Why Jawed Habib Joined BJP Despite Being Bullied By Hindutva Trolls Online

When news broke on last week that hair stylist Jawed Habib had joined the BJP, his name immediately started trending on Twitter. The last time this happened was in 2017, when right-wing trolls had descended upon him for a tiny print advertisement in a Kolkata newspaper.

The advertisement, meant to announce discounts for Durga Puja, showed a cartoon Durga and other deities chilling at a Habib’s salon. The photo was circulated on social media by men and women crying insult to Hinduism. Habib was especially targeted for being a Muslim and questioned if he’d ‘dare make fun’ of the Prophet, even as hundreds of West Bengal residents used to a tradition of humanising their gods defended the ad. The vitriol was such that Habib was forced to apologise for the creative.

When the 56 year old joined the BJP, many people recalled this incident.

“I have been the chowkidaar of people’s hair, now I want to be the nation’s chowkidaar,” Habib said, repeating the party’s catchphrase for the election season.

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Habib, who launched his chain of salons 15 years ago, has outlets and franchisees in nearly all states in India. The celebrity stylist also runs 67 hairdressing academies. In an interview with HuffPost India, he attempted to explain why he joined the BJP and how he negotiates being a Muslim BJP member amid allegations of persecution of minorities against his party.

When did you decide that you formally wanted to join politics?

See, I am 56 years old. And for years, I have been providing skill training and education to thousands of people so that they can earn their own living. All the salons and academies I run provide employment to many people. Now, I felt I wanted to expand the scope of skill and education through my work as a party member. I want to do more.

What made you join the BJP specifically?

The last five years have had a huge impact on me and especially all the work that has been done.

Can you give specific instances of the kind of ‘work’ you are referring to?

There has been a lot of work that has been done in the skill development sector in the past five years. I have also worked with the governments of Maharashtra, West Bengal and other states to impart skill training. I have seen how much work is being done in the sector. The National Skill Development Mission has a section on beauty and wellness and I gave guided the course and planned the work.

Hundreds of people have come to our Mumbai office and taken hairdressing and other such courses at very nominal fees.

We have also done training for the minority ministry. We had several centres for the training of minority youth in cities like Varanasi.

BJP is facing serious accusations of discrimination against Muslims. There have been several incidents of lynchings of Dalits and Muslims in the past five years. As a Muslim member of the party, how do you process these accusations?

I am an Indian and desi and I am also a Muslim. I am a face of the Muslim community of the country. As a responsible Muslim, I do not believe in simply complaining against issues facing the community. I want to take action and not just complain.

How do you think joining BJP will help?

I am sure that once I am a part of the party, I can speak to its high command and the people about the issues facing the community and they will definitely listen to me.

So while joining the party, did you discuss these issues?

No, I haven’t. I have joined the party just two days ago, so I will discuss this in time.

In Bengal, where you have considerable business interests, have you ever faced any problem running the business or anything else?

No, never. I have never faced any issue anywhere in the country. Even when Aamir Khan said that thing… I thought, I haven’t faced any issue as a Muslim.

Right. So in Bengal, many BJP leaders mock Mamata Banerjee as ‘Mumtaz’. Don’t you think it’s insulting to Muslims?

(Laughs) This is a vast country and many people say many things. We should not pay attention to what others are thinking and keep on doing our work. That’s what I am doing, I am just doing my work and that’s what I intend to do in the party as well.

In 2017, you were trolled and abused online for a Durga Puja ad.

So, I had not seen the creative of that ad and my master franchise in Kolkata published it. I told my master franchise to not do such things and apologised as well.

Did you feel pressurised to apologise? A lot of people from Bengal, including pro-BJP ones, also pointed out that the ad was not problematic and came out in your support.

See, a lot of people message me now and I have been receiving messages asking why I needed to join politics. It’s nice if people considered the ad okay and all. But I felt I should apologise back then, so I did.

You have worked and advertised in West Bengal for over a decade now and many ads have been published. Does that fact that this particular ad became such a huge issue bother you and indicate a change in the political atmosphere of the country?

I really don’t understand why it became such a big issue. People should also think of all the work I have done here. I have academies and salons across India which employ approximately 9,000 people directly. By that connection, I am responsible for helping run almost 9,000 families in this country and more through franchises. I have not done all this just for myself, I have done this for the country only. Shouldn’t people think about that as well?

The fact that it became an issue, what does it say about the political atmosphere in the country?

I have not faced anything over this. It was been very peaceful wherever I have gone.

Okay, so when the controversy happened, people were taking you apart on Twitter and targeting you for being a Muslim.

I am an Indian first. Before anything, I am an Indian, and I belong to India. That is my first identity. We are professionals, and when we employ people in our organisation, we do not see if that person is a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian. We see if he or she is a professional. We do not think about religion.

While researching for this article, I came across articles and pictures of BJP people demonstrating with your posters, against you.

I think it was a sensitive issue and I came forward and apologised. And then I did not face anything much.

So, maybe you have the privilege of distancing yourself from a thing such as this, as a celebrity. But what does it say about the situation of minority communities who don’t have that?

I think celebrities face more than usual people, because it is easy to target public figures.

Also, let’s not talk minorities. We are Indians. We all should be safe. Let’s not talk about about minority-majority, we should be safe.

You said that you want to work in education and skill development. How do you plan to do it?

My work, ‘nai ka kaam’ (a barber’s job), never goes out of fashion. Come what may, people will cut their hair no? In any city or town, you walk around a neighbourhood or a market, in a long line of shops there will be at least 3 shops which will be salons or barber shops. We were not hit by recession even. I want to make sure that the men who earn Rs10 by cutting hair on the roadside can earn Rs 100 at least by learning some basic skills.