Polls on the crutches of ABC and backwardness

Posted on September 8, 2007


Within hours of former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratapsingh’s announcement of acceptance of Mandal recommendations, LK Advani trumpeted his plan for rathyatra for the temple at Ayodhya. Another tragedy is in the making since AR Antulay announced the 15 point guidelines for rectifying the backwardness among the Muslims. No sooner did he go public than the baying started. Shiv sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut says that Uddhav Thackeray would lead a delegation to the Prime Minister to demand scraping of reservation or concessions to Muslims. This is a clear foreboding that the coming times would be fraught with dangers for the minority for it just cannot escape the wrath of those who grudge every move to even the scale of justice. The track record is proof. The sena supremo had vehemently albeit menacingly opposed the survey of the armed forces to find out how many Muslims are there in the services. Manohar Joshi issued a veiled threat in the aftermath of the judgment of the serial bomb blasts of 1993 when the demand grew for justice for the victims of the communal riots that preceded the blasts. Any individual person threatening another is one thing. A political party known for communal violence issuing threat to a minority community is quite different.

Even before the ink dries on the paper promising economic and political uplift of the downtrodden Muslims the atmosphere is sullied. The tiger upstream is threatening the lamb downstream for muddying the water. If that is not enough then the ancestry of Babur is to blame. In other words we are back to square one in politics. The civic sense that economic growth and material development has grossly bypassed a section of the society and it is needed to correct the imbalance is thrown to the wind. Without this civic sense we would rather fight our own battle on terrorism and other nemeses besieging us is the new mantra of the neoconservatives amongst us paralleling the distant American cousins.

That different political parties have fought their own wars in the name of fighting terrorism does not require any rephrasing of the fact. Chief Minister Narender Modi of Gujarat even did away the fig leaf of what Muslims leaders in 1980s described the political parties vis-à-vis Muslims: running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Since the 1980s the lot of the Muslims has plummeted even further. Democracy has inbuilt mechanism to correct the imbalance. But those who come to occupy the house want to leave out those who helped in securing the house. This is the underlying stratagem of Modi’s electoral campaign. “Tribals should oppose religion based representations for Muslims. By extending reservations to converts, the central government wants to encourage conversions and harm the constitutional rights of tribals and dalits. The centre is playing a dangerous game by providing religion-based reservations to the minority community.” So the tribals and dalits can have constitutional rights and Muslims cannot. This insidious way of campaigning has paid him rich dividends in the past. But the first time when he did it in December 2002 he had hijacked the state of Gujarat after the state sponsored pogroms. During that period the funds raised in the United States for relief and development went to organizing of the carnage, recall the pouches of liquor and food distributed to the marauders, who were substantially tribals and dalits.

In such a campaign the greatest victim is not the Muslim community but democracy. The fascists have always lauded the Nazis and Adolph Hitler and want to emulate them in dealing with the minorities. Modi’s speech is the first shot in his attempt in taking on the Congress for the forthcoming election in the state on the issue of the minority. He is making it out that Congress is taking the morsel from the mouth of the tribals and dalits and giving it to the Muslim. Here is the Slobodan Milosevic in another version.


Election round the corner, each political party begins to put its acts together. The Congress being the oldest knows the art very well. It has done and will do much to woo the minorities. Because it also conveniently neglects its promises once the polls are over. However having set up a commission to ascertain the backwardness of Muslims it is caught in a cleft. The proposal for another commission for equal opportunity is touted. It is too early to dismiss it as eyewash. But much would depend how the minority becomes alert and well informed and organized in its endeavour to achieve what are long over due demands.

The Gujarat Chief Minister calls himself brother of the tribals and has a Van Bandhu package worth Rs 15, 000 crore. Mark it, it is ready cash to be spent on the instant. As compared to jingle sound of the money is the hollow sound of the promises and guidelines of the minister who did not have a seating arrangement for himself. Muslims never had 1000 crore sanctioned to them since India won freedom. However 15 point package is there for them from Antulay. The gerrymandering he has advocated for Muslims is nothing new. The scheduled castes and tribes have enjoyed it for long. The rearrangement of a constituency to favour the dalits and tribals has been an anomaly in a place like Malegaon. The Muslims constitute majority but for 60 years they could not elect any member of their own community to voice their concern in parliament. Other such pockets are also there. Antulay has recommended removing the anomaly through nomination. Modi has cash in his pocket. Three types of scholarships and remedial coaching and tuition are bureaucratic hurdles which would go to some extent in improvement if really implemented. Modernizing madrasa is reigning passion of Musharraf and Mohan Singh alike. Wakf property can be sold for a bribe: the Muslim minister in charge of the department is only obligingly waiting for the highest bidder. These are the fifteen points of janab Antulay and every cat has nine lives.