The move by the Andhra Pradesh Government to reserve five per cent of Government jobs for Muslims has created fissures within the Muslim community itself. Dalit and Other Backward Classes (OBS) Muslims, who comprise 90 per cent of the total Muslim population in the country, have expressed strong reservations to the Congress-led State Government's move.
Their contention is that the State Government must explain whether the benefits of reservation for Muslims will accrue to the socially and educationally-backward Muslims or to higher caste Muslims who are bracketed in the Open Caste (OC) category.
Their fear is based on bare facts that the reservation benefits in Government jobs will be usurped by Sheikhs, Sayyeds, Mirzas, Mughals and Pathans, the affluent and the educated among Muslims. The All-India United Muslim Morcha, a Delhi- based Muslim body, has picked up cudgels on behalf of the "Dalit and OBC Muslims" to fight the "injustice" meted out to them by the Andhra Government. Kamal Ashraf, the working president of the Morcha said:"YS Rajshekhar Reddy's Government must come clean to the Muslims that who will be the beneficiary of the proposed five per cent reservation - the OC Muslims or the lower caste Muslims".
Reservation is not new to Muslims in Andhra Pradesh. Previous governments of NT Rama Rao and Chandra Babu Naidu, too, had provided five per cent reservations to lower caste Muslims under the Mandal Commission recommendations. They have been divided into A, B, C and D categories. These categories consisted of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) Muslims, Naddaf or Dhunia (those who earn their living by making pillows and mattresses), Quraish (those who are into meat trade), Darjee (tailors), bunkars (weavers) and Doodhekala or the Bazigars (lower caste Muslims who earn their livelihood through roadside monkey and bear games).
The caste system among Muslims is so strong that marriages take place strictly within specific castes. A Sayyed will never marry the daughter of a Quraish and so is the case among all other castes in Muslims. When there is so much division on caste lines, how they could be just bracketed as Muslims when it comes to taking reservations? Ashraf asked.
When Muslims have been getting the benefits of reservations in Andhra Pradesh under A, B, C & D categories, where was the need to create `E' category for further five per cent job reservation for Muslims? Most importantly, backward and Dalit Muslims have been also covered under 27 and 15 per cent reservation quotas, respectively.
In southern states like Kerala and Karnataka, Muslims have been reaping the benefits of with up to 10 and four per cent reservation in Government jobs, respectively. Thangla and Mapla (the OC Muslims), who have been socially and educationally elevated, are the ones who are the biggest beneficiaries of the job reservation, while the social condition of Dalit Muslims remains the same. Even in politics, upper caste Muslims have been dominating. Ahmad Patel, Mohsina Kidwai, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Salman Khurshid, prominent leaders of the Indian National Congress, are all OC Muslims.
"The Congress has always encouraged higher caste Muslims so much so that it had given places of prominence to those whose forefathers held important places in the Government," alleged Ashraf.
In 1950, after the Indian Constitution was enforced, every caste got reservations under Article 340 for backwards, Article 341 for Dalits and under Article 342 for tribals. The Congress Government led by Jawaharlal Nehru promulgated a Presidential Ordinance which prevented Muslims from getting job reservations. It had said that "Dalits" will be from Hindus only. "Maulana Azad, who was the most prominent Muslim face in the Indian Government, did not do anything to ameliorate the lot of the Dalit Muslims," said Ashraf.
Most importantly, successive Congress Governments appointed the Gopal Singh Commission, Gujral Commission and the Putta Commission for minorities. The recommendations of these commissions are gathering dust. "Where is the need for another commission when the recommendations of the past three commissions were never implemented," asked Ashraf.
In Andhra Pradesh, where the Congress wants to implement the five per cent reservation, upper caste Muslims are already having such jobs. Dalit or backward Muslims have not got any benefits of the reservation. When the Andhra Pradesh Government tabled the Bill, it ferreted tables that how Muslims were lagging behind in all-round development when it came to jobs in the Government and its corporations. The State Government was exposed after the Andhra Pradesh High Court stayed the new reservation Bill for Muslims.
The State Government said with this,
many seats in medical colleges and engineering colleges have been blocked.
That meant that the State Government was talking about OC Muslims not the
Dalit Muslims. Socially and educationally- backward Dalit Muslims in Andhra
Pradesh are in no position to seek admissions in medical or engineering
colleges, Ashraf concluded.