In a twisted irony that only Indian politics can perfect, the same government that sidelines Muslims at home is now assembling a grand, 48-member, multi-party delegation—with Muslim faces prominently included—to ‘expose’ Pakistan’s role in the recent deadly attack in Pahalgam. The problem isn’t that Muslims are part of the delegation. The problem is the performative tokenism behind it.
For over a decade, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has systematically marginalized Indian Muslims—politically, socially, and symbolically. In state after state, and even in national elections, the party has refused to field a single Muslim candidate, despite Muslims constituting over 14% of the population. BJP leaders routinely vilify Muslims as infiltrators and terrorists, telling them to “go to Pakistan.” Yet when global optics demand a semblance of inclusivity—especially in the eyes of Gulf countries that fund India’s energy needs or host its workforce—the same party suddenly discovers Muslim emissaries. The catch? These are not BJP’s own leaders. The BJP has none. These are Muslim politicians from other parties—used, not embraced.
This is not inclusion. This is exploitation.
At home, BJP’s politics thrives on the vilification of Muslims—whether through hate speeches, lynch mobs, or bulldozer justice. Muslims are painted as the ‘other,’ the fifth column, the burden of Partition—a narrative aggressively pushed by the same Hindutva forces whose ideological forebears, like Savarkar and the Hindu Mahasabha, openly championed the two-nation theory before it became mainstream. Today’s Muslims are asked to atone for history they did not shape, forced to constantly prove their patriotism at the altar of majority appeasement.
The largest of the ruling parties, BJP is arguably the richest political party in the world’s most populous democracy—yet it finds itself scrambling to locate globally recognized Muslim figures within its own ranks. So scarce are such figures that it must turn to the very opposition it condemns mercilessly. A country of 1.4 billion, and yet there is only one international face big enough to absorb all the camera flashes. In that reflection, the world sees not diversity, but a vacuum—a nation so desperate for global validation that it must outsource Muslim representation.
It’s time Indian Muslims stepped out of this manufactured guilt. Patriotism is not proved by token participation in delegations designed to deflect global criticism. Nor should it be demonstrated by silence in the face of institutional exclusion. Indian Muslims must assert their rights not as supplicants but as equal citizens—partners in democracy, not pawns in diplomacy.
Until then, every such delegation is just another reminder: India’s Muslims are good enough to parade on the world stage, but not good enough to govern in their own country.
Rasheed Ahmed is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Indian American Muslim Council, America’s oldest and largest Indian Muslim diaspora organisation. However, this opinion does not reflect the views of the organizations he is associated with.
