Modi ally says India’s ruling party suffers from perception it is anti-Muslim
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party is struggling to change a ‘perception’ that it is against minority Muslims and lowercaste people, a political ally said, which could cost it votes in a general election due next year.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trounced the opposition at the last election in 2014, but it has lost a handful of recent by-elections after opposition groups banded together.
Veteran politician Ram Vilas Paswan, a federal minister and the chief of the Lok Jan Shakti (People’s Power) Party, which is allied with the BJP and says it represents India’s socially backward classes, predicted another term for Modi.
But he said the BJP would have to work towards changing its image as a group that caters mainly to upper-caste Hindus.
India’s 1.3 billion people are about 80 per cent Hindu and 14 per cent Muslim, according to the latest census data.
Since Modi came to power in 2014, hardline Hindu groups and cow protection vigilantes have carried out numerous attacks on Muslims accused of eating beef or killing cows.
Many Hindus believe cows are sacred and killing them is banned in most states.
A crackdown on abattoirs, tanneries and leather factories, mostly run by Muslims, has also hit a large number of lower-caste Hindus who transport cattle and work in tanneries.
Paswan said the opposition could take advantage of the BJP’s pro-upper class Hindu image and it needed to be countered aggressively.
The B JP said Pa swan’ s comment was a “well-meaning observation from an ally” but that the party has “foiled repeated attempts of the opposition Congress party to create an impression that the BJP is losing the perception battle”.
“We need to be cognizant of the fact that opposition parties have been raising a bogey of non-issues, but so far they’ve failed,” said BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao.
When Modi won office in 2014, his party or its partners ruled only seven of India’s 29 states.