The appeasement game

The BJP8217;s remarks on the subject of 8216;Muslim appeasement8217; are the subject of a front page editorial in People8217;s Democracy that tries to point out that it is actually the BJP that needs to put its house in order given its past record.

The BJP8217;s remarks on the subject of 8216;Muslim appeasement8217; are the subject of a front page editorial in People8217;s Democracy that tries to point out that it is actually the BJP that needs to put its house in order given its past record. The 8220;myth8221; of Muslim appeasement had been 8220;exploded8221; by the Sachar committee8217;s findings, yet the BJP continued to harangue the government for being soft on terror.

But falling back on earlier arguments the editorial, 8216;Playing with national security8217;, says: 8220;If the charge of appeasement leading to having a soft approach on terror was serious, then, as we argued in these columns earlier, did the terrorist attacks on the Red Fort, the Parliament, Akshardham temple in Gujarat, and twice-hit Raghunath temple in Jammu 038; Kashmir etc under the BJP-led NDA rule occur because of the Vajpayee government8217;s policies of appeasement of Muslims?8221;

In the Left8217;s view, the law must take its course and this was evident too in the case of Afzal8217;s clemency petition. The very law that had given him the death sentence also gave him the right to appeal for mercy to the president, 8220;Internal security of our country is non-negotiable8230; However, such RSS/BJP-sponsored campaign aimed solely at sharpening communal polarisation for political dividend is, in itself, a major contributor to weakening the situation concerning our internal security.8221;

Community in the red

Facing criticism of the steps taken by the West Bengal government for the upliftment of Muslims in the light of the poor grading by the Sachar committee of the state, the CPM prepares the ground to defend the steps taken by the Left Front since coming to power. CPM MP Moinul Hassan, concluding his two part series in People8217;s Democracy on the socio-economic condition of Muslims, says that to hold the Left Front government responsible for the plight of Muslims 8220;is not only unfair but also reflects a lack of understanding of the historical evolution of West Bengal and the Muslim community within it8221;.

As only Hindus could pay the high taxes on land imposed by the British, Muslims lost much of the land they owned. After Partition, 8220;whatever small section of educated middle-class Muslims had developed in the colonial period migrated to East Pakistan,8221; Hassan writes, adding that this migration continued till the mid-1960s. The Muslims who stayed back were overwhelmingly agricultural workers in rural areas. He accuses the Congress of doing nothing for the Muslims in the state during the years they were in government.

Now, despite the 8220;late start8221; given by the Left Front, 8220;The upward trend in the socio-economic indicators among Muslims under the Left Front rule is unmistakable.8221; Muslims, he says, have benefited from land reforms, they have been empowered in rural areas and have a 8220;fair representation8221; in local bodies, the madrassa education system has been reformed, the Calcutta Madrasah is now a full-fledged college and the West Bengal Minority Development Finance Corporation promotes self-employment and entrepreneurship. Yet, conceding that the situation is indeed grim, Hassan suggests a sub-plan for Muslims in the Eleventh Plan for all centrally sponsored development programmes like education, health, employment generation, housing and sanitation.

Compiled by Ananda Majumdar