 "To be a Muslim in Hyderabad")
Friday was the last of the Jumma prayers in Hyderabad mosques before the city goes to the polls on Wednesday.
In the 400-year-old Jama Masjid, adjoining Charminar, the throbbing beating heart of the Old City, the message of the custodian there was discreet but unmistakable.
To the 1,000 or so crowd gathered there, after the namaaz had been offered, Syed Shah Obeidullah Qadri, 38, said it was the sacred duty of all Muslims and all Indians to cast their vote.
"I'm not telling you whom to vote for," he said. "But remember, we are one country. No party is 100 per cent good or bad. But we have to prevent the country from being divided on religious lines. You have to select the candidate accordingly. This is my personal opinion. I don't want it to be binding on anyone. But you should think about how you can defeat divisive forces before you cast your vote."
Recounting the preacher's message, Syed Mohammad Ibrahim, 40, owner of a jewellery shop, adjoining the mosque, said the Old City would vote as it had always done - for the Majlis-e-Ittahdul Muslimeen (MIM). But this time the difference is that MIM has a good chance of being more than just a kingmaker in the Assembly and an ally of the Congress at the Centre; it is expected to get more than 20 per cent of the seats in the 119-member Telangana Assembly and help in defeating "divisive forces" in the 17 seats Telangana sends to the Lok Sabha.
Shahbaz Ahmad Khan was president of the Minorities cell in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - till Chandrababu Naidu, president of the TDP, joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Eight days ago, of 160 Muslim office-bearers in the party, 110 resigned. Most joined the MIM, some joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Khan said neither the TDP nor the BJP should expect anything from Telangana.
"The Muslims here are feeling really empowered. This is our day in the sun," said Khan, in his office, having just bid goodbye to a group of clerics who had called on him.
"We would not have been against the TDP - not even against the BJP. But here, people are not voting for the TDP or BJP. The choice is voting for Narendra Modi or voting to defeat him. So, we have decided to vote against those candidates who will enable Modi to come to power."
"Betrayals", like what Naidu did, have pushed the Muslims deeper into ghettoes in the city and elsewhere in the fledgling state of Telangana. In Andhra Pradesh, the previous census recorded Muslims as 12.5 per cent of the population. In Telangana, they are between 14 and 18 per cent. In addition to existential problems of bijli, sadak and paani, they are deeply sensitive to two other issues: The humiliation of watching the destruction of the Babri Masjid, and arbitrary arrests in terrorism cases. The Mecca Masjid bomb blasts in 2007 killed 14 people but radicalised thousands of others.
Seventy young men were jailed and tortured on the suspicion of being involved in the bombings - later, evidence revealed a plot hatched, by among others, Swami Aseemanand, an accused in the case.
Recalling the blast, Mohammad Zahid Ali, 28, a salesman at a shop in Lad Bazaar, just off Charminar, said about the elections: "Everyone is angry, upset with the Congress. People want a change. We expect Narendra Modi to get a large number of seats. But we will vote for MIM."
MIM? Propped up by a set of ageing clerics? When the world is at the feet of young people brought together by the internet?
Zahid said, passionately: "How do you expect us to compromise on secularism? It is because India is a secular country that the judiciary still does justice. Those boys who were arrested and tortured - they did get justice in the end. MIM was the vehicle which helped them fight their cases in court."
Zahid's faith in the rule of law is touching: "Narendra Modi cannot act outside the Constitution. If he does, others in his own party will prevent him from doing so."
The BJP is apparently conscious of these feelings. The meetings of top-order leaders - including Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh - in Telangana have been cancelled. While Sushma Swaraj will still address some meetings, the BJP clearly does not want to waste time chasing lost causes.
As evening descends on Charminar, trucks, packed with muscular men in the blue uniform of the Rapid Action Force, posted every Friday in this area to prevent "anything untoward", roll up. For the locals, the brilliant blue of the uniform is a part of the landscape.
In the 400-year-old Jama Masjid, adjoining Charminar, the throbbing beating heart of the Old City, the message of the custodian there was discreet but unmistakable.
To the 1,000 or so crowd gathered there, after the namaaz had been offered, Syed Shah Obeidullah Qadri, 38, said it was the sacred duty of all Muslims and all Indians to cast their vote.
"I'm not telling you whom to vote for," he said. "But remember, we are one country. No party is 100 per cent good or bad. But we have to prevent the country from being divided on religious lines. You have to select the candidate accordingly. This is my personal opinion. I don't want it to be binding on anyone. But you should think about how you can defeat divisive forces before you cast your vote."
Recounting the preacher's message, Syed Mohammad Ibrahim, 40, owner of a jewellery shop, adjoining the mosque, said the Old City would vote as it had always done - for the Majlis-e-Ittahdul Muslimeen (MIM). But this time the difference is that MIM has a good chance of being more than just a kingmaker in the Assembly and an ally of the Congress at the Centre; it is expected to get more than 20 per cent of the seats in the 119-member Telangana Assembly and help in defeating "divisive forces" in the 17 seats Telangana sends to the Lok Sabha.
Shahbaz Ahmad Khan was president of the Minorities cell in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - till Chandrababu Naidu, president of the TDP, joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Eight days ago, of 160 Muslim office-bearers in the party, 110 resigned. Most joined the MIM, some joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Khan said neither the TDP nor the BJP should expect anything from Telangana.
"The Muslims here are feeling really empowered. This is our day in the sun," said Khan, in his office, having just bid goodbye to a group of clerics who had called on him.
"We would not have been against the TDP - not even against the BJP. But here, people are not voting for the TDP or BJP. The choice is voting for Narendra Modi or voting to defeat him. So, we have decided to vote against those candidates who will enable Modi to come to power."
"Betrayals", like what Naidu did, have pushed the Muslims deeper into ghettoes in the city and elsewhere in the fledgling state of Telangana. In Andhra Pradesh, the previous census recorded Muslims as 12.5 per cent of the population. In Telangana, they are between 14 and 18 per cent. In addition to existential problems of bijli, sadak and paani, they are deeply sensitive to two other issues: The humiliation of watching the destruction of the Babri Masjid, and arbitrary arrests in terrorism cases. The Mecca Masjid bomb blasts in 2007 killed 14 people but radicalised thousands of others.
Seventy young men were jailed and tortured on the suspicion of being involved in the bombings - later, evidence revealed a plot hatched, by among others, Swami Aseemanand, an accused in the case.
Recalling the blast, Mohammad Zahid Ali, 28, a salesman at a shop in Lad Bazaar, just off Charminar, said about the elections: "Everyone is angry, upset with the Congress. People want a change. We expect Narendra Modi to get a large number of seats. But we will vote for MIM."
MIM? Propped up by a set of ageing clerics? When the world is at the feet of young people brought together by the internet?
Zahid said, passionately: "How do you expect us to compromise on secularism? It is because India is a secular country that the judiciary still does justice. Those boys who were arrested and tortured - they did get justice in the end. MIM was the vehicle which helped them fight their cases in court."
Zahid's faith in the rule of law is touching: "Narendra Modi cannot act outside the Constitution. If he does, others in his own party will prevent him from doing so."
The BJP is apparently conscious of these feelings. The meetings of top-order leaders - including Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh - in Telangana have been cancelled. While Sushma Swaraj will still address some meetings, the BJP clearly does not want to waste time chasing lost causes.
As evening descends on Charminar, trucks, packed with muscular men in the blue uniform of the Rapid Action Force, posted every Friday in this area to prevent "anything untoward", roll up. For the locals, the brilliant blue of the uniform is a part of the landscape.