Thinkpad
UPA to communalise polity
By K.G. Acharya
The recent advertisements, issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, in newspapers about the formation of Prime Minister'shigh-level committee for preparing a report on the status of the Muslim community, appears to be aimed at strengthening the Muslim vote-bank and dividing the country further.
To compile a report by seeking accurate answers to the long list of questions will not only be a very time-consuming and costly affair, but also an impossible task. Much before the Partition of India, the Muslims in the country were propagating the same theory that Muslims were backward in the Hindu-dominated India and thus obtained many concessions from the British before getting a separate nation carved out of India.
If the complaints of the Muslims are to be believed, the special concessions given by the British and the successive governments in India for the last many years have not resulted in ameliorating the lot of the Muslims. They have merely led to the creation of a sense of separateness in the minds of the Muslims. The Partition took place because of their refusal to co-exist with the Hindus and their feeling of superiority that they were the ruling community and the Hindus were the slave.
In fact, these feelings make the whole exercise, such as the one intended above by the Prime Minister, end in futility. It is only if the Muslims consider themselve Indians first and confine their religion to their private lives that they can hope to progress. Our Constitution guarantees them progress in the material field and freedom to follow their religious rites. Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, a Gandhian and a socialist leader, had even advised them to give up the typical dress code they followed to distinguish themselves from non-Muslims and to stop glorifying Ghori, Ghaznavi, Babar, etc., who were not their real ancestors.
The fact that we have presidents, governors, cricketers, businessmen, actors, musicians and craftsman from the Muslim community in almost every national activity proves that the formation of the above committee is essentially politically motivated.
(The writer can be contacted at 21/33 Sagar Aptt. Link Rd., Lokhandwala Cx. Andheri, Mumbai-400 102.)
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