Urdu press roundup
By IndianMuslims.info Staff

The revelations of Justice Sachar Committee Report presenting the educational and economic condition of Muslims are so alarming that social scientists, activists and leaders, Muslim and Non-Muslim, as well as the Union Government seem quite concerned about the situation the second largest chunk of Indian population has been pushed to as they are talking about the ways and means to uplift the community members. The suggestions include opening schools in Muslim concentration areas, granting scholarships to Muslims pupils, overcoming dropout rates and bringing the community within the purview of reservation in higher educational institutions and job opportunities in government and private sectors. Urdu newspapers this week presents this general trend with the sole exception of R.S.S. and its sister organisations that are bent upon opposing any government move to ease the life of Muslims.

Now when the much-talked-about report has been submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the 25 crore strong Indian Muslims along with justice-loving humanity at large have to wait and watch how fast, how fair and how just the government implements the recommendations of the committee without beating about the bush.

The Urdu biweekly Dawat, in its column Jaiza published on November 16, presents the views of different distinguished personalities on “Sachar Committee Report: Realities and Possibilities�.

Talking to the biweekly from his sickbed at Apollo Hospital in the capital, former Prime Minister V.P. Singh said, “Whenever the government talks about the (welfare of) Muslims, the BJP men make so much hue and cry that the common man begins to think that the government is really going to give special privilege to Muslims while the reality is otherwise… The Government should exhibit strong will power to implement the (recommendations of) Sachar Committee. I am with this report. In my opinion Muslims should pressurise the government through democratic means to get their problems solved.�

Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar also agrees that some people do not let the Muslims do better. Though he is against giving reservation to Muslims on the basis of community or religion, Mr Nayar believes that the government should “take immediate corrective measures and prepare a plan for educational, economic and social uplift of Muslims. Without the keen attention of the government it is not possible.�

Maulana Obaidullah Khan Azmi, M.P., calls upon the government to take just and unbiased measures with clear and express intent to ameliorate the situation.

“Now the time has come to give Muslims reservation in government jobs, educational institutions and in every other field of development. Not only this, reservation for Muslims in Parliament, Legislative Assemblies and Municipal Corporations is a must, for it is quite difficult to overcome the backwardness of Muslims without giving them reservation. As for anti-Muslim bureaucracy, if the rulers are honest and justice-loving and are adamant to do something, government directives can be implemented….

“In south India communalism and bias is comparatively less. So the situation is different there. Every work is not for the government to do; we too have to do something. We should join hands together at least on issues which are common…. All representative Muslim organisations should form a board coalition to work for educational, social and economic advancement of Muslims and thereby put pressure on the government for resolution of Muslim problems and issues,� he suggested.

A number of other social scientists, MPs, journalists and activists talking to the biweekly are of the opinion that the government should show its guts and grit to sail across the Hindutva opposition to implementing the Sachar Committee Report, and make up the loss Muslims have suffered for decades together by providing reservation for them. They also advise Muslim organisations to chalk out their own plan for the betterment of Muslims as well as form a pressure group to pressurise the government to act in this regard in the real sense of the term.

In its editorial “Indian Muslims� the Awam (November 13) writes: “Of course there is bias in providing job opportunities but this does not mean that we stay back from taking part in competitions. When the wind is wild, we may make more concerted efforts to march ahead. So if Muslims, like other communities, have to progress then they will have to restore their lost position in the field of education. When there is the light of education, darkness will disappear.�

The Qaumi Awaz (November 14) carries the Urdu translation of an article “If I were a Muslim� first published in the Hindi daily Rashtriya Sahara. The writer, Raj Kishore, portrays a very sordid picture of Indian intelligence agencies in which Muslims are looked down upon with doubt and suspicion.

“If I were a Muslim, my blood would have boiled while going through the news that premier intelligence agencies in India do not consider Muslims trustworthy. A popular English weekly has revealed that there is not a single Muslim in the powerful intelligence agency working in foreign lands, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). Like RAW, another powerful agency, National Technical Research Organisation also does not appoint a Muslim. In the aviation department of RAW, Aviation Research Centre, in 2000 a decision was almost taken to appoint the grandson of renowned scholar and freedom fighter Humayun Kabir but at the nick of time he was dropped out because he was a Muslim. There are about 10,000 officers working with RAW but there is not a single Muslim among them. That is, every Muslim is seen with doubt and suspicion that he might rebel against India. There are about 12,000 officers in Intelligence Branch (IB) but the number of Muslims among them is perhaps less than one per cent.

“If I were a Muslim, my blood would have also boiled to read that Muslims as well as Sikhs are not appointed in the two important agencies, Special Protection Group (SPG) and National Security Guard (NSG) which provide security for VIPs….

“Security agencies have been practising this policy of doubt and suspicion since 1969 (Sikhs have been included in this category since 1984)….

“On the basis of having been born in a Hindu family and having a particular association with the Hindu society, I feel more ashamed and sorry than any Muslim or Sikh to say that the mentality of Hindu society, which produced gems like Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar, has fallen so sick that it does not consider about one-fourth population of the country trustworthy. Do we need to remind it that Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu but it did not bring the entire Hindu society under doubt and suspicion? Only the people professing faith in a particular ideology were considered suspicious. But Muslims have been thrown into the valley of doubt and suspicion.�

In another development, the Inquilab (November 12) reports how the Hindu extremist organisation Shiv Sena is politicising an issue involving the police and Muslims in Bhiwandi. The report says that the question of building a police station on a waqf land near a mosque is an issue between Muslims and the police. But the Shiv Sena is trying to stoke communal fire in the town on the basis of this issue.

For details of the clash between the Muslims and police, see Urdu press roundup, July 12, 2006. This was also one of the issues raised by a delegation of 11 Muslim Members of Parliament during their meeting with Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh on September 16 last (See
Urdu press roundup, September 20, 2006).

On November 11 the Shiv Sena staged a dharna at Wanjarpatti Naka (Jawaharlal Chowk) in the town to demand restart of the building of a police station on the waqf land. They threatened that if the government failed to restart the construction work the party would take up this work.

Though they could not gather more than 200 people for the dharna, they left no stone unturned to spread communal hatred through their provocative speeches and slogans. While the dharna was going on, the time for Zuhr prayer struck and the muezzin called the Adhan. The participants of the dharna tried to overcome the Adhan call by their wild slogans.

November 17, 2006