13 questions to the BJP

The Vajpayee government claims that Gujarat apart, for five years or more it kept the country riot-free. Yet hundreds of anti-Muslim riots have occurred since 1998, counting only those in which at least one human being lost his/her life, at least one woman was raped and at least one dwelling or shop was torched. A sense of deep physical insecurity pervades the Muslim community resulting in increasing ghettoization. Go to any Muslim area of any town and find out the cost of land or price of dwelling space. You will be shocked to find that the going rate in Muslim slums is comparable to the elite colonies!

Muslim Indians are today in a state of religious siege. The senseless campaign against their religious institutions, the Masjids, the Maktabs and the Madrasas, as dens of Pakistani espionage and training ground for the terrorists though Home Minister Advani has not been able to identify and prosecute any Imam or Ustad, the systematic occupation of Muslim graveyards and prayer grounds, the 8216;conquest8217; of Muslim shrines as in Baba Budhangiri caves in Karnataka, the permanent lock-out and deliberate neglect of 8216;Protected8217; Masjids and the step-by-step conversion into Hindu temples as in Kamal Maula Masjid in Dhar, the persistent claim on 30,000 Masjids and shrines across the country including Dargah Khwaja Saheb in Ajmer and Jama Masjid, Delhi on the false assumption that they were all built on the sites of pre-existing Hindu temples, all show the Sangh Parivar8217;s implacable hostility to Islam, the Holy Prophet and the Quran. How can the Muslims feel religiously secure if their faith is permanently under attack?

At election time, BJP leaders are offering equal treatment to Muslims. Putting aside their massive under-representation in the Parliament 55 not to speak of State Legislatures upto 100, and even in the Civil Services 75, the BJP should place before the Muslim community the proportion of Muslims the Vajpayee government has recruited in non-gazetted jobs with various ministries, departments and their attached and subordinate offices, as assistants, clerks, messengers and drivers, police constables and army jawans? At least, let them give the names of Muslim Indians nominated as directors of government corporations, public sector undertakings, banks and other financial institutions and as member of various autonomous bodies like boards and authorities, during the last five years. The Muslims constitute a Backward Class by every nationally accepted parameter. Today the Muslims are more deprived than ever before and the government is simply unconcerned that 1/8 of the national population continues to live a sub-human life in a state of deprivation.

The BJP spokesmen will repeat the half-truth that the Muslims shun modern education. But let Dr. Joshi, the Minister of Human Resource Development, put before the country and the Muslim community the additional number of government primary, upper primary, middle and secondary schools, established in Muslim concentration villages and urban mahallas above 20 Muslim population since 1998-1999 or under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Education for All and compare them to their entitlement under the national norm of one primary school for a population of 300. Dr Joshi has also to explain why the schools, opened under the SSA with central funds, do not teach Urdu or teach Urdu-speaking students through the medium of Urdu, at least at the primary level in areas of Urdu concentration? In fact, the total expenditure on the promotion of Urdu, Persian and Arabic through the NCPUL and otherwise over five years 1998-2003 comes to no more than 35 crores!

The Vajpayee government speaks of economic and educational development of Muslims through the National Minorities Finance and Development Corporation, the Abul Kalam Azad Education Foundation, the Central Wakf Council the Scheme of Commercial Development of Wakf Properties but the total amount invested in economic and educational development of a community of 150 million over five years comes to less than 100 crores! The Vajpayee government has never taken any steps to ensure that the Muslims at the grassroots level get their due share of the development programmes funded by the Union. In order to show off their latest catch Arif Mohd. Khan and the hired busloads from Rampur and Kishanganj, they organised the Rashtriya Muslim Vikas Mahasammelan which proved to be no more an exercise in rhetoric. Even Jaswant Singh did not announce any concrete programme of vikas for the community.

The electoral proposition is very clear: If 10 of Muslim votes can be attracted to the BJP, it will mean only 1 increase in national terms but even this small but visible shift will make an impact on the secular and liberal Hindu voters who are disenchanted with the secular parties and do not vote. Thus another 4 non-Muslim voters who were sharply critical of the BJP8217;s anti-secular ideology and policies may be attracted. With 5 additional votes, the BJP may even secure a majority in the Lok Sabha and form a government on its own and thus become free of the compulsions and unreliability of a coalition and implement its real agenda to make India a de jure Hindu state.

All parties, on the eve of elections, make promises but hardly ever keep or fulfill them. So the Muslim community should not take the BJP8217;s love-calls at face value. But it should put a few simple demands to the BJP to prove its love for Muslims and commitment to secularism:

8226; Will the BJP severe its links with the RSS and disown the ideological heritage of Savarkar and Golwalkar? Will it allow the RSS chief to act as an extra-constitutional authority? Will it stop making special dispensations in favour of RSS-linked organisations, institutions, individuals?

8226; Will it stop performance of Hindu rituals at State functions?

8226; Will it let the law take its course on the Ayodhya question, commit itself to the execution of the final judicial verdict and the implementation of the October, 1994 roadmap of the Supreme Court? Will the BJP commit itself not to repeal the Religious Places Special Provisions Act of 1991 and protect all places of worship as they were on 15 August, 1947?

8226; Will it promise the enactment of a comprehensive law on social violence, in all its forms and manifestations, providing for investigation by a federal agency, prosecution by Special Courts and payment of uniform compensation for loss of life, honour and property and imposition of collective fine? Will it apply the law retrospectively to all anti-Muslim and anti-Dalit cases since 1999?

8226; Will it establish primary and secondary schools in adequate numbers in all areas of deprivation, village by village, ward by ward, in accordance with the national norm, with the mother tongue as the medium of primary instruction and the teaching of the mother tongue as compulsory first language and of the principal language of the State as compulsory second language to all students belonging to linguistic minorities and introduce secular textbooks and non-denominational school culture?

8226; Will the BJP introduce reservation for Muslims in Legislatures under joint electorate, in public employment including security forces, higher education, welfare and development benefits and flow of bank credit, proportion to their population at the operational levels?

8226; Will BJP ensure against State intervention in matters of religion including religion-based family laws and against any tilt in inter-religious conflicts?

8226; Will it guarantee full and unrestricted exercise of freedom of religion under Article 25?

8226; Will the BJP nullify the Trifurcation of Punjab Wakf Board, restore Wakf properties in the hands of the State and include public Wakfs in the list of public premises?

8226; Will it give its tickets to at least 50 Muslims for the Lok Sabha, even to its faithful acolytes, old and new, and get them elected from safe seats?

8226; Will it commit itself to include at least 10 Muslims in the Council of Ministers?

8226; Will the BJP commit to include one Muslim among 10 government nominees in all statutory and non-statutory bodies?

8226; Will the BJP stop the vilification of Islam and demonization of Muslims, as Babar-ki-aulad, as historic adversaries?

The writer is a former MP and now president, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat