By TCN News,
New Delhi: All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) has expressed concern at the silence of ruling Congress party and the Indian Parliament on the issues confronting the Muslim community in the country. AIMMM leaders met here on 15th Jan. 2011 and passed resolutions on various issues related to the community and country.
Congress strategy towards Muslim community
The AIMMM regretted that the proceedings of the Burari session of Congress, the speeches and the resolutions, gave no indication that the party has reviewed its electoral strategy towards the Muslims in context of the fact that the Hindu high castes have largely shifted their loyalty towards the BJP, the OBCs & SCs have developed their own parties in various regions and the Muslims despite their increasing alienation remain its only loyal & dependable base.
“For keeping Muslim support, the speeches and resolutions have projected the rising threat of Hindu Communalism but they have not cared to explain why the UPA failed to take effective action to contain or counter it during its seven years in power. They criticized Saffron Terrorism but brushed aside the idea of banning the RSS whose parcharaks are now known to be involved in terrorist activities and did not ask their government to investigate the manner, method and extent of penetration of Sangh Parivar in administration, bureaucracy and armed forces. They highlighted party commitment to Secularism but did not define it in comprehensive terms, e.g including the basic requirement in a multi -religious state that the state must maintain equidistance and the administration must remain neutral in situations of inter-religious conflict. They stressed the goal of inclusive development repeatedly but did not explain why in seven years of UPA rule, there has been no visible or substantial change in the condition of the Muslim community. They made no commitment to introduce reservation for Muslims in keeping with the party’s past commitments, ignoring that reservation is today on the top of the list of Muslim aspirations. Deliberately they avoided any reference to the historic Justice Ranganath Mishra Report which has recommended, inter-alia, at last 10 % reservation for Muslims.
What hurt Muslims most is that they equated majority communalism and minority communalism which goes against ground reality and ignores Jawahar Lal Nehru’s prophesy that majority communalism may take the country towards fascism.
During the proceeding not one word of criticism was uttered against the recent judgment of the Allahabad High Court on title to the disputed site, against its invention of a new Hindu jurisprudence, which deifies a presumed birth-site of a Hindu god, gives more weight to religious faith and belief than to legal evidence, ignores the law of the land and undermines the Constitution.
Unfortunately the session recalled the services of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, whom the Muslims consider as much if not more responsible than the Sangh Parivar for the ‘national shame’ of Demolition. The session also closed its eyes to the failure of the UPA government to have the culprits punished.
The MMM deems it a national duty to caution the Congress that, as shown by the unprecedented Muslim voting for the NDA in Bihar estimated at 30%, the Community is no longer taken in by proclamations of old commitments and repetition of old promises and has begun to look closely at the performance of the Governments. The MMM is convinced that in future elections, it will judge a party by its translation of Secularism into Social Justice defined in terms of reservation. The MMM therefore hopes that the Congress will not merely seek to secure Muslim support by frightening the Muslims with projections of Hindu Communalism & Saffron Terrorism and suggests that the party and the government should maintain regular contact with Muslim leadership, recognize the concerns of the Community, take all possible action to remove their difficulties and grievances, allow debate & discussion in the Parliament, at least once a year on the situation of minorities and at election time field Muslim candidates in proportion to their population, who are acceptable to the Community from Muslim winnable constituencies.
Total silence in Parliament on Muslim issues
The umbrella group of Muslim organizations felt that frustration is growing in the Muslim community at the almost complete silence in the Parliament on issues of concern to the Muslim community. It urged Muslim MPs to raise such issues, as they represent not only their constituency or the country as a whole, but, in a sense, the Muslim community in India. The group also urged them to revive a Muslim Parliamentary Group which will serve as a forum for mutual consultations and interaction with Muslim organizations and institutions of national eminence and reach a consensus on current issues of concern to the community and persuade all sympathetic MPs in a planned to raise the problems faced by the Muslims in the Parliament.
The group reiterated its longstanding demand for the formation of permanent Parliamentary Committee for the Welfare of Religious Minorities, on par with the existing Committee for SCs & STs, which will monitor the implementation of government policies and programmes for their development & welfare.
“Session after session passes without any Muslim grievance, problem or aspiration being addressed or even brought up in the Parliament. The MMM feels that this is to bound to alienate the Muslim community from the political order and that their alienation can only weaken national solidarity & slow the process of national integration.
The MMM deems it the duty of all Muslim members to raise such issues, as they represent not only their constituency or the country as a whole, but, in a sense, the Muslim community in India.
The MMM urges them to revive a Muslim Parliamentary Group which will serve as a forum for mutual consultations and interaction with Muslim organizations and institutions of national eminence and reach a consensus on current issues of concern to the community and persuade all sympathetic MPs in a planned to raise the problems faced by the Muslims in the Parliament.
The MMM reiterates its longstanding demand for the formation of permanent Parliamentary Committee for the Welfare of Religious Minorities, on par with the existing Committee for SCs & STs, which will monitor the implementation of government policies and programmes for their development & welfare.
The MMM also suggests that at least once a year each House should discuss the Muslim Situation in the light of the annual reports of various official and semi-official bodies & programmes, dealing exclusively with Muslims, for example, the Central Waqf Council, the Maulana Azad Educational Foundation, the National Minorities Finance and Development Corporation, the Haj Committee, the Commission for Linguistic Minorities, the National Commission for Minorities, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, the AMU, the JMI & the MANUU, the NCPUL and the 15 Point Programme of the P.M. for Minorities. Such discussion will enable the Government to appreciate their current concerns as well as to make necessary course corrections, in the larger interest of the nation.
Other resolutions passed at the meeting related to appeal in Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court verdict on Babri Masjid, Urdu education, integrity and survival of Masjids, a Telengana and political situation in West Bengal.
The following members were present at the meeting: Syed Shahabuddin, President, AIMMM, Mohd. Jafar, Vice President, Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umri, Amir, JIH, Prof. Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Prof. Syed Mohd. Yahya, Janab Mohd. Ejaz Ahmad Aslam, Editor Radiance Weekly, Prof. Shakil Ahmad, Janab Nusrat Ali, GS, JIH, Dr. N. Rasul Siddiqui, Dr. Ubaid Iqbal Asim, Mr. Abdul Rashid Agwan, Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Editor, Milli Gazette, Mr. Abdul Khaliq, Maulana Mohd. Shafi Moonis, Dr. S.Q.R. Ilyas, Mr. Navaid Hamid, Mr. S. Shariful Hasan Naqvi and Mr. A.R. Shervani, General Secretary of the Mushawarat.