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For some decades now both in the
central government in New Delhi and in state governments the
winning parties have assigned two or three ministerships to
Muslims. Whether the ruling parties are the self-proclaimed
champions of Muslims, namely Congress, Communists, Samajwadi
party, Bahujan Samaj party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, or those who are
unfriendly to Muslims, namely BJP, the same scenario is played
out. Up until the time when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, the
tradition was to give at least one important senior cabinet post
to a long-serving loyalist Muslim leader of the party. Thus senior
Muslim leaders in Congress like Hafiz Ibrahim (UP), Anwara Taimur
and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad (Assam), Ghulam Rasul (Bihar) etal were
made deputy chief ministers and given important ministries like
Home or Finance or Industries. In Maharashtra, Indira Gandhi
loyalist AR Antulay became chief minister. In 1989 when VP Singh
became Prime Minister of India in a Coalition government, he made
Mufti Saeed, the home minister of India.
Other secular parties followed the
same tradition. But the people who took charge of the secular
parties after the late-1980s dispensed with that tradition. They
relegated even loyalist Muslim leaders in their parties into a
corner when they formed government. Thus in Narsimha Rao's
Congress party cabinet in New Delhi, Muslim leaders (Jafar Shareef,
Ghulam Nabi Azad) were given only fringe ministries. In the last
six years of the Congress/UPA government at the Center only 2
Muslims have been made cabinet ministers, namely Farooq Abdullah
and Ghulam Nabi Azaad. The former is incharge of the environment
ministry and the later is incharge of parliamentary affairs. Other
Muslims who are long time loyalists have to contend with being
ministers of state.
Although Congress party won the last
two elections largely with Muslim votes it has declined to give a
senior ministry to any Muslim. Also Muslims who are made even
insignificant ministers are long time faithful retainers who do
not represent the Muslim community in any viable manner. In all
their life people like Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azaad, Salman
Khurshid have never said a word about the many hardships and
travails of the long suffering Muslim community, have never taken
any initiative to bring justice and fairplay to the much-suffering
Muslims, and they have no support among the Muslims of India.
Senior Congress party leader and colleague of Indira Gandhi, Abdul
Rahman Antulay, former chief minister of Maharashtra, was
humiliated in the first UPA government when in 2005 he was first
made minister for minorities. For over an year he, a cabinet rank
minister, was neither given an office to work from nor a staff. He
was told to work from home.
Mr Godbole the Cabinet Secretary
during the tenure of Prime Minister Narsimha Rao writes in his
autobiography that on December 6, 1992, the day Babri mosque was
demolished, after the demolition was over, PM Rao held a meeting
of cabinet ministers at night. In the meeting he asked each
minister to give his views on the demolition of the mosque. When
it was the turn of the then two Muslim cabinet ministers, Jafar
Shareef and Ghulam Nabi Azad, they said nothing about the
demolition. The only ministers who condemned the demolition were
two secular Hindu ministers Scindia and Fotedar. This is how
Muslim ministers behave on the most serious issues of the Muslim
community. Recently in order to get a better ministry, minister of
state for minorities Salman Khurshid tried to help Congress govt
backtrack from its own pledge of implenting the Sachar Committee
report by saying that it will ghettoize the Muslim community.
At about the same time the lower
caste parties, namely Samajwadi party of OBCs and Bahujan Samaj
party of Dalits in UP, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal party of OBCs
in Bihar liberated themselves from the clutches of Congress
party's deceptive games; formed their own parties, acquired power
in the states and used it to uplift their respective backward
minority communities.
But even the chief ministers of
these parties, namely Mayawati, Mulyam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad
did not give significant ministries to their top Muslim leaders.
In UP senior SP leader Azam Khan could get nothing better than
Urban Development from Mulayam Singh. Also in the present BSP/Mayawati
UP govt despite several senior and loyal Muslim community leaders,
only one long time loyalist Naseem Ahmad Siddiqui was made cabinet
minister with the insignificant portfolio of Environment.
In Lallo's Bihar when some Muslims
asked him why he does not have a senior Muslim minister to
represent the Muslim community, he replied: I represent Muslims in
the cabinet. In Bengal for 37 years under the Communist rule, Left
parties who won repeated elections with Muslim votes, made only
one or two Muslim ministers, and they were invariably given
insignificant ministries.
The governments of various parties
in India send the Muslim ministers routinely to Muslim countries
to conduct public relations for the country and to demonstrate
that in India Muslims are living very well and getting fair
treatment. Or they are included in India's Haj delegation to Saudi
Arabia, again to conduct public relations for India.
In the 2011 India, where Muslims
have a sizeable voting strength in at least 6 major states (Assam,
Bengal, Bihar, UP, AP, Kerala) no political party has made any of
its loyal Muslim community leaders minister for Home, or Finance,
or Industries or Education etc. Generally they end up getting the
insignificant ministries of Waqf, Minorities, Haj, Culture, Urban
Affairs, Environment etc. That is one more reason why despite
Muslim ministers in the central or state governments, the Muslim
community is as backward and static as it was 60 years ago. Cities
and towns with sizeable Muslim population have very poor
infrastructure, with hardly any new hospitals or schools or parks
built since 1947. Of all those communal riots in the last 60 years
hardly any of the tormentors and killers of Muslims have been
brought to justice. The killers of the anti-Muslim genocide in
Gujarat (2002) and in Mumbai (1993) are roaming free without any
shadow of fear. The Muslim ministers who are supposed to bring up
the grievances of their community keep their mouth shut and when
given an opportunity to speak, they praise the government and
senior ministers profusely. Sycophancy towards important ministers
and maintaining distance from fellow Muslims appears to be the
prime characteristic of almost all Muslim ministers.
In contrast the Dalit, OBC and Sikh
ministers in the Congress, BJP, Communist government, who also
represent backward and depressed communities, are always claiming
and becoming ministers of important ministries eg Home, Finance,
Industries, Education etc. When they become ministers they never
hesitate in bringing development to the areas in cities where
their communities live; they never hesitate to give jobs to people
from their communities.
In some states they have become
chief ministers. In fact they conduct skilfull lobbying for their
communities. The result is obvious; Dalit and OBC communities that
were so backward and behind Muslims before 1947 are now
significantly ahead of the Muslims and are continuing to climb the
ladder. Since 1947 the Sikh community has become very affluent and
well educated and their people are in important positions in the
government.
So what use for the Muslim community
are Muslims being ministers in either the Center or the states?
Other than the fact that they may be making money for their
families or peddling influence to get jobs for their sons and
nephews in companies. Or that they give promises to the Muslim
community on behalf of their respective party chiefs that mostly
remain unfulfilled. Or that they campaign for the Muslim votes for
their respective parties at election time.
The writer is a
community activist in Washington DC. He can be reached on:
kaleemkawaja@gmail.com
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