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New Delhi:
One trend the Congress attributes its 2009 surge to is the “return”
of Muslims to the party in several states, especially in West Bengal
and Uttar Pradesh. In fact, the Congress tally in districts with 25%
or more of minority presence went up four-fold to 42. But given that
the party fielded only 18 Muslims of whom 11 were elected, the
Council of Ministers announced on Wednesday had just five Muslim
faces — one less than in the previous UPA government.
Of these five, two are from the Congress.
Incidentally, 30 Muslims were elected in this Lok Sabha, of whom 27
are with the UPA.
In comparison, the Council of Ministers has 10 Dalit faces, up from
seven in the last government. Two are from Karnataka: Mallikarjun
Kharge and K H Muniyappa; two from Maharashtra: Sushilkumar Shinde
and Mukul Wasnik; Kumari Selja from Haryana; Panabaka Lakshmi from
Andhra Pradesh; Mohan Jatua of Trinamool Congress from West Bengal;
Meira Kumar from Bihar; A Raja from Tamil Nadu; and, Krishna Tirath
from Delhi.
The Congress could not find a “suitable” Dalit ministerial face from
Uttar Pradesh where it did remarkably well in the elections with
Rahul Gandhi spearheading the campaign, reaching out to Dalit voters
who had gone the BSP way in previous elections. But the Congress is
confident that this “healthy Dalit representation” will send the
right signal across the country.
A group of prominent Muslim representatives had issued an appeal
seeking “at least 11 Muslim ministers” arguing this would be in
“keeping with Sachar Committee recommendation and in fulfilment of
the committee made by the UPA chairperson and the Prime Minister for
a fair representation of minorities at all levels.”
Of the five Muslim faces, only two are of Cabinet rank and both
Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad are from the Muslim-majority
state of Jammu and Kashmir. The other three are Salman Khursheed
from UP, E Ahamed (IUML) from Kerala and Sultan Ahmed (Trianamool)
from West Bengal.
From Bihar, the lone Muslim MP of the Congress, Maulana Asrarul
Haque, does not figure in the list though he was counting on an MoS
post.
Said Zafarul Islam Khan, chief of All India Muslim
Majlis-e-Mushawarat: “This sends a negative message to the
community. Presence in the Council of Ministers sends a strong
message of empowerment and to reduce it to an arithmetic formula is
disappointing.”
When contracted, Imran Kidwai, chief of the Congress’s minority
cell, said: “Overall, the tally of Muslim MPs is disappointing but
the Congress has done well since 11 of our 18 MPs returned
victorious. How to increase this number is a subject that we will
review in the party.”
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