “family”, he said he was using the live telecast of the occasion to tell the world of “the contribution of Bohras to peace, development and amity”.
Interestingly, the only non-Bohras permitted to the venue were Modi, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and their security detail. The rest were senior, male members of the community.
Relations between the Bohras and the larger Sunni community have long been strained, and Modi’s overtures in Indore may have only added to the indignation among Sunnis. The Bohra population is estimated at just a million globally, with a particularly strong presence in Gujarat. Their numbers in MP are no more than 100,000, with the ability to influence elections in less than six constituencies. But the community enjoys financial muscle.
So what prompted PM Modi’s visit? Modi himself termed the visit as a continuation of his association with the Syedna, but there have been other instances where Modi has gone out of his way to appeal to smaller factions within the Muslim community, such as his support to Pakistani-Canadian Barelvi leader Tahir-ul-Qadri.
Even though Modi, as Gujarat chief minister, has been on very good terms with the Bohri community, some Muslim leaders view the Indore event as a bid to divide MP’s Muslims ahead of the elections. “If the prime minister [really] wants to be inclusive, he should visit Deoband and the imambada,” says Tasleem Ahmed Rehmani of the Muslim Political Council of India, adding that the state’s Muslims would vote “tactically”.