Telangana is witnessing different perspectives on the Muslim reservations bill. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination hosted by the United nations postulated (in Article 2.2) that affirmative action or reservations programs may be required of countries that ratified the convention, in order to rectify systematic discrimination.
Seven decades into independence instead of realizing Minorities as an integral part of the country they are still being considered as vote-bank. Congress and Communist parties managed to ensure to uplift minorities to a certain extent. BJP’s behavior in TS assembly during the passage of the Muslim reservation bill clearly displays the party’s future perspective. It is paving way for partisan politics. The saffron party called the move an attempt to pander to minorities. Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said it would be akin to creating “another Pakistan”.
The general Muslim aversion to the BJP still runs deep, evident from the voting pattern. Muslim vote-bank across the country did not vote in favor of BJP in the 2014 elections. Likewise, TRS did not have any alliance with Muslim parties and it lost in the places where Muslim voters are in majority. In the GHMC elections, TRS swam alone and could make their candidate as mayor. Neither in GHMC elections nor in Assembly elections did the Muslim vote bank support TRS. Despite the aversion, KCR went ahead in implementing the promises made in his election manifesto. In all his 179 speeches during elections, KCR mentioned about the Muslim reservation and subsequently is implementing everything as promised. But BJP is tagging it with religion.
The beauty of democracy is that all the people need to be treated equally by the party that comes to power. The government is responsible for the welfare of all the communities. From the very first elections not even one party received 40 percent voters support except for once. Leaders are forming government with votes polled by merely one third of the voters. However, all the leaders have been delivering their responsibility to all voters including the two fractions which did not vote. India has never witnessed a party favoring only a segment of its voters. But now the saffron party paved way to work only for the people who voted for them. It would be mockery of democracy if only those who voted will be given preferential treatment.
Muslim progress is not considered by the ruling BJP, all they speak is about protecting them. Even the leaders of their party in respective states are displaying the same attitude. BJP could get seats without alliance at the center and recently in UP. But it is known for its Hindutva affiliations. From past three years, instead of trying to shed the image, it has taken the route of constantly propagating that the minorities are trusting them. It is now cleverly trying to make inroads into the Muslim community by virtually dividing it on the basis of gender. Injustice will stop only when they are allowed to progress by creating equal opportunities. The women whom Modi targeted need to be educated and this will come when they have reservations to grow with more opportunities and become self-reliant. Their representation in educational institutions and employment should be on par with their share in Indian population.
