National

Minority Rapport

The party is in a tizzy; how pro-Muslim does it want to be?

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Minority Rapport
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Within days of the report being tabled, the media announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told the National Development Council (NDC)—that Muslims (now statistically proved to be at the bottom of the development pile), should have "first claim onresources". Predictably, the BJP leapt into the fray, with its president Rajnath Singh saying, "India’s resources are not to be divided on communal lines."

Once again, there was a knee-jerk reaction in the Congress. The PMO, sources said, consulted party president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, and the result of the collective panic response was an official clarification. "We would urge people to read the entire statement. It begins with the reference to the welfare of Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, weaker sections and it goes on to talk about minorities and that’s when he says Muslims. What has been done by the media and political parties is that they have looked only at the last sentence of the paragraph which is a motivated way of projecting what the PM has said."

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On the face of it, there was nothing wrong with the text of the clarification. But a suo motu official clarification—as opposed to a response to a question—made it look as though the PM wished to distance himself from his commitment to the Muslims. Nothing was further from the truth—for while the PM had not merely spoken of Muslims, he had intended to highlight their plight and pledge his commitment to them.

As feedback from Uttar Pradesh—which goes to the polls early next year—rolled in, it was apparent that the PM’s promise to the Muslims had rattled CM Mulayam Singh Yadav: SP sources told Outlook that Mulayam summoned his associates for a strategy session. The next day, his tourism minister Ahmed Hassan attacked the Congress, saying the Sachar report and the PM’s remarks were mere lip service—Muslims should not be fooled as the Congress had never done anything for the community.

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Congressmen, sensing that yet another opportunity to woo back the Muslims could be lost, decided to do some damage control and stand solidly behind the PM’s statement. Publicly, the first off the mark was Union parliamentary affairs minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi. He did not just stress that the PMO clarification had been uncalled for—he went on the offensive: "(The PM’s speech) might have annoyed some obscurantist (sections) but it doesn’t harm the prime minister’s stature and leadership." Later, he reiterated to Outlook, "The clarification was not required. It’s a written speech—those who have any doubts can go to the website and read the text." To the BJP’s demand for an "apology", Das Munshi went frontal: "The PM will never make any apology within or outside Parliament. What crime has he committed? The BJP must apologise for polarising society. We won’t be cowed down."

If the PMO clarification came on Sunday, the mood in the party began to change from Monday. Even the PM realised that. A minister close to him told Outlook: "The politically correct thing may have been merely to use the word minorities, but the PM wanted to draw attention to the Muslims, so he said ‘particularly the Muslim minority’. It is part of the party’s agenda to take a special look at the community." A Congress functionary also pointed to Sonia Gandhi’s edit in the recent Sandesh, the party mouthpiece, which referring to the Sachar report, says, "The PM has asked for affirmative action on their (Muslims)behalf.. along with this, all avenues that can help them catch up with the other social groups must be rigorously explored and debated."

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Das Munshi had clearly set the tone: suddenly, even party spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi began to adopt an aggressive tone. Responding to a question, he said: "Are they (Muslims) not citizens of the country? Shouldn’t the government work towards ameliorating their condition?" And when the PM’s most trusted advisor, Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, too, indicated that the official clarification was unnecessary, it became more than apparent that there had been a rethink—and regret at the issuing of the PMO clarification.

Responding to a question on whether politics was entering the planning process through statements such as the one made by the PM, Montek said, "An economic agenda which is not part of a political agenda is not worth discussing—the purpose of planning is to create the notion that good economics is good politics". He stressed that even the approach paper circulated to the CMs before the NDC meeting had referred to the uplift of minorities, including Muslims. "This (cannot) be swept under the carpet. The Sachar report shows that Muslims aren’t getting an equitable share... inclusiveness (the theme of the approach to the eleventh plan) doesn’t mean anything if these issues are not taken care of," he said. Union home minister Shivraj Patil told Outlook, "The fuss made by the BJP in Parliament was unnecessary. They sat through the NDC discussions, heard the PM, said nothing and then went and picked on one line..."

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The desire in the Congress to maximise the PM’s statement was so apparent that even the PM’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru told Outlook: "Mr Das Munshi is right when he says that there was no need for the PM to give a clarification," stressing, "The statements by the minister and Dr Ahluwalia don’t in any way contradict the statement that we put out. But a press statement became necessary because the BJP was creating chaos and people watching television across the country were getting a distorted view of what the PM said. The clarification was neither defensive nor apologetic."

Interestingly, Janardan Dwivedi was one of the few Congress leaders who defended the official clarification, not surprising given the fact that he is reported to have been consulted on it: He told Outlook: "The clarification is a statement of truth—it is not an apology. So many clarifications are sought and given. What the PM said was misinterpreted, so it was natural for the PMO to issue a clarification."

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Caught between its desire to woo back the Muslims and fear that the BJP will consolidate its Hindu vote, the Congress has belatedly tried to minimise the damage among the Muslims. But is it going to be of any help? A Muslim leader in the party said bitterly: "Even when we do the right thing, we ruin it by looking as though we regret having done it. We end up representing no one at all—neither Hindus nor Muslims, neither OBCs nor Dalits."

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