Author: Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: April 20, 2007
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/apr/20uppoll.htm
[Note from the HIndu Vivek Kendra: Is this
not a blatant attempt to get the votes on communal basis? Will the secular
intellectuals condemn it? Not likely, because it the war against the BJP,
anything and everything is legitimate. Nor will the Election Commission act
on it.]
When Rahul Gandhi is going around crediting
his family with every Indian achievement, can the Congress be far?
Taking cue from Rahul's foot-in-the-mouth
spree, the Congress' minorities cell has brought out a booklet on why the
Congress is the messiah of the Muslims.
Titled Musalman Congress ke saath kyon...?,
the 12-page booklet was being circulated among Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, where
elections are going on.
The booklet -- in Urdu and in Hindi -- not
only goes about proclaiming that the Congress was responsible for extending
opportunity to Muslims to occupy top constitutional and political appointments,
but also goes on to take credit for the rise of celebrities like Dilip Kumar,
Shah Rukh Khan, Sania Mirza as well as a number of Indian cricketers.
'It was only because the Congress never treated
Muslims as outcasts and provided them an open, free and secular environment
in this country that they could enhance their capabilities and inner talent,'
says the booklet.
"And that not only helped in Azeem Premji
emerging as the richest man in the country, but also forging stars like Dilip
Kumar and Sharrukh Khan to the top rung in the Indian film industry,"
it declared. Lest his screen name be misunderstood, Dilip Kumar's real name
-- Yusuf Khan -- was mentioned within brackets.
It then seeks to assign the same reason to
the fame achieved by top musicians -- Amjad Khan (Sarod), Zakir Hussain (Tabla)
and Bismillah Khan (Shehnai) besides cricketers -- Nawab of Pataudi, Syed
Kirmani, Azaruddin, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, Munaf Patel,
Wasim Jafar , as well as tennis star Sania Mirza.
"If these people had not been provided
a congenial atmosphere without any discrimination for being a Muslim, then
probably no one would have heard of them," the booklet points out. And
it says, "Who was responsible for creating such an environment? Congress."
While tracing the history of Muslim-Congress
proximity right to the founders of the Congress party and crediting Jawaharlal
Nehru for drawing the larger chunk of Muslims to side with India after the
partition, the document sings praises to Indira Gandhi for carrying on her
father's legacy.
"It was under Indira Gandhi's leadership
that the Congress appointed not just one, but three Muslim Presidents of India,
three vice-presidents, three chief justices, 18 state governors, one Indian
Air Force Chief and several state chief ministers as well as foreign ambassadors,"
the booklet boasts.
"This was the only example on the globe
where members of the religious minorities were given such top positions,"
it adds.
The booklet also reminds how the Congress
was the only Indian political outfit that had been headed by seven Muslims
over different periods of time. "No other major political party in India
had elevated any Muslim to the top organisational post," it points out.
Terming the Supreme Court judgment in the
Shah Bano case as the "biggest attack on Muslims", the booklet seeks
to highlight "how Indira Gandhi's son Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed power for
the sake of restoring the religious rights of Muslims by bringing in a new
parliamentary legislation to nullify the Shah Bano judgment that was an infringement
with the personal law of Muslims."
Evidently, it seeks to impress upon the Muslim
youth that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was once again focused on insuring
genuine economic and educational upliftment of Muslims.
The minority-wooing exercise by the Congress
gets milder only where it embarks on a reference to the demolition of the
16th century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
"It is true that the martyrdom of the
Babri Mosque was a major setback to us, but some opposition parties tried
to make political capital out of it by shedding crocodile tears," it
says.
While pointedly raising serious questions
against Mulayam Singh Yadav's honeymoon with rabid Hindu hardliners like Sakshi
Maharaj, the booklet focuses on how, "Mulayam's refusal to issue a necessary
affidavit saved top BJP leaders like L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi as well
as VHP supreme Ashok Singhal in the criminal proceedings they were facing
in the Babri Masjid demolition case."
The concluding line adds, "The blood
of Asfaq Ullah, Abdul Qadir, Havaldar Abdul Hamid and Major Usman was a repeated
reminder of the fact that this nation is ours," in an obvious afterthought
about the unparalleled contribution of these eminent Muslims to the freedom
movement and the subsequent wars respectively.
