الهند: حزب المؤتمر يستغل الأقلية المسلمة لمكاسب انتخابية

- خبر من مصادر إنجليزية.

لقيت التصريحات التي أطلقها سكرتير عام حزب المؤتمر الوطني الهندوسي بشأن تخصيص ما بين 6 و 8 بالمائة من الانتفاع بالخدمات والوظائف والامتيازات الحكومية لصالح الأقلية المسلمة إذا فاز الحزب في الانتخابات ب"الهند" - استنكارًا واسعًا؛ حيث طالب عدد من الأوساط السياسية والمدنية الأحزاب السياسية بالتوقف عن استغلال سوء الأوضاع الاجتماعية والاقتصادية للأقلية المسلمة لتحقيق مكاسب انتخابية.

فقد وصف مكتب شبكة "إنديا توداي" الإعلامية تصريحات حزب المؤتمر الوطني بأنها "سخيفة"، مؤكدًا أن الحزب كان يمكن أن يتجاوب مع مطالب الأقلية المسلمة من خلال تحقيق التوصيات التي أصدرتها "لجنة ساشر"، وأن الهدف الحقيقي استغلال الأقلية المسلمة للنيل من الحزب الاشتراكي المعارض. المصدر: شبكة الألوكة.

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الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

Parties must stop playing politics over Muslim quota

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh's promise that his party will provide the Muslim community six to eight per cent reservation in government jobs if it comes to power in Uttar Pradesh is undoubtedly a political sop. But a justifiable one if you keep in mind the dismal social and economic condition of the community.

There is a historical context to the backwardness of the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh. In the pre-independence period, the primary base of the Muslim League lay in the Muslim elite of the erstwhile United Provinces (which corresponds to present day Uttar Pradesh). As a result the bulk of the province's elite and middle class Muslims migrated to Pakistan during Partition. A large proportion of those left behind comprised descendants of lower caste converts to Islam, whose backwardness was identical to their low caste Hindu counterparts. It is, therefore, reasonable to offer backward Muslims the same benefits of reservation as backward caste Hindus.

The BJP is pursuing a fallacious and highly divisive argument by comparing the backward Muslim quota to the separate electorates that the British had introduced. Reservation has been the primary means of addressing social and economic inequality since independence and the government is well within its right to include any community in the OBC quota - which for the uninformed, is based on 'class' and not 'caste' according to our constitution.

However, there is no denying the fact that the Congress's motives are cynical. The party could have addressed the Muslim community's needs through an equal opportunities commission that the Sachar committee report had proposed. Clearly, the quota is aimed primarily at splitting the Samajwadi Party's OBC- Muslim base. It is unfortunate that when it comes to Muslims, politics always takes precedence over welfare.