By Dr. Mookhi Amir Ali,
A member of a minority community will want to pinch himself to see if he is not dreaming when he reads the part of the BJP manifesto titled Minority communities: Healthy diet of development.
The manifesto deserves a very warm response from the minority communities especially Muslims.
Why does it, then, fail to touch the heart chords of minorities? Can it be because this particular aspect of the manifesto has not been given due exposure? It is as if it was meant to be just on the paper. Of course, it will be too cynical to think that the drafters forgot to delete it. It puzzles one to notice that hardly any BJP leader has mentioned it in his speech. As a result, it has been hardly reported in newspapers or on TV channels.
Minority policy as declared in the manifesto has a great potential to attract votes. It is a part of the manifesto, BJP should have broadcast it from the rooftops. It should have become the talk of the town. Nothing like that has happened. The only place I saw it mentioned is a Muslim website, which has enthusiastically welcomed it in these words: “If Hindutva agenda is kept apart, the party manifesto has offered more than any other secular party for the community, for a party that blames others for ‘minority appeasement’ this is quite strange.”
BJP president at iftar party at Shahnawaz Hussain’s house in 2007
Even Mahesh Jethmalani who has most uncharacteristically apologized for Gujarat 2002 riots does not refer to this benevolent agenda for minorities in BJP manifesto. Raj Nath Singh’s advocacy of Panthnirpekshata in preference to Dharmnirpekshata which he enunciated only the other day is hardly compatible with the genuine secularism versus pseudo-secularism which has been the party’s watchword. All this makes one wonder if this is really a well considered policy statement of the party. Is it really the outcome of brainstorming sessions of BJP think tank? Are all the wings of the Parivar in the loop on this? Do these paragraphs on minorities in BJP manifesto have the blessings of the RSS? Is the BJP serious about this caring agenda for minorities? Or is it a piece of prose commissioned from a talented writer? At least one high ranking VHP office-bearer till 15th of April 09 was unaware of it.
Portion of the BJP Manifesto on minority communities (Editor):
MINORITY COMMUNITIES
HEALTHY DIET OF DEVELOPMENT
The BJP repudiates the division of Indian society along communal lines which has been fostered by the Congress and the Left in pursuit of their vote-bank politics. Categorisation of communities as ‘minorities’ perpetuates notions of imagined discrimination and victimhood; it reinforces the perception of the ‘minority’ identity as separate from the national identity. The BJP remains committed to a common Indian identity that transcends community, caste and gender, with every Indian an equal participant in the building of a prosperous nation and an equal beneficiary of that prosperity. Pluralism is a sine qua non for any democracy and the BJP cherishes the diversity that is also the strength of Indian society and lends vibrancy to our national fabric. But pluralism should strengthen, not weaken our national resolve.
It is an unfortunate fact that Muslims form a substantial part of the underprivileged. The principal reason for this is the fact that the Congress, a dominant presence in power for six decades, has secured minority support through the politics of fear rather than a healthy diet of development.
The BJP will implement a set of policies committed to a massive expansion of modern education among Muslims, particularly for the girl child, through a new nationwide network of schools, in a public-private partnership programme. This will include, but not be limited to:
Capital assistance in new educational projects, both for basic and technical education, in low-income minority areas. Each project will be vetted for viability by a team of professionals within a maximum of six months.
Cash incentives for the education of the girl child, based on attendance and performance. Incentives will rise for those girls who get admission into recognised colleges for higher education.
Computer centres will be set up in low income urban areas and the most backward districts of the country.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs, today a stagnant source of toxic politics, will be revitalised into a hub for economic projects specifically targeted towards employment creation. There will be special emphasis on crafts and small-scale industries that have been traditional employers of minorities. The neglect of the Congress-led UPA Government was evident in the fact that even monies allotted for minority welfare programmes in States like Maharashtra were largely, if not wholly, unspent.
Youth are the owners of the future, and it is our duty to make them a dynamic social and economic engine for upliftment. The young do not live only in cities. In districts like Murshidabad in Bengal, young girls are being forced by poverty into making bidis on pathetic wages. Dynamic intervention is needed to improve income levels where such jobs exist and to create fresh avenues of employment where they do not. The unfortunate phase of confused loyalties in some minority sections is over. Generations have been born in free India who are as committed to the nation as the nation is committed to them. The success stories of Muslims in sports, cinema, industry and a host of other fields, as individuals and team players, makes every Indian proud.
Terrorism does not have a religion. Those who espouse terrorism have stepped outside the moral code of their religion into barbarism. We must lift community-relations from the morass of misunderstanding.
A vibrant, modern India can have no place for either the perpetrators or the exploiters of fear.
Religious Conversions
The BJP will facilitate, under the auspices of noted religious leaders, the setting up of a permanent inter-faith consultative mechanism to promote harmony among and trust between communities. This mechanism will also be used for a sustained and sincere Inter-Faith Dialogue between leaders of the Hindu and Christian communities on all aspects of life, including the issue of religious conversions. The dialogue should be held in the spirit of the unanimous report of the Inter-Faith Dialogue on Conversions, which was organised at the Vatican in May 2006 by the Pontifical Council for Inter-Faith Dialogue and the World Council of Churches, Geneva.
Link to BJP Manifesto
http://www.bjp.org/content/view/2844/428/