Reservation is of no consequence to Minorities, it would do them positive disservice. Minorities should forego reservations, as this would create permanent statutory minorities in the country. It would be to the great disadvantage and detriment of the Muslim community or any other minority community that claims reservations. Reservation will create more bitterness, more jealousies more communal hatred and more Muslim disintegration. We must be left to our own fate and we are quite prepared to face the future.”
Those were the words of Kazi Syed Karimuddin speaking in the Constituent Assembly as the nation debated the reservation of constituencies based on religion. His arguments on religion-based quotas are as applicable today as they were more than 60 years back.
As the nation once again faces the spectre of a divisive debate over a communal fault-line, the words of wisdom spoken by Muslim leaders in the Constituent Assembly must be tossed in the face of the Congress and its leaders to remind them of the disservice they are doing to the Muslim community.
A sub-quota for minorities within the Other Backward Classes reservation is a non-issue given the large number of Muslim communities that already enjoy the benefits of OBC quota in most States and in Central jobs and Centrally-funded educational institutions. The real issue here is the Congress’s desperation, and more specifically Mr Rahul Gandhi’s desperation, in seeking to consolidate the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh in favour of the Congress.
The battle for Uttar Pradesh has become a high stakes game for Mr Rahul Gandhi given his lack-lustre track record in influencing electoral outcomes and the significance Uttar Pradesh holds in the path to a simple majority in Parliament for the Congress. Little wonder then that there has been a concerted attempt over the past few weeks to tamp down expectations with talk of the Congress playing the role of a king-maker in Uttar Pradesh no matter who comes on top.
The desperation over Uttar Pradesh is evident from the manner in which the UPA Government in Delhi has bent over backwards to accommodate every one of Mr Rahul Gandhi’s whims from special packages to target voter segments in Uttar Pradesh to Ministerial interference over spending in welfare programs.
The desperation is also evident from the manner in which the focus of Mr Rahul Gandhi’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh has shifted over the months. One rarely hears Mr Rahul Gandhi speak of land acquisition or Bhatta Parsaul anymore as the farmers of Noida and Greater Noida negotiate plum settlements with the local Government. Also gone is the rhetoric of two Indias, now that Mr Gandhi is trying to have it both ways with support for FDI in multi-brand retail. It is odd, though, that the desperation in Uttar Pradesh still has him speak of ‘India Shining’ — a catch-phrase that has long lost its electoral relevance.
Nothing describes the desperation in Uttar Pradesh better than the shameful manner in which Mr Rahul Gandhi indulged the Muslim clergy in Uttar Pradesh over exempting madarsas from the provisions of the Right to Education Act. The irony of touting the RTE as a flagship achievement of the UPA and at the same time kowtowing to Muslim fundamentalists says a lot on how shallow the Congress’s politics in Uttar Pradesh has become. The same shallowness was on display when Mr Rahul Gandhi went on to describe migrants from Uttar Pradesh as beggars. The spin around the beggar remark notwithstanding, it is clear that his campaign in Uttar Pradesh has allowed desperation to get the better of it, and understandably so.
The sum total of all the opinion polls published so far clearly suggest the Congress is far from making a comeback in Uttar Pradesh. The battle for Uttar Pradesh remains as fragmented as it always was. If there is a pan-Uttar Pradesh political phenomenon developing below the surface, there is no evidence of it yet. Astute political observers see a revival of sorts for the Samajwadi Party, with its scion Akhilesh Yadav’s under-reported yatra having an impact. The proposed division of Uttar Pradesh by Chief Minister Mayawati hasn’t exactly caught political fire, with barely any passion developing either for the division or against it.
An oft-heard refrain is that the Uttar Pradesh election will end up being the sum total of every seat in the absence of a State-wide political phenomenon. The comparison with Bihar is inevitable given how Mr Nitish Kumar with the BJP’s support has been able to break through a fragmented polity divided by the calculus of caste. There is no Nitish Kumar in Uttar Pradesh visible yet, nor is there a Narendra Modi on the horizon.
It will take creative leadership to break through this impasse; leadership that is both rooted in the political realities yet at the same time is able to rise above it with a unifying message of change.
It is unlikely that such a leadership will emerge in Uttar Pradesh with the current status quoist mindset within the political parties including the BJP. Status quo needs to be challenged with both passion and conviction. The UPA Government’s decision on Food Security Bil compelled by Mr Rahul Gandhi’s desperation in Uttar Pradesh offers a great opportunity for such a challenge to be mounted.
“I refuse to weep at the poverty in this country” were the words of a brave civil servant from Madhya Pradesh who stood up to speak out against the politics of poverty being peddled by the Ms Sonia Gandhi lead National Advisory Council. In response to the UPA’s Food Security Bill, Dipali Rastogi, a Commissioner for Food and Civil Supplies with the Madhya Pradesh Government wrote a passionate column recently in an English newspaper to criticise the Congress for its perpetual patronage of the poor with a mindset of dependency of the Government.
What would it take for the BJP to produce a leader in Uttar Pradesh who can say the words, “I refuse to weep at the poverty in this country”, to take the battle to the Congress, the BSP and the SP. What would it take for the BJP to advance an agenda of poverty elimination in Uttar Pradesh that speaks of creating opportunities for each individual to realise their potential and work themselves out of poverty?
