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Dr. Manmohan Singh
surprised everyone after he led the Congress to historic victory in
last year's parliamentary elections |
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This May 2010, UPA completed its one
year in the seat of power for the second term. Now it is being
christened as UPA II and political pundits are evaluating its
performance on various scales of performance, foreign policy,
economic performance, farmer’s suicides, foreign affairs etc. One
point which, does not find much mention while evaluating its
performance, is the plight of minorities during this year. The
ground reality is that after the Gujarat carnage and Kandhamal
violence the minorities are feeling a great amount of intimidation
and fear, a curtailment of their democratic right to equality. It is
crucial that we weigh the performance of the ruling Government vis a
vis the overall security and equity of minorities.
One can observe that there have been hollow promises to uplift the
condition of minorities and to ensure proper rehabilitation and
create a situation of security. But major efforts in this direction
are missing. The proactive stance needed from the ruling government
is no where in sight. One knows that the health of the democracy has
to be judged by the state of security and equity of minorities. The
only way to march towards a society where religious identities are
not the sole identities is to go through a period where the
religious minorities are ensured security and equity, a life of
dignity, which helps them overcome their helplessness so that the
overarching national identities become more important and more
determining in social and political affairs of the nation.
The victims of Kandhmal violence are crying for justice and
rehabilitation. The Government which was ruling when the violence
took place continues to rule without its partner the BJP, still the
process of rehabilitation is not adequate and the atmosphere of
intimidation continues. Surely it is the state Government which has
the primary responsibility but the central Government has a
Constitutional duty to ensure that the spirit of National
Integration is preserved by undertaking steps for concrete
protection of the minorities. The doors of temples of justice for
these victims do not seem to be opening most of the time. The
communalized police machinery and state apparatus do not pay
attention to these issues unless there is a political will at the
top. The political leadership at the top does not heed these demands
unless it fits into their electoral arithmetic. At the moment it
seems that this arithmetic does not favor strong, honest actions on
the part of the ruling establishments.
Gujarat by now has become a sort of ‘Hindu Rashtra in one state’
with Narendra Modi getting stronger, politically more assertive.
Despite the claims of Swarnim Gujarat the minority community is
living in the condition of fear and intimidation to the extent that
it does not even want to express its anxieties, fearing further
intimidation by the state.
The major problems faced by Muslim minorities are the economic ones,
insecurity and those created due to political under-representation.
For economic relief Sachar Committee has proposed many a measures,
the UPA has theoretically accepted them and the Prime Minister had
the courage to say that minorities have the first right on
resources. But it has remained restricted to paper only. The
implementation of schemes for upliftment are lacking the strong will
power and putting in place the honest and committed mechanism for
the same, which is missing. The ghettoisation of minorities in
different cities is on the rise. Economic marginalization is visible
all around. It is because of these twin problems that the
conservative elements are finding bigger prominence in the society.
A thriving community will ignore such elements issuing fatwa’s like
the one against women working where they have to interact with men,
but such elements assume prominence only when the community feels
intimidated from outside. We need all round efforts for creating a
social mind set which is respectful of all the communities.
The Rangnath Mishra committee report recommending 10% reservations
for Muslims is kept in the deep freeze. The fear that this will
create adverse reaction from communal elements or will annoy a
section of dalits is preventing the action on this. What is needed
is to bypass communal elements and to engage with dalit sections to
ensure that Rangnath Mishra report is implemented while preserving
the interests of those who are already the beneficiaries of these
provisions. The work on ‘Equal Opportunity
Commission’ seems to be moving with the snails pace.
The latest investigations into the acts of terror, like the one of
Ajmer show that Hindu extremist groups may be the one’s who indulged
in various blasts near mosques and dargahs. They were under wraps so
far. Their parent organizations are merrily operating, while the
popular notion ‘All Terrorists are Muslims’ rules the social common
sense. The organizations to which Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur or
Swami Aseemanand belongs are doing their activities unhindered and
have already been given enough time to cover their tracks. The
methods of police, their line of investigation has fed into these
popular perceptions ruining many a young careers and lives of many.
On the top of all this two major moves, the one of Women’s
reservation Bill is again going to bypass the Minority women, as at
present the social situation is acting as a big brake on their
coming out to demand for their rights in full measure. The
provisions needed to safeguard their
representation have been given a go by in the present scheme of
things. Secondly in the ongoing census the column of religion is
missing. How are we going to plan for the allocation of resources
for minorities? Yes, in an ideal situation religion of the person
should not matter in citizenship, but if a large section of society
is in need of affirmative action, ignoring this column in census
figure will make it impossible in future to undertake affirmative
steps for their betterment.
The UPA II, seems to have reconstituted the National Integration
Council but its meeting is nowhere in sight. The importance which
this issue deserves seems to be missing in the efforts of UPA II.
Surely it has its plate full with many issues, but is this issue,
the issue of National Integration, the issue of minorities not
important enough to be dealt with in all the seriousness and
commitment?
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