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Even if we give
Congress under Manmohan Singh's second term as PM, the benefit of
doubt over its willingness to prefer affirmative action for Muslim
upliftment rather than a legislated guarantee of reservations to
Muslims, the recent series of measures after elections in which
Muslims have made a crucial contribution to the political victories,
are proof enough that Congress will always short-change its Muslim
constituency.
The real reason
for such mistreatment of Muslim lies in Congress culture that is
dominated by Brahminical order of managing the affairs of the nation
as a whole. The Brahmin thought, even in its secular garb, does not
want to risk giving Muslims any grounds to challenge its own
hegemony over the politics of power and pelf.
The more Congress
achieves supremacy in political power arena, the more dictatorial
and self-centered it becomes. In a way, Muslims by supporting
Congress are themselves empowering Congress to ride roughshod over
their destiny.
In this context,
Salman Khursheed's line of argument should not come as a surprise.
Merely because he is a Muslim (albeit married to a Christian), he is
not supposed to follow the best interest of Muslims, if that
conflicts with Congress culture on Muslims.
Even though
Commission after Commission have recommended reservations for
Muslims, as the only means to an assured and time-bound delivery of
a pack of affirmative action at all levels to the discriminated and
deprived Muslims, Congress cannot digress from its time-honoured
role of running with hares and hunting with the hounds at the same
time.
Even though now
that BJP has been practically on the sidelines, Salman Khursheed
feels no need to rise above the old trite objections of appeasement,
envy, hostility, resistance as it is still handy for Congress
leaders to discriminate against Muslims.
One fails to
understand, if Khursheed feels the hostility and resistance coming
from the ranks of Congress Party itself.
After all,
however loud Congress may proclaim its secular and inclusive ideals,
it does harbour rank communalists and caste-ists at the highest
level of its high command.
The need for
reforms in Congress to bring it to imbibe the genuine ideals of
secularism and inclusive social engineering has to be the first
order of business for Manmohan Singh, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, if it
is sincere in governing the nation with justice and fairness, rather
than through politics of religion and caste differentiations and
discriminations.
Muslim demand on
affirmative action and reservation, though popularly identifiable as
religious in intent and content, in fact, it is a direct attack on
the 60-year old Congress culture of pseudo-secularism that has no
qualms in allowing Brahmin culture and hegemony to be peddled as
'the' ideal of Indian secularism. Why so many religious symbolism of
Brahmin culture are so manifest in all areas of public life?
For once Minister
Khursheed should do his homework and sincerely take up the
upliftment and empowerment of Muslims, as legitimate sons of the
soil and not merely as Muslim vote banks that should be rewarded or
punished for their leaderless anarchic dispersion across the
political landscape. India's 150 million Muslims deserve that
indulgence.
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