Crass minorityism
Editorial, The Pioneer
December 21, 2007

That's what the UPA is up toThe Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States have done well to oppose the sinister proposal of allocating 15 per cent of funds during the 11th Plan period for 'minority welfare'. Decoded into politically incorrect parlance, this means squandering public funds on crass minorityism and facilitating the Congress's obnoxious vote-bank politics at the expense of tax-payers. The draft 11th Plan has ostensibly proposed this 'communal budgeting' to help implement the Prime Minister's 15-point minority welfare programme that is based on Mr Manmohan Singh's "Muslims first" policy. What is being sought is money to promote Urdu, fund madarsas and prevent communal riots, among other such equally inane things. It would be asinine to suggest that India's Muslims can be empowered by promoting Urdu or funding madarsas. They need modern education and skills that will qualify them for jobs; neither Urdu nor madarsa curriculum will provide them with either. As for preventing communal riots, this is a law and order issue which is best left to the State Governments. Any attempt by the Centre, more so a Government headed by the Congress, to intrude into the State's domain under the guise of 'preventing communal riots' can only be guided by partisan political motives. That the UPA Government should come up with such outrageous proposals is by itself indicative of its mindset and exposes the real face of its politics of appeasement to the nation's detriment.

This is not to suggest that the underclass of India's Muslims should be ignored, but to insist that poor Muslims are no different from poor Hindus and both should be treated at par while earmarking development funds. To segregate some of the have-nots from the bulk of those who need the state's helping hand is tantamount to communalising development programmes. Its implications are dangerous and the consequences of allowing the Prime Minister to have his way with his divide-and-rule policy will be disastrous for every Indian. Our future generations will pay for this folly much after our accidental -- as also incidental -- Prime Minister is reduced to no more, if at all, than a footnote of contemporary political history. Neither he nor the regime he heads has the mandate to bring about such tectonic shift in secular India's policies and programmes. He must be deterred from forcing India on this ruinous path. As it is, by setting up a separate Ministry of Minority Welfare, which is headed by a practitioner of crude Muslim politics, this Government has formalised its politics of pandering to communal separatism. To allow the 11th Plan to be shaped by such abhorrent politics would be unacceptable to India's vast majority, including most Muslims who loathe the idea of being recipients of political charity in exchange of their votes. If criteria are at all to be set for special allocation of development funds, these should be guided by the economic status of individuals, irrespective of their religious identity. In any event, it is the job of the State Governments to devise their own strategy on how best to ensure inclusive growth and development. Let them get on with their job without the Centre telling them how to do it.