The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has requested the Election Commission and requested the verification of the Burqa clad women voters in the Uttar Pradesh elections. Once the party’s ally, Shiv Sena slammed the ruling party’s request about screening Burqa clad women. Shiv Sena is a member of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and an ally of BJP at the Centre level. They said that this move shows BJP’s frustration as they know that they will face a crushing defeat in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha elections.
Saamana, the Shiv Sena spokesperson had said, “Almost the whole Modi Cabinet is camping in Uttar Pradesh for election. However, after phase five voting they know the party is going to suffer a major setback.” She also added, “Such a move shows that BJP is now frustrated PM Modi always stresses on minimum government, maximum governence, however, his ministers are camping in UP for election campaigning. People will soon give it a befitting reply.”
What is it about:
On Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to the Election Commission and asked them to send women police force to the polling booths for the last two phases of elections in the UP Assembly polls. This is so as to check the identity and verify the burqa clad women who will be voting and so as to prevent bogus voting. This request has left the Muslim Bodies agitated.
The BJP in a letter to EC had said, “The BJP demands that to establish the identity of burqa clad female voters in the sixth and seventh phase of the UP polls, women police and central paramilitary forces are posted at sensitive and hyper sensitive polling booths.”
J.P.S. Rathore and Kuldeep Tripathi of BJP had alleged that many women in burqas misuse their attire and follow false voting. They also mentioned in the letter, “Adequate deployment of female police would ensure proper checking of women voters, and at the same time, minimizing incidents of bogus voting.”
This letter was written by BJP as the constituencies that go to polling on March 4th and 8th are mostly Muslim dominated areas in UP.
Muslim Organisations Reaction to BJP:
This letter to the EC by BJP was slammed by the Muslim organizations as it did not go down well with them. They accused the BJP saying that they are deliberately involving in the Polarisation of Politics.
Shaista Amber, Mahila Muslim Personal Law Board Chairperson said, “Till now, the election and voting process have been rather smooth, and the Election Commission deserves a round of applause for this. However, in a bid to polarize the votes in the sixth and seventh phase, the BJP has now come up with this strange demand.” She said that BJP has been smacked of its “sick mentality.” Amber also added, “Whether a woman is wearing burqa or ghoonghat, no one has the right to offend her womanhood and dignity.”
Yassob Abbas, Shia Personal Law Board spokesperson said, “This is a deliberate tactic of the BJP to polarize the votes. We would not tolerate even an iota of insult to the burqa.” He also said that non Muslim women of villages wear ‘Pallu’ (Viel) and asked, “Will the pallu (of non-Muslim women) be removed to check and verify their identity?” Yassob also advised that “It is better not to do any politics over burqa”.
In the 200 million population of the UP, 19-20% are Muslims. Also, in the 403 Assembly constituencies in UP, there are nearly 120 seats where the percentage of Muslim voters is more than 20 percent (Muslim-dominated seats) and in certain parts of eastern UP, their population is up to 27 percent.
