JEDDAH, 4 September 2007 — Three years after voting en bloc for the ostensibly secular Congress party, the patience of Indian Muslims with the ruling party is running thin. There is a growing chorus of protest against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s lack of initiative and policies to improve the community’s economic and educational conditions.
The community was particularly incensed when the key recommendations of the government-appointed Sachar Committee were ignored by Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay when he addressed Parliament on Aug. 31 to announce follow-up action on the report. Antulay basically announced the formation of a few more committees and conveniently ignored one of the committee’s key demands of reserving jobs for Muslims.
“I feel that the ruling class must consider Muslims to be the biggest idiots in India,” said journalist M.J. Akbar in his syndicated weekly column on Sunday. “In 2006, (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh, possibly moved by the Sachar Committee report on the abject plight of Indian Muslims, promised something of an extraordinary multiple rise in the budgetary expenditure for their welfare. When his budget appeared in 2007, the allocation for minorities had actually been slashed.”
A second, more lethal salvo came Sunday from veteran Indian Muslim leader and former MP Syed Shahabuddin, who called the government’s so-called follow-up action as inadequate, vague and deceptive. “Antulay’s much-publicized statement is nothing less than a cover-up for the government’s refusal to do anything concrete for the uplift of the Muslim community,” he said.
The Congress party is increasingly being blamed for paying only lip service to the community. In the absence of any practical steps to improve the community’s depressing economic and educational conditions, Manmohan Singh & Co. have invited the ire of the entire community.
“Muslims voted for this party in 2004 general elections in the hope and belief that the party would learn from its mistakes in the past,” said Fuzail Jaffery, writing in Siasat, a popular Hyderabad-based Urdu newspaper. “Muslims got nothing in return except more committees and more reports. There is a great resentment in the community. Yes, there is a feeling of being let down.”
Shamim Tareq, a Bombay-based political analyst, said Muslims were hoping for some concrete steps from this government. “In 2004, Gujarat riots were fresh in the memory of Muslims and they had hoped to turn a corner during this government’s tenure,” he said. “The expectations were too high and, therefore, three years later the disappointment is equally great.”
Pro-Muslim activists say that Congress leaders fear that by fulfilling the recommendations of the Sachar Committee they would appear to be bowing to the demands of minority group in a form of appeasement that would alienate the larger Hindu electorate.
Abdul Azeem, a Muslim social activist based in New Delhi, says Congress leaders hide behind fears that BJP leaders might exploit any action deemed “pro-Muslim” to pander to irrational fears by India’s non-Muslims. “This is a typical Congress reaction,” said Azeem. “Every time we ask for our legitimate rights they browbeat us saying ‘the BJP is after us.’ You can’t take the community for a ride with that argument. Muslims form Congress party’s electorate and in a democracy a party should take care of its electorate.”
One reason for the Congress party’s overconfidence in Muslims’ support is the lack of political options, says Zameer Zartaj, a sub-editor at Rashtriya Sahara, an Urdu newspaper based in Lucknow. “Muslims have nowhere to go,” she said. “This is what has emboldened Congress.” The exit of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav from power in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh has contributed to this view.
Nevertheless, many Indian Muslims feel that they must find an alternative, or at least a way to influence party politics in their favor. “There is a huge section in the community which feels Congress needs to be taught another lesson,” said Zartaj, who is an unabashed Mulayam supporter.
MP Asaduddin Owaisi says that ignoring the Sachar Committee recommendations isn’t the only misstep by Congress. He says that Muslims are angry at Congress’ passive attitude toward the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report that investigated the communal riots of 1992-93 in Maharashtra and named many murderers who happen to be Hindus. “Muslims are angry too at the government’s shameful embrace of the United States against the popular will,” he added, referring to the Indo-US nuclear deal. “And they are angry at the government’s lack of support for the Gujarat riot victims.”
