BY resorting to cheap gestures to secure votes, the Congress is clearly hoping to mobilise the Muslim community.
There is a well known adage that “Justice is the constant desire and effort to render to every man his due.” Nothing contradicts this better than the manoeuvrings going on at the moment to sneak in a policy aimed at appeasing Muslims in the hope of getting their votes in the recently announced Assembly elections across five states. This would be in keeping with the Congress party’s strange obsession with Muslims and its frequent manifestation in the most lurid manner. It does not need an awful lot of imagination to surmise that the UPA Government’s congenital tendency to succumb before the minority separatism is in pursuit of its vote bank politics. This is of a piece with the party’s absurd and perverse practice of embarking on a path of dividing the country along communal lines for acquiring power.
It is nobody’s case that poverty should not be removed or education and employment opportunities be not provided to everybody without any discrimination. But as far as the suggestion of a sub quota in OBC Quota is concerned, nothing could be more sinister and divisive. Practitioners of cynical politics who are driven by the lust of power have redefined secularism to mean something it was not meant to mean, that is, appeasement of minorities. The single-minded Congress focus on Muslim votes that makes it  pursue a partisan course is giving airs to the speculation that the ruling party cares only for minority concerns in the garb of secularism. The UPA’s penchant for the politics of appeasement is increasingly becoming a hallmark of its governance. Moreover, the Congress leaders in their abhorrent zeal to placate minorities seem to have forgotten that all Indians, irrespective of their caste, creed or religions have an equal stake in the national well-being. Statistics reveals that almost 30 to 35 percent of India’s population is living in subhuman conditions. This is nothing to gloat about in the 64th year of Independence. And to know that in the hands of Congress, affirmative action has degenerated into cheap gestures to grab Muslim votes is indeed a sad commentary. Does the government have no responsibility to the rest of the population?
Notwithstanding its abstract homilies on secularism, the Congress has always aimed at erecting barriers between the different communities. Indeed, the brand of secularism flaunted by the party is very much flawed. By separating Muslim issues from the rest of the populace, it is only treading the familiar ground of identity politics that forms the core of its survival. Mr. Rahul Gandhi may cry-hoarse over the casteist and parochial policies of Ms. Mayawati and Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, but his party has played the same minority card to browbeat its opponents. Hurling accusations at Mr. Yadav for playing narrow politics and then pulling up a quota trick in UP says a lot on how shallow the Congress’s politics in the state has become.
In the past too,the Congress-led UPA government has meted out special treatment to Muslims as a matter of state policy. Muslims have indeed been perceived as potential votebanks right from Indira Gandhi’s time in whose regime Haj subsidies were announced. It is noteworthy that no other religious community in India has been favoured with such a sop. It was also her singular love for Muslim empowerment that made her instal Muslim Chief Ministers like Abdul Gafoor in Bihar, AR, Auntulay in Maharashtra, Maimoona Taimur in Assam and Barkatullah in Rajasthan . Continuing with this policy of crass minorityism, Rajiv Gandhi overturned the Supreme Court judgment on the issue of maintenance to Muslim divorcee Shah Bano. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has leapt many steps in the same direction by declaring “minorities first” as his government’s policy earmarking the first 15 percent of the national resources for their benefit. The appointment of the Sachar Committee, the installation of a Ministry for Minority, reserving jobs and education quotas for Muslims, attempts of dividing Army on communal lines, communalising banking and financial institutions, protecting Bangladeshi migrants and announcing a sub quota of 4.5 per cent within the existing OBC quota et al are all steps to play directly to the gallery of Muslim voters. Little wonder then that the former President Mr Abdul Kalam has criticised the government-sponsored subsidies by saying that “dependency syndrome has stunted performance and diminished transparency.”
And it is not by accident that the UPA proposed its minority quota just before the polls announcement. The timing of the move, just before the Assembly polls in UP and some other states clearly indicates its purpose of wooing back the UP’s Muslims comprising 18 pc of the electorate in the state. But if the Congress thinks the move to be its winning trick in UP, they would be living in a fool’s paradise. Responses to the Congress ploy have been less than enthusiastic. Muslim representatives have reacted adversely, describing the sub-quota as not enough to bring about a perceptible change in their socio-economic condition. Christians have demanded a separate quota of their own. Ajit Singh, Congress party’s new RLD partner is also demanding Jat’s inclusion in the OBC list. BJP has refused to accept the proposal.  Janata Dal (U) MP Ali Anwar is expressing apprehension that the quota would pit OBC HIndus against OBC Muslims. It is therefore highly unlikely that the Congress’s quota formula will yield any electoral dividends. Given the incendiary potential of the issue, it would be best to postpone it till after the state elections.
The demand for a sub-quota within an OBC quota is nothing but the rant of opportunistic politicians who can least claim to have contributed to the welfare of the country. The real issue here is the Congress-led UPA’s desperation to cultivate dedicated votebanks in UP in favour of the Congress. All talk of Muslims being persecuted or discriminated against in India is absurd. If all other minorities have progressed with the exception of a large proportion on Muslims, the community must look within rather than blame the lack of opportunities. After all, no one is stopping them from being qualified. They have all the opportunities. They already enjoy the benefits of OBC quota in most states as well as in Central jobs and centrally funded educational institutions. Today discrimination exists in reservation and merit is ignored on caste grounds. Thereby economically weak sections are refused a chance for not falling into a reserved category. This bodes ill for progress and growth. In fact, it is imperative upon the government to end caste-based reservations and encourage genuine talent from all economic strata.

SUNITA VAKIL