Almost the entire 82-page Republic Day special issue of the Organiser is dedicated to the UPA government’s alleged attempts to appease Muslims. The RSS mouthpiece has been vocal on this topic for a while, but this one — which is described as dedicated to national unity — has two dozen articles on different aspects of the subject. The editorial sees a political conspiracy in the government’s planning measures that are targeted at Muslims. “The central government has identified 90 districts in the country as minority concentrated for special development plans. An intriguing aspect of this idea is that known Muslim-majority districts, say in UP, Assam, West Bengal, J&K or Kerala, are not included in the select 90 list. It is said that altogether the Congress is thus focusing on nearly 250 Lok Sabha constituencies for doling out excessive privileges and central funds so as to develop them as captive pocket boroughs. This may or may not work but the damage to the national fabric is intrinsic,” it warns. Advantage minorities?R.K. Ohri, a former IPS officer, challenges the idea of Muslim deprivation. He thinks that Indian Muslims are better off than Hindus. “The incidence of infant and child mortality per 1,000 births is substantially higher among Hindus than among Muslims, the overall differential being of the order of 29 to 30 per cent in favour of the Muslims.” The degree of urbanisation, Ohri argues, is another important, globally recognised human development indicator. He quotes from Census 2001, to say that barely 26 per cent Hindus live in urban areas while the Muslim percentage of city-dwellers is much higher at 36 per cent, that is, nearly 10 per cent higher than Hindus.” Funds divertedO.P. Gupta, a former IFS officer, takes the theme forward and alleges that Hindus in India are “second class citizens”. This, he says, is due to the attention and alleged government patronage that the Muslims get. “No wonder, budgetary allocation for welfare schemes for minorities in the XIth Five Year Plan (2007-12) has been hiked to Rs 7,000 crore and annual allocation to the Ministry of Minority Affairs has been suo motu raised by the Planning Commission to Rs 1,400 crore from Rs 500 crore, though this ministry had sought an annual allocation of Rs 1,100 crore.” Gupta goes on to allege that funds allocated to backward Hindus are being diverted to Muslims. “The Ministry of Social Justice had sought Rs 16,100 crore for the welfare of SCs and OBCs, out of which Rs 11,185 crore was earmarked for SCs and Rs 2,250 crore for OBCs. But reflecting the step-motherly treatment of Hindus by the Congress, the Planning Commission reduced the allocation for their welfare schemes by Rs 3,000 crore, with the result that budgetary allocation for SCs stands reduced to Rs 9,097 crore and for OBCs to a peanut amount of Rs 1,588 crore. This is the price SC and OBC Hindus had to pay for voting the UPA parties to power. “It is painful to see how the class of ‘secular, progressive and liberal’ Hindu politicians — right from the days of the 1916 Congress-Muslim League Lucknow Pact till date in the form of the Sachar Committee Report, Rangnath Misra Commission, the new 15-Point Programme of the prime minister, 15 per cent Plan Allocation to Minorities etc — has been systematically concocting false and fabricated justifications to reduce, bit by bit, the educational, employment and economic opportunities of all Hindu boys and girls.” Plugging the leakJagdeesh Shetigar, convener of the BJP’s economic cell, calls for the right delivery of welfare schemes. “The real challenge before the country is how to minimise the leakage of funds by reducing, if not removing, corruption. If there is a possibility of India emerging as the third largest economic power by 2020 and the number two next only to China by 2050, perhaps the process can be speeded up with a better utilisation of funds.”
