Haryana's Muslim-dominated Nuh takes BJP's NRC push in its stride

Fear is palpable among Rohingyas but their concerns find little resonance with locals in Nuh

Half of Haryana’s 1.8 million Muslims call the district of Nuh — officially the most backward district in India — their home. Nuh, part of the wider Mewat region, a Muslim-dominated area, has never voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But the party, despite its aggressive push for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state and assertions of Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat that “not a single Hindu will have to leave India because of the NRC”, may emerge victorious in the three assembly constituencies of Nuh, where Muslims form 79 per cent of the population.

A host of factors brighten the BJP’s chances in the district. Meo Muslims, as the community is known, is unfazed by the BJP’s aggressive push for the NRC in the state. Not only did Chief Minister Manohar Khattar openly call for carrying out an Assam-style exercise in Haryana, Home Minister Amit Shah, too, at a poll rally at Kaithal vowed to “identify each and every illegal migrant and throw them out”.

Mehboob Hussain, a shopkeeper in Chandeni village of Nuh, said Meo Muslims were mentioned in the 16th-century book Tareekh e Farishta and the history of the community in the region is well documented. “We have been here from time immemorial. We have land records, birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, and voter identity cards to prove our citizenship. Many Muslims in Assam and West Bengal may not have valid documents since they migrated from Bangla-desh. So I can understand the fear.”

But fear is palpable a few metre down a dusty road from Hussain’s shop, where over 50 families of Rohingya Muslims stay in camps. Mohammad Hassan, 30, came here along with his family in 2012. They arrived in Delhi from Myanmar and were asked to move to Mewat because “it is a Muslim area” and they wouldn’t face problems here. Hassan does odd jobs and cannot move out of the district for work. “If they implement the NRC in Haryana, we will have to move to some other state. Our only identity proof is a refugee card issued by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). As refugees, we have to obey everything the Indian government asks us to do,” said Hassan. But then Rohingyas have no voting rights and their apprehensions find little resonance with other Muslims in the area, even as they sounded sympathetic. “We have no problem with the Burma people (Myanmarese) being around here. They have families to support,” said Hussain.

The BJP is also likely to gain from the positive perception among Muslims in doing away with a “draconian rule” that left many unemployed in the district. Nuh is a region where a majority of Muslims work as truck drivers. In 2016, the Khattar government introduced a rule that required drivers looking to renew their licences or apply for new ones to have at least studied till Class X. Under the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, the minimum educational requirement was to have studied till Class VIII. But in 2019, the Modi government amended the act and did away with the minimum educational requirement. Khattar positioned himself as being the driving force behind this amendment despite having introduced a more stringent rule himself in in the first place.

In a press release announcing the amendment, the government stated: “The Haryana government had requested waiver of the educational qualification condition for drivers from the economically backward Mewat region where the population is dependent for livelihood on driving. The state government had submitted that many people in the region possess the required skill but not the required educational qualification, and were finding it difficult to obtain driving licence. Hence it was felt that driving being more a matter of skill than of educational competence, the condition of minimum educational qualification acts as a hindrance for the otherwise eligible unemployed youth.”

While the central government may have positioned Khattar as the champion of this cause, there is still anger at his earlier decision. Jaisinghpur, a remote village of the district, is literally a “village of drivers”. Raktib Khan, 62, and his three sons have been truck drivers all their lives. “The only school in this village has classes till standard 8. I couldn’t send my sons to school in a faraway village. When the rule was implemented, they couldn’t renew their licences. For more than two years they have been without work. RTO officials ask bribes of Rs 50,000 to issue licences. I can’t even think of paying that much money.”

The final factor that could help the BJP is the fact that it has given tickets to two Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) turncoats — Zakir Hussain and Naseem Ahmed — this time. Ahmed has won two consecutive elections from Ferozepur Jhirka since 2009. Hussain won the Nuh constituency in 2014 on the INLD ticket. The INLD, which was considered a strong political force in the district, has been rendered almost irrelevant after the family feud in the Chautala clan and subsequent break-up of the party. Despite issues like the NRC, Article 370, and mob lynching, Hussain and Ahmed seem to have hedged their bets on being part of a party that is being pegged to retain power in Haryana.

“If they implement the NRC in Haryana, we will have to move to some other state. As refugees, we have to obey everything the Indian government asks us to do”
 

--Mohammad Hassan, Rohingya refugee