By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Bangalore: At a meeting with Congress leaders recently, Muslim scholars and opinion-makers expressed concern over lethargic attitude of the state government toward Muslims’ development.
The community leaders asked the Congress delegation why the party manifesto was “vague” about its pledge to implement the Sachar Committee report.
Maharashtra has sanctioned Rs 500 crore for the report’s implementation. Karnataka has more Muslims, so the community leaders asked for Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 crore, said Agha Sultan, general secretary, Centre for Community Development, a trust of retired IAS and IFS officers that organised the meeting. The Congress delegation comprised Prithviraj Chavan, M. Veerappa Moily, C.K. Jaffer Sharief and K. Rahman Khan, Rajya Sabha’s deputy chairman.
The Muslim intellectuals told the Congress leaders that this is the last time the Muslims will give the Congress their unqualified support. Both Khan and Sultan quoted Mani Shankar Aiyar with approval: “The failure of a secular state lies not in the appeasement of Muslims but our failure over six decades to give them their rightful place in nation-building.”
It is said that the immediate cause of Muslim anger is that the Congress has handed just 17 tickets to Muslims, of which one nomination was rejected because of an open scuffle between two rivals in the returning officer’s presence.
Muslims make up 12.5% of voters, just 0.5% less than the Vokkaligas (13%), who have got over 50 tickets. The election is scheduled to be held on 10th May.