POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 22 December 2007

Now Communal Budgeting

WILL PM STAND UP FOR INDIANS

By Poonam I Kaushish

Pyare Musalman bhaiya! Ab main aapki aur khidmat kar sakta hoon? (Beloved Muslim brethren. How else can I serve you now?) It needs no guesses to know who could have uttered these words. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of course! Remember, he said not so long ago that the Muslims had the first claim on the country’s resources.

Simplistically, minorityism has once again replaced cronyism as the fashion statement of the week. Take a 360 degree turn anywhere and minority appeasement hits you in the face. All in the garb of improving the Muslims’ quality of life (sic) which translates into “please give me your vote.” Never mind that it holds out monsterous portends for India’s unity and national security.

How else does one react to the Prime Minister’s latest bonanza for the minorities by earmarking 15 per cent funds of the 11th Five Year Plan “to enable them to become active participants in economic growth”. Sic. Speaking at the National Development Council, Manmohan Singh added, “This Plan lays special emphasis on the problems of the minorities. It has specific, focused programmes, both for skill development and education and also for improving the basic infrastructure in areas inhabited predominantly by these marginalised groups.”

But the Prime Minister had not bargained for an angry outburst from the BJP, which lambasted him for his “communal budgeting.” Gujarat’s Hindutva icon, Gujarat Chief Minister, Narender Modi, angrily asked: “What exactly is the message the Government proposes to send across the country by this discrimination?” Demanding a review of the PM’s 15-point agenda for the minorities, he warned that this was necessary “in the interest of maintaining the social fabric of the nation. It will not help the cause of taking the Indian people together on the path of development."

A defensive Manmohan Singh tried hard to dispel Modi’s misgivings by asserting that “the plan does not attempt to divide people on the basis of caste, creed or gender or religion." But there were few takers for his argument. 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?

Arguably, how does it better the lot of the masses, if a few Muslims get benefited? 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?

Given the level of dishonesty, populism and irresponsibility which increasingly governs our political system, this step, like the previous ones, will be an invitation to disaster. In fact, a senior member of the Planning Commission was horrified by this “highly divisive” proposal. The member took up the matter informally with some colleagues warning: We will end up dividing each district with a separate authority to oversee the fund dispersal, then towns and cities and their mohallas and, finally, we will be left with 650 new de facto states.” All to no avail. 

In fact, if truth be told, the Muslim vote bank has become the tour de force of Indian politics. Towards that end, the UPA has recklessly moved quite a distance in its pro-Muslim charter. First, it set up a National Commission to examine the question of quotas for socially and economically backward sections among the Muslims.

Then came the Sachar Report “on social, economic and educational status” of the minority community. Next a Minority Affairs Ministry. Followed by the Ranganatha Mishra Commission for Linguistic and Religious Minorities, which has recommended 10 per cent reservation for Muslims in Government jobs.

Not just that. We also have the latest bonanza. A panel headed by academician Amitabh Kundu to remove anomalies in the representation of Muslims in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. An Equal Opportunity Commission headed by eminent jurist N R Madhav Menon. The Government has also identified 90 minority-concentration districts for focused attention.

Clearly, the year 2006-2007 will go down in Indian history as the Year of the Muslim. Thus giving a major boost to diabolical communalism. Statistically, a large section of the Muslims do need a better quality life.

Data collated by Sachar and others show that socio-economic indicators for Muslims were below those for OBCs in many cases. (Recall also that most well-to-do Muslims, barring their lowest rung, left for Pakistan in 1947, a fact overlooked by Sachar) 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 deny that the Government has a special responsibility to help uplift the minorities and the backward classes. But we also need to remember that if reservations based on castes are bad, affirmative action on communal basis is horrendous. It cannot be justified by ominous reasoning that it would bring the Muslims into the mainstream and ensure harmony between the majority and the minority communities. Moreover, it would prevent Muslims from being exploited any more as vote-banks by the so-called secular parties.

Really? Aren’t the intentions of the Congress and other so-called secular parties just that? Exploitation of these minorities in the name of social and economic upliftment. With our netagan merrily converting positive affirmation into vote percentage. Specially when they can reap a political windfall of over 70 per cent votes via reservation. Never mind, if it pushes India back by a century and plays havoc with the unity brought about by the Raj.

Arguably, the Congress has ruled India for nearly 50 years. What has it done to better the lot of the Muslims? Zilch. Only used them as milch cows for votes in return for promises galore of a better deal. Post Independence, Nehru increasingly politicized religious energy. But he never polled more than 43.6 per cent of the popular mandate. Significantly, the Muslim vote constituted 12 to 15 per cent of his total vote. Consequently, Muslim appeasement became a matter of life and death. To be manipulated and held hostage by dubious promises.

Indira Gandhi firmly reused to countenance any demand for reservations for Muslims in Government jobs or Public Sector, formally or informally. But even she quietly acquiesced in the carving of a separate Muslim majority district of Mallipuram in Kerala by the CPM Government headed by Namboodiripad, to keep its nationwide vote bank intact.

Rajiv Gandhi bowed to the demands of the fundamentalists in the Shah Bano case. Now his widow, Sonia, as the Congress supremo, has carried the family tradition one step further. The Congress not only came out in favour of a reservation policy on religious basis in the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA Government but Sonia has since chosen to play footsie with the Jamiat-ul-Ulema.

Let us for a moment think beyond vote-bank politics of our petty power-at-all-cost polity and look at the perilous security implications of all the ‘minority’ decisions. Which are fraught with dangerous implications for the unity of the country. It is willy-nilly encouraging the Muslim leadership to go communal, even resurrect the once-hated and anti-national Muslim League (to promote welfare of the community) and dictate India’s national agenda.

All this could eventually result in reservation for Muslims in Parliament and State Assemblies and even separate electorate a la the British Raj. Our self-serving leaders forget that communal virus spreads fast when they turn a Nelson’s eye to forces wedded to religious bigotry, social obscurantism and violence thinking only of themselves. It even encourages recklessness. Remember, how the UP Minister for Haj offered a huge award for killing the Danish cartoonist for caricaturing Prophet Mohammad.

Tragically, the Congress is unleashing a Frankenstein. Does it realize the ramifications of its actions? It could well be the first step in sowing the seeds of another partition --- a Muslim India and a Hindu India. There is no place for double standards or the Orwellian concept of ‘more equal than others’ in a democracy. Our Constitution provides for equal opportunities for all irrespective of caste, creed or sex.

Or we shall end up condemning ourselves and our country to repeating history. Where a nation can be plunged into communal anarchy once again. Remember, a nation is primarily a “fusion of minds and hearts” and secondarily a geographical entity. This portioning of the mind has brought us virtually to the cross-roads. How long will we allow brazen communalism to continue playing havoc with India’s unity, harmony and integrity? Will the PM please stand up for ‘we Indians’!  --- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)