[Reader-list] Fwd: Tasweer Ghar: Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you

[Iram Ghufran]

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> Subject:
> Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you
> From:
> Tasveer Ghar <tasveerghar at gmail.com>
> Date:
> Sat, 23 May 2009 18:04:31 +0800
> To:
> undisclosed-recipients:;
>
> To:
> undisclosed-recipients:;
>
>
> Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you
> http://tasveerghar.net/cmsdesk/essay/49/index.html
>
>
> Dear friends,
> Last week, the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 to select India's central
> government finally come to an end, and results were out. Some analysts
> have pointed out that the Muslims of north India were one of the
> important deciding factors for the success or defeat of the different
> parties. If one observed the Urdu newspapers in north India, one could
> easily see how different parties and candidates tried to attract the
> attention of Muslim voters by engaging them on a number of issues from
> development and employment to terrorism and communalism.
>
> While Congress and its allies have emerged once again to form the
> government, one can see how they and the other parties didn't leave
> any stone unturned to present a favourable image of themselves, while
> painting their opponents as the worst enemies of the Muslims.
> Interestingly, many of these advertisements have bylines not of the
> main parties they represent. Rather, these have been issued by
> hitherto unknown organizations and NGOs of local Muslims, and in some
> cases, religious clergy or even the keepers of local Sufi shrines, who
> have a great following among the Muslims. While this is not the first
> time that Muslim religious leaders have participated in the campaign
> for political parties, but they have certainly come out more openly
> this time, often using the iconography of their religious authority.
>
> We present a few examples of such campaign advertisements from some
> newspapers published in Delhi in the last few weeks:
>
> http://tasveerghar.net/cmsdesk/essay/49/index.html
>
> We would be happy to hear your feedback about the various interesting
> image galleries emerging on Tasveer Ghar.
>
> The Tasveer Ghar Team
>
>