ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP's) engagement with the Muslims, electorally and developmentally, and two Muslim 'cadre men', Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The BJP's political engagement with the Muslims can be demonstrated through a look at the way the BJP deals with them when they are in power on their own in states like Gujarat and Karnataka and in a coalition in states like Bihar. The UPA government set up the Sachar Committee to go into the socio-economic status of Muslims in the country and thereby changed some contours of the development debate. The engagement of the BJP with the Muslim community is explained more in terms of precedents and exceptions rather than any consistent policy. The BJP continues to grapple with the community, which despite the mass migration after Partition, is the second largest Muslim community in the world and hence, numerically of undisputed importance to electoral politics in the country.
