An open letter to the Prime Minister
By Syed Zafar Mahmood
-------
Respected Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi Ji,
Pranaam & Happy Ramzaan !
You would kindly recall my PowerPoint presentation made in Gandhinagar,
Ahmedabad before you in the conclave ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ on June
29, 2013. I followed this up through a couple of my letters to you. I’m
grateful to you for having incorporated some of my suggestions in your
Party’s and Government’s policies like uploading Muslim friendly articles
on BJP’s website and official emphasis on Skill Development and creating
its social recognition. Thanks.
2. We, in the Muslim community, also appreciate your philanthropic concern
regarding general backwardness of Indian Muslims expressed through your
maiden 2014 speech in Lok Sabha, later that year your positive vibes about
Indian Muslims shared with Fareed Zakaria of CNN and recently your speech
in February 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan in the presence of the Jordanian King.
3. However, in our country, there continues to be an impression that in
recent years there has been an atmosphere where Muslim baiting is becoming
a part of the wider social ethos. At various levels - party & government
functionaries, sangh parivar, individual activists - some statement or the
other or a gesture is made that conspicuously harms the Muslim interests.
For one such severe dereliction you had to consequently drop one of your
ministers in 2016 for which the community is grateful to you.
4. However, your Government’s change of stand before the Supreme Court
opposing the continuance of minority status of Aligarh Muslim University
and Jamia Millia Islamia defies logic. There is no provision in the
Constitution or in any other law that if minorities establish an
educational institution and later if some executive or legislative action
is taken for its recognition, that would vitiate its minority character.
5. You know, Sir, that Waqf is a Muslim religious matter. But in the
Standing Committee on Waqf Properties (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants)
Bill 2014, appointed after your Government assumed power, out of 29 Members
only two are Muslim. The Committee overruled the very logical submissions
made by the Ministry’s officers without assigning any reasons and thus took
patently anti-Waqf view.
6. In your UP election speech of February 2017 your sentence pitching
Shamshan against Qabristan warranted greater factual understanding in
advance. Hundreds of Qabristan properties of Waqf are being encroached by
unauthorized occupants and there is need to get them vacated and to protect
them. No such issue has emerged in respect of a Shamshan.
7. Your concern against triple talaq is well founded but, statistically,
the proposed remedial statute would help a very small number of
individuals. On the other hand, if you create Indian Waqf Service
(recommended by Sachar Committee but rejected by UPA Government - pointed
out to you by me on 29 May 2013) that would go to protect Waqf properties
and better manage the Waqf administration earning you tremendous Muslim
goodwill.
8. Niti Ayog has recently come up with the list of most backward districts
in which Muslim predominant districts much outnumber others and obnoxiously
find place among the first many spots. This is a result of decades of
neglect by the governments of the day. During your regime the Muslim
community would be happy to see the tide turning through restoration of
their constitutional rights to them.
9. Jihad means striving at inner moral uplift by the individual so that
s/he becomes more positively useful to the society; it is a sacred article
of Muslim faith. But in India, of late, there is a tendency to associate
negativity with Jihad linking to it politically motivated prefixes. Some
individuals are doing this mischief (even in respect of the community’s
internal affirmative actions for self uplift) giving an impression that
they have blessings of your Party and Government. This impression needs to
be neutralized.
10. The apparent dichotomy of your Government’s approach towards the
incoming migrants and refugees based on their faith appears at variance
with the treasured Indian directive principle ‘Ekam sat viprah bahuda’ as
also the spirit of the New York Declaration on Migrants & Refugees, 2016
where your MoS External Affairs was present during drafting and release.
11. Respected Sir, the Muslim community is not beholden to any political
grouping. It would be happy to incline toward the one who restores to their
their constitutional rights and thus uplifts their low social, educational
and economic status.
12. In this context you would be happy to know that we at Zakat
Foundation of India have been working in tandem with your slogan of Sabka
Saath Sabka Vikas through our micro and macro institutional projects of
Muslim uplift and empowerment. In order to apprise you in detail about
these we would feel privileged to make a presentation before you on a date
of your convenience.
Looking forward with warm regards
Yours sincerely,
Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood
President, Zakat Foundation of India, New Delhi
[gallery]