Commentary/Fuzail Jafferey

Reservations for Muslims is only a political charade

Unprincipled and opportunistic politics has always paid rich dividends in India. So-called Muslim leaders, like their counterparts in other communities, have also never lagged behind in adopting the same methods for their personal gains, at the expense of the community. The Congress, which ruled the country for more than four decades since Independence, has systematically and successfully exploited the Muslim elite in order to bring the masses under its political umbrella in one way or the other.

The situation, however, drastically changed after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992. The Congress lost its face with the Muslim community by failing to protect the Babri Masjid. The predicament of the intellectually bankrupt and traditional Muslim leaders, who had made a prestige issue out of the mosque but could do little save shed tears after the demolition, was similar.

Consequently, both the Congress leadership as well as its henchmen among the Muslims frantically started searching for some new issue to harp upon to win back the support of the Muslim voters. In view of the well-known economic backwardness of the community, these leaders, who have no real interest of the Muslims at heart, finally discovered the issue of 'job reservations for Muslims' as the chief source of their political survival. Unfortunately, Sitaram Kesri, former federal welfare minister, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, former minister for civil aviation and tourism, readily took up cause with the disgruntled Muslim leaders over the issue of 'job quota' for Muslims.

In early October 1994, Sitaram Kesri, the present Congress president who is aspiring for the prime minister's post, demanded reservations for Muslims while addressing a rally. He even claimed that the P V Narasimha Rao government was working on the scheme to give it final shape. While Congress leaders, including Arjun Singh and V N Gadgil, termed it as the personal opinion of Kesri, and former prime minister Rao categorically stated in Bangalore on October 17, 1994, that his government was not contemplating giving any job reservations to Muslims, Sitaram Kesari reiterated his demand at an All-India Muslim convention held on November 9 and 10, 1994, in New Delhi.

Since then, there has been a consistent campaign centred on the demand for reservations for Muslim in government jobs and educational institutions. Not a day passes when there are no articles or letters in the Urdu press on the issue of reservation. Besides, certain organisations such as the 'Milli Parliament' have started demanding proportional representation for Muslims in Parliament and assemblies as well as separate electoral rolls and constituencies for the Muslims. All this is definitely alarming as it smacks of the politics played by the Muslim League during the pre-Independence years.

Two points have to be specifically noted in this regard before we proceed further. First, the 27 per cent job reservations system is envisaged by the Mandal Commission for the Other Backward Classes, has already identified Muslim OBCs and various state governments including the right-wing Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition in Maharashtra, have started implementing the recommendations, even though neither Islam nor secularism permits any caste or class-based society.

Secondly, no community should claim reservations for itself on the pattern guaranteed by the Constitution to the scheduled castes and tribes. The dalits and scheduled tribes, as we know, had to suffer psychological, moral, and physical injury at the hands of upper castes for centuries altogether. Mahatma Gandhi recognised the age-old legacy of caste oppression and made the whole society feel guilty on this account. Reservation for scheduled castes and tribes was a direct consequences of this. By contrast, reservations for minorities were rejected by the constituent assembly on the insistence of the Muslim members themselves.

All this, however, does not mean that Indian Muslims do not have any problems. In fact, they are today one of the most economically and educationally backward segments of Indian society. According to various national sample surveys, 52 per cent Muslims live below the poverty line, compared to 30 per cent of other Indian communities. Their representation in government jobs, armed and police forces, and Indian Administrative and Foreign services, has at no time exceeded 4.5 per cent during the last 50 years.

But the government alone cannot be blamed for this disappointing and sad state of affairs. For example, Indira Gandhi had appointed the high-power Gopal Singh Commission to look into and identify the problems of Muslims and other weaker sections. Muslim leaders, legislators, parliamentarians and ministers, who are generally very vocal about non-issues, never even bothered to look at the Gopal Singh report, leave apart demand its implementation.

Again, after a few years, Rajiv Gandhi formulated a 20-point programme for the benefit of Muslims, but no one paid attention to it. Had the Muslim leaders exerted political pressure at that time to put the 20-point programme into practice, the condition of Muslims would have been much better than it is today.

While Muslim leaders and intellectuals must strive hard to get justice to the community at all levels, they should also realise that getting a handful of government jobs under the reservation scheme (whose upper limit has now been increased from 27 to 50 per cent by the Supreme Court) cannot change the destiny of more than 120 millions Indian Muslims. As Allama Iqbal has said in one of his famous and oft quoted couplets, "Even God does not help those who do not help themselves."

Muslims must reorient their thinking and take positive steps for the socio-economic prosperity of the community. Large-scale reform is needed to make the community aware of the importance of efficiency and merit rather than harping on reservations, which means living on charity for all times to come. Intellectual should guide the Muslims to prepare them for the challenges of modern competitive life so that they can survive as prosperous and honourable citizens of the country. It is no use simply shouting that Muslims are educationally backward.

Apart from Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, there are dozens of institutes of higher learning including medical and engineering colleges, which are run and managed by the leaders of the community. But unfortunately, most of these institutions have become commercial establishments. Even highly-talented Muslim students do not get admissions in these institutions because they are poor and cannot afford to pay huge donations.

How then, can we overcome the educational backwardness of the community? For the past 50 years, Muslim leaders have been simply looking to the government to solve the problems of the common Muslims. It is now high time that Muslim leaders ponder seriously not only about strengthening the community by rekindling the spirit of enterprise, but also about how Muslims as a community can contribute to the progress and prosperity of the nation.