HVK Archives: Indian Muslims: Victims of secular diplomacy
Indian Muslims: Victims of secular diplomacy - The Asian Age
Seema Mustafa
()
26 April 1997
Title : Indian Muslims: Victims of secular diplomacy
Author : Seema Mustafa
Publication : The Asian Age
Date : April 26, 1997
India has a fixation - a certain misplaced idea of secularism which makes it, on
the one hand, brutal to the minorities which, on the other hand, it vows to
protect. The Muslims are victims, being victims of the secular government of
India's discriminatory policies. Not just by bullets, for that one has the Shiv
Sena and its ilk, but by kindness. Where Muslim (non) issues and Muslim
votebanks, and Muslim leaders and Muslim constituencies dominate; and where
genuine concerns of Muslims as citizens of secular India are ignored.
Successive Indian governments and there has not been even one exception to the
rule, only degrees of variation, have been unnaturally kind to the supposed Muslim
concerns. Posts in Muslim bodies - Waqf boards, Haj committees, minority
commissions, Urdu, political nominations for "Muslim" constituencies,
accommodation of the agenda set out by the mullahs and maulvis - all this has been
allowed to replace a secular agenda geared for the development and genuine
progress of the Muslims as citizens of this country. Health, hygiene, modem
education, the plight of artisans working in what are essentially Muslim-dominated
industries of brass, carpet-weaving, glass, communal riots, partisan police action
- these are some of the issues that should have been addressed but which are
completely lost sight of in the almost hysterical accommodation of conservative
clerical interests.
This gives an opening to the Bharatiya Janata Party to go to town about what it
loves to describe as Muslim appeasement. The fact that the appeasement is only of
a certain elite, and not the masses who continue to live in drudgery, is not
something that the BJP can be expected to highlight as it will sharply contradict
the basis of its Hindutva doctrine. The governments of India have also ignored
the masses who constitute the captive votebank for not just the Congress but also
the supposedly secular forces. The elite controlling their interests the
well-connected families and the clergy - are obliged and the teeming mass of
abject humanity happily ignored.
The Indian government's bended-knees policy towards Saudi Arabia is a case in
point. Over 300 Indian pilgrims have died as a direct result of Saudi apathy and
indifference towards the arrangements for their stay at Mina. Reports from the
site suggest that the Saudi guards locked the pilgrims into the small space. This
was the report received by the Indian consular general at Jeddah, Afzal Amanullah,
an IAS officer known to be upright and honest. Perhaps more honest than the
government of India can accommodate. This was confirmed by the pilgrims who have
returned to India since. This was in a sense confirmed by the leader of the Haj
delegation Maqbool Dar when he said that he could not doubt Mr Amanullah's
statement. It was also confirmed when Mr Dar told The Asian Age that he and the
Embassy officials had not been able to get any information from the Saudi
authorities about the fire and had to return to the site to assess the damage.
There is a history of such incidents each year at Haj. There is a long list of
grievances from the Indian pilgrims who have been complaining about the partisan
treatment meted out to them by the Saudis.
So what is the mighty government of India's reaction? It sets its ministry of
external affairs spokesman into motion. Obviously acting on a well set-out brief,
the foreign office spokesman claimed that its own consular general at the spot was
wrong about his facts. This is before the fact-finding committee (judging from its
composition, it will hardly find any facts) has even reached the site. The
government, obsessed with Saudi Arabia's influence over the Islamic world, its oil
and its money, chose to contradict its official and support the Saudi line of
reasoning. "The Saudis are fine, they did not do anything that was wrong" was the
message from the foreign office. If the Saudis, can achieve this without exerting
any pressure, just a little push will have the government here recalling Afzal
Amanullah to appease the Saudi masters. The government has already begun to
distance itself from the officials on the spot, in case some bakra has to be set
up for the qurbani.
There has been not a word from the Indians about the tragedy. Instead there is
hearty endorsement by the Haj committee delegates, who were the first to run for
their lives, of the Saudi position so well articulated by their interior minister:
"Alhamdolilla," he said, "we have saved the lives of so many people." As for those
who have died, who cares about the identities. They and their grieving relatives
still waiting for confirmation back in India should be happy that the pilgrims
died while performing Haj in the Holy Land. This is all the compensation, as Mr
Dar here said, they could have asked for.
This is the Muslim agenda being pedalled by the Indian government. It is
destructive and disastrous. It does not address itself to the people, in this
case the grieving relatives and the injured. It addresses itself to the
constituency, in this case Saudi Arabia and its influence over the Muslim world.
The pilgrims who went to Mecca are Muslims for our government, and not citizens.
For if they were citizens, the country would have protested. There is not a
murmur from the government, from the Muslim MPs, most of whom have been guests of
the Saudi government or various organisations there, from the numerous
organisations receiving lakhs of charity from the Saudis. The pilgrims returning
from Mecca narrate a tale of woe, they speak of the deaths, of the callousness, of
the apathy but except for some over-enthusiastic scribes, it does seem as if there
is no one here to listen to them. All have suddenly become deaf.
It is for the same reason that the millions pouring into Kashmir are being
ignored. The government is loud about Pakistan's funding of militancy in the
Valley but has not a word to say about the Saudi money being pumped into the area.
The BJP will raise it. It is bound to. And it will make a sorry mess of it, in
that the hapless Muslims will become the targets. The attention will shift from
their real concern to the "appeasement," a favourite word in the malignant
Parivar's dictionary.
The Saudi money flowing into so-called charitable organisations is subtly pushing
the Muslim agenda back into conservative channels. The money is largely being
used for educational purposes. In remote villages, Saudi-funded residential
schools teaching theology and Arabic have come up. Modem education is not on the
curriculum. The children have only two jobs options open for them - they either
become interpreters or translators of Arabic, or maulvis. This is extremely
dangerous as it is a part of a design to keep the Indian Muslim backward in all
respects. But, then, not a single government has put any checks on the inflow.
There is no Saudi money, incidentally, for the upliftment of the Muslim woman.
Reforms of the personal law is not part of the Saudi agenda for the Indian Muslim.
In fact the Islam being taught in these schools is resistant to the idea of
reform and reinforces the feeling of insecurity among the Muslims by making them
acutely conscious of their minority status. The Muslim girl child is not
accounted for in this generous disbursement of funds. Her education is not of
importance, her status definitely second class.
One can only hope, but the hope is without reason, that the fact-finding committee
comes back with the facts. One can only hope that the Muslim MPs who are on the
committee are able to resist the, Saudi hospitality and retain their independence.
One can only hope that the government of India takes a position against Saudi
intervention in India. It is imperative that the Saudi bubble bursts. It is
important that its increasing hold over segments of the Muslim population in India
is curtailed. But, then, hopes do not make for reality, they remain in the realm
of dreams.
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