Representative Democracy and The Argument Regarding Muslim MPs (Published at The Jaipur Dialogues)

Representative Democracy

In a direct democracy, citizens directly participate in decision-making processes, voting on laws and policies themselves. However, representative democracy, a more common form, involves citizens electing officials to make decisions on their behalf. This system is designed to manage the complexities of modern governance, where direct participation by all citizens in every decision is impractical. 
While direct democracy offers greater direct control to citizens, it can be inefficient for large, complex societies. Representative democracy, on the other hand, provides a more manageable and efficient way to govern. 
India, with a population of upwards of 140 crores, was never envisioned to be a democracy for obvious reasons, but a representative democracy. Thus, it becomes imperative that the elected representative is not only in sync with the pulse of his constituents, but also represents their voice in the parliament. However, neither is it a mandate that this candidate representing a particular sampradaya needs to belong to it, nor is it viable, as popular arguments tend to convey, that minority candidates be granted candidature on the basis of the strength or significance of their community, in numbers, history or otherwise.
Recently, however, there has been a trend of criticising the BJP for not fielding Muslim candidates in the fray for 2024 General Elections, questioning its secular credentials because of the same, and going as far as saying that the Parliament does not have the right to interfere in the faith of these minorities, especially because it does not have enough numbers representing the Muslim community.

Minorities

The ‘minority’ narrative, over the past decade especially, has been hijacked. As soon as the word is said, one is meant to think only of religious minorities, and out of all of them, ‘minority’ is meant to be synonymous with the Indian Muslim people. However, should the minority argument be limited to only the Muslims; do other religious minorities, as well as non-religious minorities, not matter? If so, why stop at criticising the BJP for its non-declaration of any Muslim candidates in the General Elections when the same arguments may be raised for any number of minorities, say Buddhists, or queers?
Neither does the making of rules and regulations with respect to these communities in absentia in the Parliament make those rules invalid, nor is there a furore against such a situation. Take for example the Hindu Code Bills of the 1950s that included all of the Indic religions under its purview: did someone bother to ask how many Jains or Buddhists were present in the Lok Sabha at the time, and even if little to no MPs of the faith were present, would one challenge the authority of the Parliament to decide on such an Act?
Further, why is there a need to brandish your secular credentials by fielding Muslim candidates? Does only this particular act absolve you of the much-demeaned ‘Hindutva’ tag, and if so, doesn’t performing it just amount to tokenism and communal appeasement? And finally, and yet again, why stop the argument at just Muslim MPs?

The Muslim League Argument

The All India Muslim League (AIML), founded in 1906, after the Bengal Partition of 1905, had advanced many of the same arguments that the so called ‘secular democrats’ now augment. Namely, AIML argued, that because of being a minority, especially one that had enjoyed historical privilege in Bharat due to Islamic invasions and rule, the status of Muslims needed protection, and that such protection could only be granted if Muslims were allowed to have a certain strength in the Indian Parliament (through separate electorates, to ensure that the number did not dwindle) so that matters relating to the quom could be passed only through their support. The essence of the argument was that while the Parliament may legislate on the future of the majority (and other minorities), Muslim minority legislations needed the presence of the Muslim minority in the Parliament to be legislated upon. Needless to say, not only did this lead to fragmentation and the creation of Pakistan, but remains a dangerous theory to this date, albeit without demanding separate electorates. Thus, asking that a party needs to field out candidates with a Muslim background, or any background for that matter, due to the belief that this will pave way for inclusiveness or make decisions more legitimate, is advancing the same argument as the Muslim League.

The Right to Consultation and Safety of Minorities 

The whole point of a representative democracy is that the public has the right to choose its representative who is, and will remain, in sync with the wishes of his constituents and that, in his voice, their opinions will find a voice. 
Layered on top of this, the community has the option to choose from a wide variety of candidates in most circumstances, many of which may come from various religious or non-religious minorities. The argument that there are lesser number of Muslim MPs because the ruling dispensation, the BJP, did not field Muslim candidates (as if it is necessary to do so to be branded secular) is absurd, because the constituents chose these MPs out of a list of candidates which, more probably than not, did contain Muslim names.
These two mechanisms are meant to be enough of a security for all minorities, and gives the Parliament, which is believed to be in sync with popular opinion through its members, the right to legislate upon any matter. These decisions may be subject to consultation with particular communities of interest (although this privilege has rarely, if ever, been afforded to the Hindu Community) but should not, at any point of time, be challenged on the ground that they were passed by a Parliament that is not inclusive of the people legislated upon.
All in all, one thing should be pretty clear: where the so-called issue of the Parliament being ineligible to legislate on matters relating to minorities or the exclusion of minorities from the Parliament is brought up, it is the duty of every Bharatiya to ensure that they raise their voice for the minorities that are conveniently forgotten in these discussions revolving around the second-biggest majority.

Originally Published at The Jaipur Dialogues on 14th July, 2024 (https://www.thejaipurdialogues.com/featured/representative-democracy-and-the-argument-regarding-muslim-mps/)

Cover Credits: Aditi Joshi, The Jaipur Dialogues