11-17-2006, 03:45 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Reserved to be backward </b>
Pioneer.com
Balbir K Punj
<b>Every Indian has a right to education. Therefore, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed that Muslims needed to have wider access to education - he recently said so at the conference of the state commissions for minorities - there was an element of hypocrisy in it. Do they need access as Muslims, or as Indian citizens?</b>
The term "minorities" in India includes, besides Muslims, other groups like Parsis, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. <b>Even Hindus are a "minority' in Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Nagaland and some other States. </b>Significantly, the purported political definition is confined only to Muslims and does not apply to other minorities like Christians, Parsis and Sikhs. If this country were to practice any kind of organised discrimination against minorities, the other minority communities too would feel the pinch. The fact is they don't.
Among Army officials, for instance, there are a large number of Sikhs and Christians. The present Chief of Staff is a Sikh; there was a Christian General and Chief of Staff in the Army and several Lt Generals and Major Generals representing that religious group. Christian girls are seen all over India contributing to society as nurses and stenographers. They are also employed in a large number of private sector institutions, employed at many levels from receptionists to executives. The only reason they get these jobs is because they are educationally forward; they work as hard as anybody else to acquire the necessary qualifications and skills. And the community of Parsis, which counts less than a lakh, is on top in all walks of life, be it law, business or fashion.
The Prime Minister should have honestly questioned his audience on this difference between Muslims and other minorities.<b> Why is it that other minorities do not find any problem in getting access to education and jobs either in public or in private sector? There is no reservation for these classes of people in Government or public sector jobs and yet they are rubbing shoulders with the majority</b>.
The Prime Minister lost an opportunity to urge the Muslim leadership for introspection and find out what the reasons were that made the community backward. <b>Even within Muslims, there are a few communities (like the Boras) that are quite affluent and are active in many businesses and professions. This should come as an eye-opener</b>. The fact is that the Muslim leadership, both religious and secular, is the enemy of the community they claim to represent because it is they who brainwash their followers to reject modern education. <b>But the Prime Minister and other 'secularists' cannot afford to be so politically incorrect by saying so.</b>
Why is the political class shy of asking the Muslim leadership to focus on their own weaknesses? In many middle class households, both man and wife work. If Muslim wives are not allowed by their men to be employed, their families will obviously have lower income, lower standard of living and less financial capability to put their children in good schools.
This reality will not change by mouthing slogans and blaming others for Muslim underdevelopment. It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister chose to confine himself to mouthing slogans. When self-denial of jobs because of religious taboos takes place on a national scale, the average income gap between non-Muslim and Muslim families goes on widening year after year and its impact runs through the entire community.
<b>Why is it that a substantial chunk of Muslims prefer to send their children to madarsas and feel contended that they learn Islam only, that too, in Arabic - not Indian languages, English and other subjects relevant in today's competitive world? Muslim child marriage is rampant and though law forbids it, the right to child marriage is claimed on the basis of their religious texts. It is as plain as a pikestaff that if any community limits itself to religious education, it will not be eligible for jobs in the modern global economy.</b>
Since the UPA Government came to power, there has been this cry of Muslims being neglected, thus requiring the state's assistance to the community, in other words, reservation. There is a deliberate attempt to play the constraints within the community down, its refusal to modern education and insistence on keeping children out of non-religious schools. All these factors have contributed to keeping the Muslim community backward forever.<b> The community is ever ripe for exploitation by clerics on the one hand and 'secular' politicians on the other</b>.
How come so many Muslim actors of the Mumbai film industry have been able to conquer the Indian audience if there is discrimination against them? Why is it that music maestros like Ustad Bismillah Khan and Ustad Allauddin Khan are venerated by the Indian public? Why is it that Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and a host of others are the toast of the country? Many such instances may be given in every field of endeavour - sports, cinema, music, fine arts, science, business, etc.
Instead of hollow gestures addressed to Muslims, Mr Manmohan Singh should have questioned the failure of the Muslim leadership to use the huge funds it receives from abroad to build schools and colleges for Muslims? For instance, the Christian community is only less than three per cent of the Indian population. But look at the number of educational institutions of high repute it has created. Then, the DAV schools, for instance, have been built on internal resources. The Prime Minister should have plainly asked the Muslim leadership whether Hindus could expect Government jobs by sending their children to Vedic pathashalas and Christians to Sunday schools? Muslims have to evolve with the changing times before it is too late.
In the refusal to ask these basic questions and the ad nauseam repetition of the same litany of Muslim backwardness, Mr Manmohan Singh has a design: To create the right climate to reserve jobs for Muslims on the ground of 'discrimination'. The move is as divisive as the British ploy of reserved constituencies for Muslims in the 1930s, a move that sowed the seeds of Partition in 1947.
The political ploy is evident. But the greater regret is that the prop in this game, the Muslim community, is content to live with miasma. It refuses to realise that the politicians are pushing the Muslim community to eternal backwardness.
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Pioneer.com
Balbir K Punj
<b>Every Indian has a right to education. Therefore, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed that Muslims needed to have wider access to education - he recently said so at the conference of the state commissions for minorities - there was an element of hypocrisy in it. Do they need access as Muslims, or as Indian citizens?</b>
The term "minorities" in India includes, besides Muslims, other groups like Parsis, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. <b>Even Hindus are a "minority' in Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Nagaland and some other States. </b>Significantly, the purported political definition is confined only to Muslims and does not apply to other minorities like Christians, Parsis and Sikhs. If this country were to practice any kind of organised discrimination against minorities, the other minority communities too would feel the pinch. The fact is they don't.
Among Army officials, for instance, there are a large number of Sikhs and Christians. The present Chief of Staff is a Sikh; there was a Christian General and Chief of Staff in the Army and several Lt Generals and Major Generals representing that religious group. Christian girls are seen all over India contributing to society as nurses and stenographers. They are also employed in a large number of private sector institutions, employed at many levels from receptionists to executives. The only reason they get these jobs is because they are educationally forward; they work as hard as anybody else to acquire the necessary qualifications and skills. And the community of Parsis, which counts less than a lakh, is on top in all walks of life, be it law, business or fashion.
The Prime Minister should have honestly questioned his audience on this difference between Muslims and other minorities.<b> Why is it that other minorities do not find any problem in getting access to education and jobs either in public or in private sector? There is no reservation for these classes of people in Government or public sector jobs and yet they are rubbing shoulders with the majority</b>.
The Prime Minister lost an opportunity to urge the Muslim leadership for introspection and find out what the reasons were that made the community backward. <b>Even within Muslims, there are a few communities (like the Boras) that are quite affluent and are active in many businesses and professions. This should come as an eye-opener</b>. The fact is that the Muslim leadership, both religious and secular, is the enemy of the community they claim to represent because it is they who brainwash their followers to reject modern education. <b>But the Prime Minister and other 'secularists' cannot afford to be so politically incorrect by saying so.</b>
Why is the political class shy of asking the Muslim leadership to focus on their own weaknesses? In many middle class households, both man and wife work. If Muslim wives are not allowed by their men to be employed, their families will obviously have lower income, lower standard of living and less financial capability to put their children in good schools.
This reality will not change by mouthing slogans and blaming others for Muslim underdevelopment. It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister chose to confine himself to mouthing slogans. When self-denial of jobs because of religious taboos takes place on a national scale, the average income gap between non-Muslim and Muslim families goes on widening year after year and its impact runs through the entire community.
<b>Why is it that a substantial chunk of Muslims prefer to send their children to madarsas and feel contended that they learn Islam only, that too, in Arabic - not Indian languages, English and other subjects relevant in today's competitive world? Muslim child marriage is rampant and though law forbids it, the right to child marriage is claimed on the basis of their religious texts. It is as plain as a pikestaff that if any community limits itself to religious education, it will not be eligible for jobs in the modern global economy.</b>
Since the UPA Government came to power, there has been this cry of Muslims being neglected, thus requiring the state's assistance to the community, in other words, reservation. There is a deliberate attempt to play the constraints within the community down, its refusal to modern education and insistence on keeping children out of non-religious schools. All these factors have contributed to keeping the Muslim community backward forever.<b> The community is ever ripe for exploitation by clerics on the one hand and 'secular' politicians on the other</b>.
How come so many Muslim actors of the Mumbai film industry have been able to conquer the Indian audience if there is discrimination against them? Why is it that music maestros like Ustad Bismillah Khan and Ustad Allauddin Khan are venerated by the Indian public? Why is it that Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and a host of others are the toast of the country? Many such instances may be given in every field of endeavour - sports, cinema, music, fine arts, science, business, etc.
Instead of hollow gestures addressed to Muslims, Mr Manmohan Singh should have questioned the failure of the Muslim leadership to use the huge funds it receives from abroad to build schools and colleges for Muslims? For instance, the Christian community is only less than three per cent of the Indian population. But look at the number of educational institutions of high repute it has created. Then, the DAV schools, for instance, have been built on internal resources. The Prime Minister should have plainly asked the Muslim leadership whether Hindus could expect Government jobs by sending their children to Vedic pathashalas and Christians to Sunday schools? Muslims have to evolve with the changing times before it is too late.
In the refusal to ask these basic questions and the ad nauseam repetition of the same litany of Muslim backwardness, Mr Manmohan Singh has a design: To create the right climate to reserve jobs for Muslims on the ground of 'discrimination'. The move is as divisive as the British ploy of reserved constituencies for Muslims in the 1930s, a move that sowed the seeds of Partition in 1947.
The political ploy is evident. But the greater regret is that the prop in this game, the Muslim community, is content to live with miasma. It refuses to realise that the politicians are pushing the Muslim community to eternal backwardness.
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