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| BJP under attack for its minority policy | | No concession on religious ground | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 22: It was on June 10 that Minorities Affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi announced Rs 5 crore scholarships for minorities, 100 new Madrasas, special schemes for the existing Madrasas and special coaching centres for girls. Ever since then, the Narendra Modi government and the BJP are under severe attack. Some have gone to the extent of saying that "India's minority policy is anti-national".
The critics have been opining thus: "Lest we forget, India's partition was a result of the Congress not bowing down to Jinnah's unjustified demands of securing special rights for minority. These weren't acceptable to leaders of India's freedom movement and they chose division of the country rather than accede to Muslim League's blackmail. But present-day politicians seem oblivious to such obvious, critical lessons of our modern history and have thrown caution to the winds by proceeding headlong on the same path that leads nowhere but back to strengthening and entrenching the idea of separatism".
The critics do not buy the argument that "India's minorities are economically and socially backward" and, hence, "they need government support for their upliftment". To make their point, they refer to the literacy rate among the minorities in India and say that the status of Hindus is as good or as bad as that of the minorities.
They have said: "According to the 2011 census, the literacy rate of Hindus is 63.61 per cent while for Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains - all notified minorities - the figures are 74.35 per cent, 67.51 per cent, 71.84 per cent and 86.73 per cent respectively - all much higher than the majority community's figures. How can then the Indian state justify giving an educational scholarship to say Jains with a literacy rate of 86.73 per cent while denying the same to Hindus who have literacy rate of 67.51 per cent?
They have referred to the religion-wise national monthly mean household consumption and expenditure to make their point.
"Similarly, let's take a look at religion-wise national monthly mean household consumption and expenditure (68th round NSSO data): Hindus (Rs 8,086), Muslims (Rs 8,069), Christians (Rs 10,428), Buddhists (Rs 8,212), Sikhs (Rs 13,022) and Jains (Rs 18,562). Here, the difference between Hindus and Muslims is almost negligible while other minority communities are far ahead of both these. Seeing these figures, how can anyone justify giving scholarships to poor children of one community and denying it to those of others?"
The major refrain of the critics of the BJP's minority policy is that all should be treated equally and no concession should be given to any community on the ground of religion. |
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