NEW DELHI: With most political parties, except extremist wings associated with the Hindu extremist “saffron brigade”, going overboard to attract Muslim votes to their camps, Indian Muslims are making their presence felt assertively.
The student wing of Jamaat-e-Islam, Students Islamic Organization of India (SIO), will present its demands before political parties and also demand their inclusion in their respective agendas.
“The recommendations made by the Ranganatha Mishra Committee for 15 percent reservation for religious minorities, of which 10 percent exclusively for Muslims must be implemented as soon as possible,” SIO leader Suhail K.K. said. Suhail was unanimously elected president of 25-year old organization SIO last December.
“The textbooks preaching hatred must be eliminated. The government should spend at least six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for educational sector,” he said.
Blaming the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for having failed on the human rights front, the SIO has demanded probe into cases of “arrests of innocents” in all recent blast cases.
“Special laws must be made to end human rights violations and communal witch hunting under such circumstances,” Suhail said. The SIO has also demanded a judicial probe into last year’s encounter at Batla House, labeled as “fake.”
Not to be left behind, Muslim schoolgirls of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, have also prepared their “charter” of demands. These include their “right to live with dignity,” “a detailed social economic report (like Sachar Committee’s report) on status of women and girls.”
Expressing their opposition to Muslims being taken into custody and jailed, “in the name of anti-terrorism laws” such as POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and TADA (Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act), they have firmly demanded “protection of (Muslims) human right.”
Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged that Indian Muslims “face a lot of difficulties,” and “sometimes in the name of terrorists, Muslim youth are harassed.” He asked security forces to observe “zero tolerance” for fundamental human rights violations while dealing with such cases.
Indian Muslims, however, seem no longer willing to be satisfied by such comments, even if they are made by the prime minister. Blaming political parties for using Muslim community only as a vote bank, Jama Masjid’s Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari on Friday said: “None of the political parties who the Muslims have voted for has done anything for their welfare. This is why I think the community should launch its own political party.”
“Political parties use Muslims just as a vote bank. They are not really bothered about their rights or upliftment and welfare,” he said while delivering the Friday prayers sermon in the mosque.
