Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was on a weeklong goodwill visit of America. She had tough time answering questions about the ill treatment to Indian Muslims. While interacting in a meeting of PIIE in Washington DC, she said Indian Muslims are not only safe but also fully enjoying equal rights as citizens of India. She said the people outside India should not be influenced by negative propaganda rather they should visit India and see how positive the position of Indian Muslims is. She said growing Muslim population means all is well. She also said the government is offering various educational scholarships to Muslim students.
She forgot that in the current budget the Education Minister Smriti Irani has announced that Maulana Azad National Fellowship (to minority students) has been dropped. She also forgot the fact that 4% reservation in education and jobs to Muslims in Karnataka has been withdrawn just one month back, to appease the Hindutva voters. Ministry of Home Affairs and NCRB reports also indicate that anti-Muslim attacks and riots have increased since 2014, when Mr. Narendra Modi came to power.
Md. Akhlaque was lynched in 2014 when he was accused of storing beef in his refrigerator. In January 2016 a Muslim couple was beaten mercilessly as they were accused of carrying beef. In 2017 Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer of Rajasthan, was killed by a mob on the false charge of smuggling cows, while actually he was taking cows for his dairy farm. Every now and then we come across cases of lynching and killing of Muslim youth under the false charge of smuggling and transporting cows for butchering. Recently also many such cases were reported from Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka. The hope of arrest and conviction of murderers are almost nil.
In spite of severe strictures of the Supreme Court benches against hate speech, no action is being taken. Because the ruling party believes in encouraging such speeches as they help them immensely in polarising and garnering Hindutva votes. More hate more votes is the well thought out formula.
Perhaps Mrs. Sitharaman has not gone through Sachar Committee Report. This well researched and painstakingly comprehensive report lays bare the marginalisation of Indian Muslims. According to the Report, Muslim representation in IAS and IPS is 3% to 4% while the population is 14.2% (2011 census). There is open and shameful discrimination in employment to Muslims. Take the case of most populous State UP with 19.3% Muslims. You will not find even 5% Muslims in different offices and government jobs. Akhilesh government had appointed about 16,000 primary assistant teachers. About 4000 among them were Urdu teachers. When Yogi government came to power, it cancelled the appointment of Urdu teachers under the plea that nobody is interested in learning Urdu. Allahabad High Court division bench delivered the verdict that Urdu teachers’ jobs must be restored. The UP government has gone in appeal against the judgement.
Christophe Jaffrelot, the India based French social scientist, has done comprehensive research and written in detail how Indian Muslims are the worst victims of discrimination and marginalisation and how they have been disempowered in Parliament, State Legislatures, Judiciary and in government jobs.
Before declaring all is well with Indian Muslims, F.M. should have taken stock of the things and known the reality. She should not sit like an ostrich, but rather collect enough courage to accept the facts, and if possible discuss in the cabinet how to restore freedom, dignity, respect and an honourable status to 20/21 crore strong segment of Indian citizens. She should tell her boss to stop the propaganda of SabkaSath, Sabka Vikas and lately added Sabka Vishwas and SabkaParyas.