Dr. Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, President Welfare Party of India, while addressing the weekly meet organised by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at its headquarters on 9 January said that policy should be made while keeping in mind the interest of the nation and welfare of the people. Civil societies have played an instrumental role in formulating some very good policies and millions are getting benefits from it.
Initially, policies were based on Socialist ideology, then on Capitalism, liberalisation and globalisation. Usually, policies are reflection of a party’s ideologies and inclination. One policy may even affect others. For example, our economic policies have affected some other sectors as well. Make in India programme launched by our Prime Minister, aimed at attracting investment, looks attractive on the face value but nobody is bothered about its aftermath effect on our labour force and the safeguards of our labour. The globalisation and liberalisation polices have harmed the Muslim community and the weaker sections the most because it had an adverse impact on small scale industry in Muslim concentration areas of Uttar Pradesh.
The government has opened up and has sought suggestion from general public to formulate its new education policies. We generally claim that the government is trying to Saffronise our educational system or trying to impose one set of culture on others with the help of education. He questioned how many of us have made our move in that direction to provide suggestion or guideline for our educational and health policies? Why the Muslim community should not become proactive like our civil societies doing their best and putting pressure on the government to accept their formulation and suggestions in the policies of the government. We all know how MNREGA, RTI, RTE, and Right to Food were formulated and the role played by our civil societies in forwarding the cause for the welfare of the people.
Dr. Ilyas, while replying to a question, said we generally do not have any clear-cut vision for our country. He lauded the efforts of JIH for taking up some issues but a lot more is required to be done. Because of the Partition we became isolated and started only to think how to defend our identities, our religious institutions and our symbols and hardly thought of giving anything to our county and contribute towards national building. He also urged the Muslims to become part of the policy formulation and lead the way as our civil societies are doing.