Author: Harsh Vardhan
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: March 5, 2004
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_599367,00120001.htm
Arif Mohammad Khan's formal entry
into the BJP is a natural homecoming of sorts. Since 1986, when he opposed
the Rajiv Gandhi government's cock-eyed brand of secularism as played out
in its handling of the Shah Bano case, Khan has been a symbol of protest
for the Muslim masses whose political expression has been quite stunted
by the 'mullah-secularist' combine.
The historical coincidence of his
entry into the BJP and the passing of Sikander Bakht within 24 hours of
each other cannot be missed. Years back, Bakht, like Khan, had braved the
contempt of sections of the intelligentsia by becoming one of the founder
general secretaries of the BJP. He had anticipated the changing mood in
his community and encouraged a spirit of openness in Hindu-Muslim relations
which was not possible under Nehruvian secularism. The Congress and the
Left talked of engendering a 'composite culture' but actually ended up
creating two composites. One, a world of opportunities for the Hindus and
the other, a hell for the Muslims. As a result, the two communities lived
in mutual exclusion.
Large sections of the national media
are uninformed of the true history of the BJP's acceptability to Muslims.
There is a tendency to mindlessly parrot the pseudo-secularist line that
the BJP practises a policy of tokenism towards which-ever Muslim leader
walks into its fold. Men like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussein
are routinely depicted as 'traitors' who were blinded by ambition. They
forget that Naqvi was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 and was a minister
of state. Shahnawaz was sent to Parliament by the predominantly Muslim
electorate of Kishenganj in Bihar who had no doubt that the BJP would work
for their benefit.
In my own political career, I have
detected a sense of deep resentment in the average Muslim at being taken
for granted as the poor-educationally backward-religiously fundamentalist
stereotype with a predictable tendency to be swayed by pseudo-secularist
poll rhetoric. The reality is quite the opposite. In today's feel-good
economic climate, there is a discernible tendency in the young Muslim to
claim his legitimate share under the Indian sun. Khan's move to the BJP
may be the first political expression of this trend.
I recall the sense of surprise I
felt when, back in the early Nineties, while on a trip to Kerala, I learnt
from a Muslim youth operating a speedboat for tourists on Kovalam beach
that he was a regular visitor to an RSS shakha. Later, a fellow doctor
from the state branch of the Indian Medical Association told me there was
nothing unusual about it. He reported that in his own hometown, Tirur in
Mallapuram district (a Muslim majority has voted G.M. Banatwalla of the
Muslim League to Parliament uninterruptedly since 1977), it was common
to see Muslim boys singing Vande Mataram in RSS shakhas every morning.
Around 1995, the municipal elections
in West Bengal threw up a curious winner in the Muslim majority town of
Haroa in North 24 Parganas district. The BJP won hands down in a triangular
contest against the CPI(M) and the Congress. How was this possible? Actually,
the people, regardless of their religious belief, were fed up with the
politics of terror practised by the Marxists. Today, the Trinamool Congress
and the BJP win seats in large pockets of Muslim population. The voters
have had enough of being taken for granted by the Marxists and the Congress.
The BJP's assessment of the present
politico-economic conditions makes its top leadership confident that the
time has come to reassure the Muslim masses that it is the only party that
is serious about mitigating the myriad problems experienced by the community.
Here I am not merely talking about the low percentage of jobs in government
held by Muslims or their insignificant representation in elected bodies.
Those statistics are old hat. As a medical practitioner on the field, who
has been attached to the World Health Organisation, hardly a day passes
when I am not confronted with the fact that the problem of our Muslims
go very deep indeed. It is not just poverty but the social pressure brought
by archaic laws which keep them mentally and physically undernourished.
Ignorance, often exacerbated by
low literacy levels, results in poor Muslims being marginalised by development
programmes. When I was monitoring the WHO's polio eradication programme
in the villages of western Uttar Pradesh, I often noticed a tendency on
the part of poor Muslims to shy away. The reason: somebody had spread the
rumour that the polio drops could result in their children being sterilised
for life! There is also considerable resistance to family planning. Though
the Shariat carries no real injunction against Muslims having small families,
all kinds of propaganda circulates in rural hamlets and urban ghettos urging
Muslims to reject wiser counsel in favour of the two-child norm. In fact,
the incidence of anaemia and reproductive health problems is proportionally
higher among Muslim women than among their Hindu sisters.
For Muslim women, the implications
are scary. The community already faces a high rate of maternal mortality
and pre-natal deaths is proportionally higher among Muslims than other
social groups. Official apathy is commonly mistaken as secular governance.
Even as clerics force poor Muslims to desist from sending children to regular
schools, the State looks the other way. This is the result of commodifying
the Muslim - allowing the community to wallow in poverty and backwardness
- for fear of provoking a fundamentalist backlash.
But what about the vast majority
of Muslims who would like to sink their apparent socio-cultural 'uniqueness'
to secure better livelihood for themselves and their children? Their voice
was not heeded. Now is the time to encourage Muslims to come out of their
isolationism. Help them to help themselves.
The Vajpayee government is serious
about reaching the benefits of 'feel-good' to every segment of the population.
The BJP is loyal to Mahatma Gandhi's vision of an India free of economic
inequity. The Mahatma had said that until the benefits of progress reach
the last Indian, we cannot perceive ourselves as a developed country. If
India is to achieve the status of a global economic power in the 21st century,
we can't exclude the Muslims. The first term of the Vajpayee government
saw considerable new ground being broken in reaching social and educational
reforms to the Muslims.
The programmes on education, health
and women and child development have special focus on addressing the age-old
problems of the Muslims. The minorities' finance corporations have been
revivified. No longer are they fiefdoms of the privileged members of the
community. The government is aware of the long road ahead. That is why
the BJP needs to break through the wall of misunderstanding built by pseudo-secularists
between the country's only sincere political party and the Muslims. Secularism,
to the BJP, is no empty slogan. Sarva Dharma Sambhav extends to providing
a level playing field to Muslims so that they can come out of the sidelines
and, by contributing their mite to national growth, experience true pride
as Indians. Hindus and Muslims have a common vision, a common history and
a common culture.
The writer is President, BJP Delhi
Pradesh
