Author: Editorial
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: January 10, 2006
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1365190.cms
Introduction: That's what UPA's minorityism
means
Not just the Union Cabinet but the United
Progressive Alliance leadership must reject the proposal of the ministry of
social justice and empowerment to allocate plan funds in proportion to religious
community population.
After having been created as such, it is perhaps
inevitable that the ministry would work overtime trying to justify its existence
and come up with brilliant ideas like the present one.
It would also be encouraged by the various
'pro-minority' initiatives of the ministry of human resource development that
have found favour with the political leadership although they have subsequently
stumbled on judicial resistance.
It's high time the political leadership of
the UPA realised that its present brand of minorityism amounts to segregation,
not their integration with the rest of society as equals under the Constitution.
The present talk of plan spending in proportion
to community population only serves to give credence to charges of minority
appeasement and generate animosity.
The long-term dynamic of such symbolic pro-minorityism
is to create a group of people resented by the majority and constantly held
hostage to some political party's patronage in the shape of state protection
from violent outbursts of such resentment.
This harms society at large and the minorities
in particular. And the ruling Congress would be sadly mistaken if it thinks
that the minorities themselves do not realise this.
With globalisation and reform accelerating
economic growth and the accumulated progress in human development having reduced
the population growth rate to around 1.5%, we today see per capita incomes
going up by nearly 6% a year.
This presents the nation with an unprecedented
opportunity to wipe out backwardness of all kinds, not just alleviate it or
exploit it for sectarian political benefit.
Tackling backwardness would mean helping minorities,
as well as society in general. Making a song and dance about minorities without
doing anything of substance for their benefit had become the hallmark of the
Congress in the '80s.
It's time the party left that baggage behind.
Or the minorities will leave it behind, as will most sections of the majority.
