Here comes the reckoning time for Indian Muslims... for all good!

Sanjay Bhatnagar

Lucknow: The indications in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls reached a logical conclusion in Gujarat assembly elections that Muslims are no more a mere vote bank. What has been done by default should be taken by the minority as a blessing in disguise.

It is a defining moment for about 16 per cent minority population in the country as they should now come to realise that time has come for them to look at the greener pastures like education, knowledge and awareness of the community.

The enlightened lot among the muslims may have been nursing a sustained grudge that they have always been treated as the vote bank and their social identity is reduced to a political pack but the happier times are here. They should push themselves to a situation where their educational credentials are taken more and more seriously in the growth journey of the country.

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Nobody can take away the inclusive role of Indian Muslims in growth story of India and here comes a golden opportunity for them to redeem themselves in an emphatic manner and make the community relevant in India's social, cultural and political fabric-more than being relegated as a vote bank. It could be a chance opportunity for the muslims to assign their bigger role in development of Indian society - the political parties and vested groups denied them for long.

Still, there are some insecure elements who are trying to guard them against the new political order but now the muslim intelligentsia should come to the fore to impress upon an urgent need of education and knowledge. It could be by default that issues related to minority looked like Swept under the rug but it is a temporary phase as their presence in the social milieu is bound to be reckoned with.

There is no reason for Indian Muslims to be sore about their redundancy in the electoral polity as propagated by certain hawkish elements because in reality they have always been integral part of Indian social, political and economic congruence and will remain so in the times to come. Let us all consider it as an historical moment to redefine, reinvent and rediscover the Muslim identity and that too in the most optimistic and positive manner. Amen