Opinion The same sop story
Before elections,communal and secular parties turn their focus to Muslims.
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Before elections,communal and secular parties turn their focus to Muslims.
The ordinary Muslim dreads the period just prior to the announcement of elections,because that is when his community is pulled out from the margins and brought centrestage to become the subject of the cynical opportunism,power games and vote calculations of two competing camps right-wing Hindutva nationalists on the one hand,and the so-called secular formations on the other. That is also when the genie of sops and appeasement appears. Creating a permanent rift between communities and isolating the Muslim has been the barely disguised policy of the BJP camp. What is disturbing is that the Central government,which allegedly represents the secular forces,is also tacitly abetting polarisation of communities in the hope of garnering minority support.
Last week,the government announced that it proposes to provide legal assistance to those who have been jailed on doubtful charges in terror cases. Predictably,the BJP has termed this as appeasement of Muslims. The governments decision is a dishonest,cynical ploy to fracture relations between the two communities and reap unholy dividends. Instead of taking measures to ensure that investigating agencies do not wrongfully implicate innocent citizens,the government has shown its phoney concern for Muslims with this meaningless but dangerous gesture; meaningless because the law in any case provides that every accused should be given legal aid,and dangerous because it has provided fodder to the BJP to drive a wedge between communities.
Not to be outdone in the murky game of vote-bank politics,the Uttar Pradesh government last week announced that it would earmark 20 per cent of welfare scheme funds for Muslims. The fact that welfare schemes such as MGNREGA,National Rural Health Mission,Indira Awaas Yojana,etc are not linked to caste or community but based on economic criteria makes the proposal an exercise in duplicity. It may be recalled that the Samajwadi Party had,in its manifesto,promised a reservation of 18 per cent in government jobs for Muslims. We are yet to see that come to fruition.
There are other examples of the Central government using Muslims in the guise of helping them. Its opportunistic decision to provide 4.5 per cent specific quota for minorities within the overall 27 per cent quota for OBCs in government jobs and IITs coincided with the UP elections last year. The notification remained frozen as an unimplemented pious intention as it was struck down by the Supreme Court. In any case,with certain categories of Muslims already treated as OBCs,this decision would have made little difference to the job prospects of Muslims. But the unhappy upshot is that it has poisoned relations between Muslims and other OBCs.
The ruling partys hypocrisy and tokenism is apparent from the fact that it sought to fiddle with aspects of reservation that have already factored in Muslims,but has been dragging its feet on the unacceptable discrimination against Dalit Christians and Muslims. This is an issue in which the lofty principle enunciated in Article 15 of the Constitution,prohibiting any discrimination on grounds of religion,has been blatantly abused by the lawmakers themselves. The denial of Scheduled Caste status to SC Christians and Muslims constitutes the worst form of discrimination.
For decades,the BJPs theme has been that Muslims are a pampered favoured community who have embraced group privilege at the expense of the majority. The hollowness of this myth is reflected in the socio-economic plight of the community. Muslims languish on the margins of society. A recent National Sample Survey has noted that among various religious groups,Muslims have the lowest living standard with an average per capita expenditure of a mere Rs 32.66 per day as compared to Rs 37.50 for Hindus,Rs 51.43 for Christians and Rs 55.30 for Sikhs. Accused of being the governments damads (sons-in-law),Muslims constitute less than 6 per cent of the staff strength in the Central government. Recent NSS data reveals that the recruitment of minorities in government jobs,including PSUs,paramilitary forces and public sector banks,has actually dropped from 7.28 per cent in 2009-10 to 6.24 per cent in 2011-12. There is enough evidence to suggest that the state has failed to foster an effective,unbiased and inclusive system that could facilitate an adequate presence of Muslims in educational,professional and vocational institutions.
Muslims want to bridge the distance between communities,not exacerbate it. They are sick of the politics that uses secularism as a cloak of convenience. Rather than being given nominal group privileges,they want a level playing field in education and the job market,when looking for accommodation,or when an act of terrorism takes place. To modify what Martin Luther King Jr said in the American context,Muslims hope that they will not be unfairly judged by their religious identity,but truly judged by the content of their character.
The writer,a former civil servant,is secretary general of Lok Janshakti Party. Views are personal.
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