Commentary/Fuzail Jafferey
Reservations for Muslims is only a political charade
Unprincipled and opportunistic politics has always paid rich dividends
in India. So-called Muslim leaders, like their counterparts
in other communities, have also never lagged behind in adopting
the same methods for their personal gains, at the expense of the
community. The Congress, which ruled the country for more than
four decades since Independence, has systematically and successfully
exploited the Muslim elite in order to bring the masses under
its political umbrella in one way or the other.
The situation, however, drastically changed after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992. The Congress lost its face with the Muslim community by failing
to protect the Babri Masjid. The predicament of the intellectually bankrupt and traditional Muslim leaders, who had made a prestige issue out of the mosque but could do little save shed tears after the demolition, was similar.
Consequently, both the Congress leadership as well as its henchmen
among the Muslims frantically started searching for some new issue
to harp upon to win back the support of the Muslim voters.
In view of the well-known economic backwardness of the community,
these leaders, who have no real interest of the Muslims at heart, finally
discovered the issue of 'job reservations for Muslims' as the
chief source of their political survival. Unfortunately,
Sitaram Kesri, former federal welfare minister, and Ghulam Nabi
Azad, former minister for civil aviation and tourism, readily
took up cause with the disgruntled Muslim leaders over the issue of 'job quota' for Muslims.
In early October 1994, Sitaram Kesri, the present Congress president who is aspiring for the prime minister's post, demanded reservations for Muslims while addressing a rally.
He even claimed that the P V Narasimha Rao government was working
on the scheme to give it final shape. While Congress leaders, including Arjun Singh and V N Gadgil, termed
it as the personal opinion of Kesri, and former prime minister
Rao categorically stated in Bangalore on October 17, 1994, that his government was not contemplating giving any job reservations to Muslims, Sitaram Kesari reiterated
his demand at an All-India Muslim convention held on November 9 and 10, 1994, in New Delhi.
Since then, there has been a consistent campaign centred on the
demand for reservations for Muslim in government jobs and educational
institutions. Not a day passes when there are no articles or letters
in the Urdu press on the issue of reservation. Besides, certain
organisations such as the 'Milli Parliament' have started demanding
proportional representation for Muslims in Parliament and assemblies
as well as separate electoral rolls and constituencies for the
Muslims. All this is definitely alarming as it smacks of the politics
played by the Muslim League during the pre-Independence years.
Two points have to be specifically noted in this regard before
we proceed further. First, the 27 per cent job reservations system
is envisaged by the Mandal Commission for the Other Backward Classes,
has already identified Muslim OBCs and various state governments
including the right-wing Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition in Maharashtra, have started implementing the recommendations, even though neither Islam nor secularism permits any caste or class-based
society.
Secondly, no community should claim reservations for itself on
the pattern guaranteed by the Constitution to
the scheduled castes and tribes. The dalits and scheduled tribes, as we know, had to suffer psychological,
moral, and physical injury at the hands of upper castes for centuries
altogether. Mahatma Gandhi recognised the age-old legacy of caste
oppression and made the whole society feel guilty on this account.
Reservation for scheduled castes and tribes was a direct consequences
of this. By contrast, reservations for minorities were rejected by the
constituent assembly on the insistence of the Muslim members themselves.
All this, however, does not mean that Indian Muslims do not have
any problems. In fact, they are today one of the most economically
and educationally backward segments of Indian society. According
to various national sample surveys, 52 per cent Muslims live below
the poverty line, compared to 30 per cent of other Indian communities.
Their representation in government jobs, armed and police forces, and
Indian Administrative and Foreign services, has at no time exceeded
4.5 per cent during the last 50 years.
But the government alone cannot be blamed for this disappointing
and sad state of affairs. For example, Indira Gandhi had appointed
the high-power Gopal Singh Commission to look into and identify
the problems of Muslims and other weaker sections. Muslim leaders,
legislators, parliamentarians and ministers, who are generally
very vocal about non-issues, never even bothered to look at the
Gopal Singh report, leave apart demand its implementation.
Again, after a few years, Rajiv Gandhi formulated a 20-point
programme for the benefit of Muslims, but no one paid attention
to it. Had the Muslim leaders exerted political pressure at that
time to put the 20-point programme into practice, the condition
of Muslims would have been much better than it is today.
While Muslim leaders and intellectuals must strive hard to get
justice to the community at all levels, they should also realise
that getting a handful of government jobs under the reservation scheme
(whose upper limit has now been increased from 27 to 50 per cent
by the Supreme Court) cannot change the destiny of more than 120
millions Indian Muslims. As Allama Iqbal has said in one of his
famous and oft quoted couplets, "Even God does not help those
who do not help themselves."
Muslims must reorient their thinking and take positive steps for the socio-economic prosperity of the community. Large-scale reform is needed to make the community
aware of the importance of efficiency and merit rather than harping
on reservations, which means living on charity for all times
to come. Intellectual should guide the Muslims to prepare them for the challenges of modern competitive
life so that they can survive as prosperous and honourable citizens
of the country. It is no use simply shouting that Muslims
are educationally backward.
Apart from Aligarh Muslim University
and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, there are dozens of institutes
of higher learning including medical and engineering colleges,
which are run and managed by the leaders of the community. But
unfortunately, most of these institutions have become commercial
establishments. Even highly-talented Muslim students do not get
admissions in these institutions because they are poor and cannot
afford to pay huge donations.
How then, can we overcome the educational
backwardness of the community? For the past 50 years, Muslim leaders
have been simply looking to the government to solve the problems
of the common Muslims. It is now high time that Muslim leaders ponder seriously
not only about strengthening the community by
rekindling the spirit of enterprise, but also about how Muslims
as a community can contribute to the progress and prosperity of
the nation.
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