By IndiaTomorrow.net
New Delhi, 01 Sept 2015: Vice President Hamid Ansari thinks Muslims who fall into the categories of scheduled castes and other backward classes have been denied their dues and “corrective strategies” are required to address the issues faced by Indian Muslims. “Corrective strategies therefore have to be sought on category-differentiation admissible in Indian state practice and hitherto denied to Muslims (scheduled caste status) or inadequately admitted (segments of OBC status). Available data makes it clear that a high percentage of Muslims falls into these two broad categories,” Ansari said assertively.
Referring to a “compendium of official reports,” the vice president listed the problems confronting Indian Muslims as “identity and security; education and empowerment; equitable share in the largesse of the state; and fair share in the decision making.”
Delivering the inaugural speech at the Golden Jubilee Session of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an umbrella body of Indian Muslim organizations, in New Delhi on Monday, 31 August, he said that Muslims were an integral part of the freedom struggle against the British rule. They are dispersed all over the country and are not homogenous in linguistic and socio-economic terms and reflect in good measure the diversities that characterize the people of India as a whole.
Suggesting remedies, the vice president said, “Political sagacity, the imperative of social peace, and public opinion play an important role in it. Experience shows that corrective has to be both at the implementation levels; the latter, in particular, necessitates mechanisms to ensure active cooperation of the State governments.”
Asking Muslims also to introspect, Ansari said, “Equally relevant is the autonomous effort by the community itself in regard to its identified shortcomings. What has it done to redress the backwardness and poverty arising out of socio-economic and educational under-development? How adequate is the response in relation to the challenge?”
Describing the situation facing Indian Muslims, he said Muslims were “made to carry, unfairly, the burden of political events and compromise that resulted in the Partition. The process of recovery from that trauma has been gradual and uneven, and at times, painful. They have hesitatingly sought to tend to their wounds, face the challenges and seek to develop response patterns. Success has been achieved in some measure; much more, however, needs to be done.”
Interestingly while the incumbent NDA government has been mired in controversies regarding its stance on Muslims, the vice president carefully averted any negative mentions of the Modi government. Describing the government’s official objective of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” as “commendable,” Ansari said affirmative actions for Muslims are key to the government’s policy intended for inclusive development. Highlighting the importance of positive government actions, Ansari said that “a pre-requisite for this is affirmative action (where necessary) to ensure a common starting point.”
Urging Mushawarat to play a more important role in elevating the status of Indian Muslims, Ansari said, “As a grouping of leading and most respected minds of the community, it should go beyond looking at questions of identity and dignity in a defensive mode and explore how both can be furthered in a changing India and a changing world. It should widen its ambit to hitherto unexplored or inadequately explored requirements of all segments of the community, particularly women, youth, and non-elite sections who together constitute the overwhelming majority.”
Highlighting the pluralistic nature of Indian democracy, Ansari said that an “effort has to be made in the context of Indian conditions and the uniqueness of its three dimensions: plural, secular, and democratic… This would necessitate sustained and candid interaction with fellow citizens without a syndrome of superiority or inferiority and can be fruitful only in the actual implementation of the principles of justice, equality and fraternity inscribed in the Preamble to the Constitution and the totality of Fundamental Rights.”
