POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 1 March 2008

Freebies Galore, Forget Money

PYAARE MUSALMAN, YOUR WISH, MY COMMAND

By Poonam I Kaushish

It was a perfect electoral cake. Rolled out by Finance Minister Chidambaram to the strains of ‘Vote Congress.’ Iced with luscious lip-smacking freebies galore for one and all. From the aam aadmi to the debt-ridden kisan to the top tax payer. A feel-good budget that has bitten the ballot. To cream the electorate at the hustings!

Indeed, his 2008-09 ‘please-one-and-all’ budget has much to crow about. It has injected a much-needed dose to the suicide-prone farmers wherein debts worth Rs 60,000 crore have been promised to be waived off, it offers substantial tax relief to the middle class, welfare lollipops for workers in the unorganized sector, increased subsidies for houses under the Indira Awaz Yojana, special measures for Scs/STs, new deal for senior citizens and women et al.

However, the budget has a dangerous sub-text which has been lost in the euphoria of the goodies. The slew of schemes for the minorities is a pointer that minorityism has replaced cronyism as the tour de force of the budget. Take a 360 degree turn anywhere and minority appeasement hits you in the face. All in the garb of improving their quality of life (sic) which translates into “please give me your vote.” Never mind that it holds out dangerous portends for India’s unity and national security.

How else should one react to the Finance Minister’s latest bonanza for the minorities. Starting with the piece de resistance, a multi-sectoral development plan for 90 minority districts at a cost of Rs.3,780 crore, Rs 80-crore earmarked for a pre-matric scholarships and over Rs 45 crore for modernizing madrassa education. The corpus for the Maulana Azad Education Foundation has been hiked by Rs.60 crore and 544 new bank branches (256 this year and 288 next year) will be opened in the minority districts to facilitate bank credit for them and Rs.75 crore more for the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation..

Statistically speaking none can deny that a large section of the Muslims need a better quality of life. Data collated by various commissions bring out the fact that socio-economic indicators for Muslims were below those for OBCs in many cases. About 59 per cent were illiterate, only 10 per cent went to school and a mere eight per cent opted for higher education. Worse, even as they were vastly under-represented in official jobs, they were grossly over-represented in India's prison population. None can also deny that the Government has a special responsibility to provide job opportunities, education and upliftment of the minorities and the backward classes.

No doubt, the Grand Dame of Indian politics perceives its Finance Minister’s lollipops as it’s cash card to regain its long-lost glory. But the crucial question is: Does poverty have any religion? What has religion got to do with the Government’s strategy for inclusive growth? Does ‘inclusiveness of Muslims’ mean at the cost of other groups? Is it in the interest of maintaining the social fabric of the nation? Will it help the cause of taking the Indian people together on the path of development?"

More. How does it better the lot of the mass of Muslims, if a few persons get jobs? When does minorityism supercede equality assured by our Constitution? Are quotas based on religion and community, the answer for maintaining India’s social fabric? And more important, it’s crucial harmony? Is the Muslim identity distinct from that of the Indian? 

Given the level of dishonesty, populism and irresponsibility which increasingly governs our political system, these exclusive measures announced are an invitation to disaster. Clearly, the move is fraught with dangerous implications for the unity of the country. Tragically, so blinded are our politicians in their quest for power that none can see the Frankenstein they recklessly continue to create. By giving legitimacy to a communal quota, religious bigotry at its most ferocious could end up in carving once more a blood-stained path across our country. Clearly, this could sow the poisonous seeds for a new communal movement and separate electorates inspired by the two-nation theory that tragically led to India’s partition.

Importantly, if reservation based on castes is bad, budgeting on communal basis is horrendous. Ominous reasoning is being appendaged. It would bring the Muslims into the mainstream. Ensure harmony between the majority and the minority communities. It would prevent Muslims from being exploited any more as vote-banks by the so-called secular parties.

Recall, Nehru increasingly bent over-backwards to woo the Muslim vote, which constituted 12 to 15 per cent of the total Congress vote, the largest single block it received in the first few general elections. Thus, Muslim appeasement was no longer viewed as luxury but as a matter of life and death. To be manipulated and held hostage as was done by the British colonial masters to block freedom.

Once economically pampered, the next demand would be that the Muslims alone should decide who would represent them. Bluntly, leading to a most dangerous and blood-thirsty monster of separate Muslim electorate. Clearly, this could sow the seeds for a new communal movement inspired by the disastrous two-nation theory that led to India’s partition and the creation of Pakistan, thanks to the diabolical communal award by the British Raj which provided for the Hindus to vote for the Hindus and the Muslims for the Muslims.

So caught up are all in their blandishments for the increasing Muslim vote-bank  (36.76 per cent growth during 1991-2001) to suit their petty parochial ends that they fail to see the Frankenstein they could mindlessly unleashed --- a Frankenstein that encourages the Muslim leadership to go communal and dictate its national agenda. Already a seven-Party Muslim Front has been formed to fight the electoral sweepstakes on its own.   

Importantly, there is no place for double standards or the Orwellian concept of ‘more equal than others’ in a democracy. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The Fundamental Rights provide for equal opportunities for all irrespective of caste, creed or sex. Let’s not fudge or forget this. India of 2008 is not the India of pre-1947.

Clearly, the Government has to end this evil of separatism. Separate budget for minorities is no answer for fulfilling the peoples’ aspirations. It will not only further divide our people on creed-caste lines but is also short-sighted and antithetical to any hope of narrowing India's burgeoning divide between the haves and have-nots. The Government has no right to limit opportunities for the deserving or to shrink the public space for autonomy and free association.

In the ultimate, our petty power-at all-cost polity has to think beyond vote-bank politics and look at the perilous implications of these decisions. What exactly is the message the Government proposes to send across the country by its budgeting policy? Does it want to be the first to sow the seeds of another partition? It is willy-nilly encouraging the Muslim leadership to go communal and resurrect the Muslim League. Which could in turn result in reservation for Muslims in Parliament and State Assemblies and even separate electorate a la the British Raj?

If not stopped here and now, these actions could threaten a blood-stained path across our country. Let us not ignore the grim lessons of history. Or, we shall end up condemning ourselves and the country to repeating history. Where a nation can be plunged into communal anarchy once again. How long will we allow this vote-bank politics to continue recklessly and play havoc with India’s unity and integrity? The buck stops at the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s door. ----INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)