<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Preventing Muslim migrants from gaining citizenship. Revoking the semi-autonomy of the country’s only Muslim-majority region. Building a Hindu temple where a violent mob razed a mosque.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">These were political triumphs for Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past decade, burnishing his reputation as a leader who prioritizes the interests India's Hindu majority. For India's 200 million Muslims, they highlight their waning political power in the world's largest democracy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India are not new, but they have gotten worse under Modi, whose ruling Bharatiya Janata Party touts a Hindu-nationalist ideology. And with Modi seemingly on the cusp of a third five-year term, the outlook for Muslim politicians — and citizens — is bleak. This year's vote will be decided in June.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's not just that Modi has ramped up anti-Muslim rhetoric in campaign speeches. Ever since the BJP began its rise as a political force in the mid-1980s, the proportion of Muslim lawmakers in parliament and state legislatures has shrunk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Muslim representation has fallen in the ruling BJP, and in opposition parties, too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Modi assumed power in 2014, the outgoing parliament had 30 Muslim lawmakers — and just one was a member of the BJP. Muslims now hold 25 out of 543 seats, and none belong to the BJP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">India has gone from being a country where Muslims were largely marginalized to one where they are “actively excluded,” said Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a political scientist and historian at New Delhi’s Ashoka University.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Without representation, you are unable to ask the state for resources and articulate the kind of needs the community has in order to progress, whether its education, jobs, health or basic infrastructure,” Mahmudabad said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the mid-1980s, Muslims accounted for 11% of India's population, and had 9% of seats in parliament; today they are 14% of the population and have less than 5% of seats in parliament.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nine out of 10 members in parliament are Hindus, who make up 80 percent of India’s population of 1.4 billion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The political representation of Muslims at the state level is only slightly better. India has more than 4,000 lawmakers in state legislatures across 28 states and Muslim lawmakers hold roughly 6% of these seats.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A government report in 2006 found Muslims lagged Hindus, Christians and people from India's lower castes in literacy, income and access to education. They have made some gains since then but are still at a significant disadvantage, according to multiple independent studies. Source: AP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>