Recently
newspapers started a debate that no big communal riot occurred in any part of
the country after 2002, and this shows that communal amity has been established
in the country. This debate was initiated at the completion of ten years of
anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, and certain commentators advised that the
Muslims, having forgotten whatever had happened in Gujarat, should concentrate
themselves on their socio-economic development. In this context the issue of
reservation also came under discussion, and column-writers of a particular
mentality expressed their view that as the socio-economic condition of Muslims
is improving, the Muslim community should give up its claim to reservation.
An article on this subject was published in The Hindustan Times of
16th March. The writer Ram Chandra Guha has emphasized that since
the condition of Muslims has turned for the better, they should not stake any
claim which might provide an opportunity for communalism to raise its head in
the country once again. Some commentators and letter-writers rejected this
deceitful view with strong arguments.
The
candidness of a writer
Now
Ram Puniyani, in his fresh article, has strongly rejected both these
assumptions. He has written that neither communal amity has been established in
the country nor the socio-economic condition of Muslims has changed for the
better. Non-occurrence of any major communal riot within a period of ten years
does not mean that prejudice and discrimination against Muslims has come to an
end. The fact remains that even today this discrimination continues more or
less in every branch of life in the country. The police are biased during riots
even today as it was seen in Rajasthan recently. The government has adopted a
policy all over the country that after every incident of violence the case is
“solved” by detaining some Muslims. There is talk of forgetting the incidents
that shook Gujarat in 2002 but Muslims are in a worse condition there even
today. The victims were not delivered justice nor were they rehabilitated –
those who want to keep Muslims deprived of reservation on the ground of
non-occurrence of riots are in the wrong. Ram Puniyani is a straightforward and
realistic writer of English. This article of his was published in the March 21
issue of The Hindustan Times.
Analyze
it more deeply
The
realities pointed out by Ram Puniyani are undoubtedly real. There is also no
doubt in the fact that he has displayed much courage. However if he gives a
further fillip to his courage and analyze the causes of the prevailing
situation more deeply, he would definitely reach the conclusion that this is
the result of the same planned conspiracy which was hatched during the last few
years of the British Raj and a few years before the independence of the
country. In the beginning such a situation was created in which a large chunk
of Muslims of the subcontinent started seeing solution to their problems in
their having a separate State, and then with much deceit a small piece of land
in the name of Pakistan was dished out to them and thus the united strength of
Muslims was broken, and having taken them permanent hostage they were
practically treated as second class citizens. Then putting total responsibility
of Partition on their shoulders, continuous propaganda was unleashed against
them through syllabi, history books and media. This deep and far-reaching
Machiavellian conspiracy was bound to result in the situation which Ram
Puniyani is lamenting today. The most colossal loss the Muslim community had to
bear is that having been in this situation it forgot its status of Daie (caller
to the truth) and Ummat-e-Wast (the median community).
28/03/12 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Abu Yusuf
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