Bihar, Nov. 22 -- Communities in decline often fail to distinguish between friends and foes, ending up paying a heavy price for their folly. It would appear after the Bihar election results that Indian Muslims are yet to learn from past mistakes and are continuing to commit political blunders that hurt their own interests.

It appears that a large enough section of Bihari Muslims voted in Bihar for Assaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) over others. It undoubtedly helped the party win five seats and enable polarisation of votes on communal lines in others in theSeemanchalregion. Whether Owaisi stood in the way of victory and defeat of either side is for psephologists to analyse. But by disrupting an essentially...