It can safely be said that in no previous election to the Lok Sabha has the Muslim voter been wooed so assiduously by major parties as this time. Several factors account for this development. Though Mrs. Gandhi is apparently more popular among the Muslims than any other political leader, no party can take their support for granted as the Congress could up to 1975 and the Janata in March 1977. In view of their alienation from her on the issue of forced sterilization in 1976, she, too, has to convince them that she means well by them. There is a lively debate among them on the merits of various organisations, including the Janata, despite the presence of the Jana Sangh in it. This has inevitably encouraged the leaders to compete for their vote. While the efforts of some Muslim leaders to forge a united front and impose their terms on whoever seeks their support have virtually petered out, the community is much more assertive than ever before since independence. This has compelled political leaders to define their stand on various issues which the community considers important – the Muslim personal law, the status of the Aligarh University, representation of the community in political institutions and government jobs, security of life and property and so on.
Among the principal contenders for the office of Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi has given more assurances to the Muslims than either Mr. Jagjivan Ram or Mr. Charan Singh. For example, the Congress (1) manifesto alone promises a special peace-keeping force composed of “people drawn from the minority communities, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and others” to prevent and suppress communal riots. This is understandable. In the past the support of the Harijans and the Muslims has been vital for the victories of the Congress party. And while this vote remains critical for the Congress (I), Mrs. Gandhi has reason to fear that the Harijan support for her organisation this time may not be as solid as it has been in the previous polls, including perhaps the one in March 1977, despite Mr. Jagjivan Ram’s presence on the other side of the fence. The reason is the widespread belief that a lot of Harijans are aggrieved that Mr. Ram was denied an opportunity to become the country’s Prime Minister last August and that this has given him a status in the community which he did not enjoy before. Whatever the magnitude of the shift in the Harijan vote from the Congress (I) to the Janata on account of his leadership, Mrs. Gandhi is obliged to try to ensure that the Muslims back her more or less. But she cannot be indifferent to the possibility of a Hindu backlash. The talk of reservations for the Muslims in government jobs is likely to produce such a backlash. Those who support reservations for the so-called backward castes cannot oppose reservations for the Muslims. But the first has been a most contentious issue and the second will be even more controversial in view of the history of partition. Upper caste Hindus have a sense of guilt only about the Harijans. Reservations for any other community is bound to annoy them considerably. Mrs. Gandhi has spoken rather vaguely on the question of reservations for the Muslims. But she has spoken. She would have been well advised to leave that issue alone.
The Times of India, 19 December 1979