Communal development

Religion, community and state are separate entities. All three function with mutually beneficial goals. In the post industrial society, state predominates forcing the other two to recede back. Overwhelmingly religion and community are still a force to reckon with in some traditional societies. In the Islamic countries like Indonesia, Turkey and Pakistan there is an equal domination of religion and state. Nations like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, politics is dictated by religion. Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and UAE follow monarchy with no questioning from the public. African countries adopt community strictures to day to day life. Electoral democracies like India follow voter appeasement methods whenever it is needed. As Islamic population is amenable to the order given by the religious clerics, Indian Muslims are wooed by political parties with ‘out of turn’ concessions breaking the constitutional mandate. The secular aspect of the constitution is bent upon and election time benefits are showered without any logic. This is common among all the political parties including the right leaning BJP. One can recall the NDA government’s pro Muslim postures in the run up to the 2004 general elections. Then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announced that one lakh Urdu teachers will be appointed for Madarasa education. Imam of Delhi got close to the saffron camp and proclaimed his support for the NDA. It is another matter that the voters did not give importance to his electoral fatwa.

1976 is the milestone year in the enactment of political dramas in the name of secularism. By 42nd amendment the Congress government inserted ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ into the Indian constitution. Ironically the successive governments acted opposite to the principles of secularism and socialism. Minority appeasement went ahead in full speed and the socialist character lost its relevance in the post 1991.Grabing the fallout of the Babri masjid episode, non Congress and non BJP parties encroached into the Muslim voters. This created a free for all play situations.

Nearly after a decade of this major fall of Congress, the Grand Old Party was trying all tricks to pull back the minority voters. A high level committee to study the status of Muslims was constituted by the Prime Minister. This committee was headed by Justice. Rajinder Sachar. It recommended radical changes in the policies of the government with the respect to the Muslims. Factually it is correct that the Muslims lag behind in several socio economic aspects. But it is also true that Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and other communities’ members too suffer. There is no religious angle to poverty. The policy makers need to dissect social problems without communalizing it. If the welfare states itself start acting communally there is no scope for egalitarian development. Without segregating poor religiously it is crucial to engineer fast pace development. For this identifying all poor people in a foolproof way is vital. Once this exercise is done elimination of poverty is feasible.

While understanding problems with so many committees and commissions, Indian government throws all the study reports into oblivion. Most of the high level committees and low level suggestions are eyewash acts. To divert the public ire these commissions are appointed. Remember the Mandal Commission report which was given in 1970s and introduced in the late 1980s for the Prime Ministerial chair saving purpose of a person. Communal head count in the army, cross subsidy for Haj pilgrimage and special budget allocation for Muslims are some of the many measures of the present government which goes against the basic ethos of the Indian society. It creates a divide among the communally sensitive citizens. With the growing divide between rural and urban, super rich, rich and poor, communal concessions are bound to exacerbate the gap. Sooner the policy makers and people at the seat of governance understands this basic logic the better it is for the country and its citizens.