(IFER)
BY Mr FARIDUDDIN CHAUDHARI
THE BACKGROUND
It is well known that the condition of the Indian Muslim Community (IMC) had been particularly bad since their lead participation and defeat in the First struggle for Independence in 1857; though it cannot be denied that the IMC and its Leadership( L ) were responsible for bringing themselves to the said condition due to the various reasons which are well known and need not be repeated here. . The herculean efforts of Sir Syed to ameliorate the situation through his Aligarh Movement admittedly did make some difference and the IMC was heaving a sigh of relief just when independence coupled with the partition of the country resulted in a repeat of the catastrophe ….so much so that the most detailed and authentic study of the condition of the IMC viz. the Sachchar Committee Report has conclusively shown that today, in 2010 let us say, the IMC is the very last in all the important parameters (like health, education, employment, economic condition etc. etc.) that can be employed to gauge the condition of a community.
There is no doubt that the IMC Leadership (IMCL) has been trying hard to convince the powers that be ( read the Government of India or the GOI ) that they must provide safety and security to IMC. It has also been trying hard to convince the GOI that they should be just and fair in their dealings with the IMC. In response the GOI has made promises but has hardly ever kept them….so much so that it seems that the GOI has some unknown but important policy compulsions which do not allow it to do what the Constitution and the Law of the country provide for and what the IMCL has been asking for. One sometimes wonders if the Social Contract between the GOI and IMC stands vitiated. However, the IMC and the IMCL must recognise that IMC is not alone ….it is not the only group that has been left high and dry .
The poor and the wretched of India are another and by far, the largest group whom the GOI has left to fend for itself after such delayed and insufficient support as provided by NREGS etc. The Kashmiris, the Tribals and the North-Easterners are the other groups which are living in a kind of limbo. And about the two hundred odd districts of the country where the people seem to have willingly said “YES” to the Naxals, the less said the better.
There are no communal riots killing the poor and the wretched of India but many of them are being driven to suicide for various reasons….the latest being the high interest rates and the loan recovery methods of the Microfinance “Industry”( a strange categorisation of an activity which should actually be, and be called as, “benevolent loans to alleviate extreme poverty” ) in Andhra Pradesh ! The Kashmiris too are safe from communal riots but they and their children are fired at and are even killed for such offences as throwing of stones , from an unreachable distance as seen from the photographs, at clusters of armed men. In comparison, it may be recalled , the Israelis handle Palestinian children armed with slingshots, much more benevolently! The government of Kashmir does not prefer the use of water cannons as a protestor control measure. Not much is reported about the NEast but the people there do appear very unhappy . About the “Naxalised” districts, this scribe does not have sufficient knowledge to comment except to say that those areas are inhabited by very poor tribals and villagers.
THE NEED
Till date, the IMCL has been coming together to ponder
over important, mostly catastrophic, events relating to the IMC as and
when these occurred. Some of these men belong to non political formations
such as the Jamat e Islami Hind ( JIH ) and Jamiatul-Ulema( JU ) while
some, such as Sayyid Hamid and Syed Shahabuddin command in the IMC a status
all their own and attend in their own capacities. It cannot be gainsaid,
however, that this method has had its limitations. Consider the case of
a large scale riot and we see that:
• Such a meeting occurs after the event and after severe damage
has already been done.
• The remedy generally consists of meeting with the high officials
of the same administration whose failure to do their duty was the cause
of the riot to begin with! And is hence an exercise in near futility.
• And yes, the remedy also consists in the relief workers of the
IMC rebuilding the destroyed lives of the victims, mostly muslims, taking
a heavy toll of IMC’s time, effort , money and tears!!
A strategy should have been chalked out after the first or second such riot as to how to avoid the recurrence of such a catastrophe; but no such strategy has been spelt out in these sixty three years except perhaps an advisory that muslims must take out insurances for their properties and goods in the hope that this strategy would make the insurers as stakeholders in the safety and security of the insured assets.
This scribe has studied the history of major riots and
has seen that a MAJOR RIOT OCCURS EVERY TEN YEARS. For example, the post
– Babri riots took place in 1992-3, the post - Godhra riots occurred
in 2002 . This scribe is apprehensive that a major riot may occur in 2012
and the IMCL would do well to try its best to forestall it.
On the other hand, not events but ‘phenomena’ are existing
or are taking place within the IMC which need to be noticed and tackled
.For example, extrapolating the data reported by the Faiz e Aam Muslim
Educationl Society; to UP and Bihar, around 90% students DROP OUT between
Stds. 5 through 9 from muslim schools - the same is reportedly true of
Andhra as well . The important reasons for this are:
*Ignorance of religion and more particularly, of the relevant teachings
of the Prophet, peace be upon him
* Extreme poverty
*Several siblings simultaneously going to school
*Complete lack of recognition of importance of secular education by the
parents even if offered along with religious education and even if the
fee charged is very small.
*Little hope in the future of the children due to scarce employment opportunities.
Except those who are accomplished in one way or the other, these children become house boys, low skill factory workers, rickshaw pullers, dishwashing and table attending boys in ‘dhabas’, or garage assistants, according to their age and bodily strength. After ten years or so, they grow into the next generation of poverty stricken parents and after about twenty years, their children grow into the next generation of school drop outs, completing one vicious circle ,and perpetuating poverty , near total ignorance, ill health, unclean and uncouth lifestyle and all else that is too well known to need pointing out.
On the other hand, the IMCL (and the educated among the IMC ) claim fom every platform that education is the best antidote to all the ills that beset the IMC without noting the 90 % drop – out rate and that no more than 10 % of our young boys and girls can even ‘aspire’ to enter college / university; and that no more than 5 % can actually succeed in actually entering them!
Another example is of rickshaw pullers of whom, as per this scribe’s observation in Aligarh, more than 90% must be muslims. Condemned to a life of penury, they die early due to tuberculosis, leaving their families literally on the roads! but the IMC and the IMCL are disdainfully unconcerned!
Yet another example is of the widespread lack of manners and honesty of the muslim shopkeepers and skilled professional workers exacerbated by unclean appearances and such other habits which , taken together, ensure that there will be no progress in their businesses as a result of their customers feeling ill served and short changed.
A whole secretariat is needed to study these and other problems that beset the IMC. All relevant disciplines such as the faculties that are normally found in a dynamic and forward looking university need to be represented in it. A whole library of historical data and reference material needs to be built up. Men -- and women to study problems peculiar to ladies -- need to pore over problems and solutions, strategies and action plans, choices available and choices best suited to the situation under study, possibilities to convert challenges into opportunities, enemies into friends and opportunities into well studied plans for the future …etc. etc.
Needless to say, references need to be made to the Qur’an and Sunnah and to such events in history which do us and the general humanity proud ; and apply these to the tasks at hand; along with perseverance, peace and friendliness and cooperation all around as the overriding components of every strategy and solution that we adopt.
Having laid all this out for the IMC and the IMCL, this
scribe feels that he has pointed at enough reasons which are all crying
out for attention and redressal. There are a number of political as well
as religious formations available to the IMC to identify with and the
role that these have been playing is there for all to see. However, there
is no unified leadership and working roups to attend to the secular issues
of the IMC, such as :
1.Safety and security,
2. Education with employability of poor children of average intelligence
who cannot go beyond even std. 8 ,
3. Education of the poor but intelligent children who cannot go for higher
education without support,
4. Health
5. Alleviation of poverty
6.Etc. Etc.
Hence this plea for an All India Leader for Muslims to attend to their
secular issues, each of which may well be handled by an All India NGO
working under this Leader.
REFERENDUM , VOTER QUALIFICATION AND ELECTORAL COLLEGE
This scribe proposes that the IMC constitute an electoral
college , consisting of men and women who:
1. Are of impeccable character and possess the minimum acceptable level
of God fearfulness ( TAQWA ) as well as are absolutely secular when dealing
with non – muslims.
2. Are “Graduate and above” “from the secular stream
or “Fazil and above” from the religious stream
3. Are a minimum of 45 years of age on the date on which the referendum
is formally announced; and
4. Who have a minimum of 15 years of well known and well respected record
of public service to the IMC in relevant fields
Assuming that the IMC is 15 crore in number and that every family has an average of 5 members, this gives us 3 crore families in the IMC. Assuming again that no more than 1 person per 100 families is likely to be eligible to vote in this referendum, the Electoral College ( EC ) will have 3 lakh members. We will assume yet again that no more than 50 % will actually vote which will reduce the number of voters to 1.5 lakhs.
This scribe also proposes that aspirants for the post of All India Leader do not put forward their names but each member of the EC name his/her choice of the All India Leader and send it to the Referendum Committee whose membership is discussed below.
QUALIFICATION OF THE CANDIDATES FOR LEADERSHIP
The candidates for Leadership must have the same qualifications
as the voters ; but
* Their record of public service should be more viz. at least 20 years
and
* They must be men who possess such qualities of head and heart ( honesty,leadership,
wisdom, patience, perseverance, courage, ability to take decisions, ability
to put decisions into actions, ability to present and negotiate and who
should be pleasant, humble, knowledgeable etc. etc. ) which will make
the candidates suitable for the duties expected of an All India Level
Leader for Secular Matters of the IMC.
ROUGH COST OF REFERENDUM
Assuming that it will cost Rs. 2 000 per voter to hold this referendum,
the total cost to the IMC for conducting this referendum will be Rs. 30
CRORE ; thus:
Rs. 2 000 per voter x 1.5 lakh voters = Rs. 30 CRORE.
This money will have to be contributed by each voter himself by sending it to the Referendum Committee along with his application form for Registering himself as a voter.
However there will be a minimum cost even if the number of voters be unexpectedly low and that cost may be about Rs. 5 crore and the difference between this amount and the actual fee collected from the voters will have to come from the IMC.
THE REFERENDUM COMMITTEE
It is proposed that this referendum be handled by a REFERENDUM COMMITTEE( RC ) which may consist of ELEVEN OR NINE OR SEVEN such leaders of the various well respected existing organisations and parties who all have the same qualifications as those specified for the voter and who have themselves been serving the IMC since the last 10 years but not more lest they be eligible to become voter or an aspirant for leadership themselves, thus vitiating their neutrality!
This scribe suggests that the RC be appointed by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and that it be disbanded as soon as the Leader is installed.
COST OF ESTABLISHING THE LEADER’S OFFICE AND SECRETARIAT
It will take some time to estimate these costs but it is reasonable to assume that the various active organisations of the IMCL and the IMC will volunteer to allow the use of their facilities to the elected LEADER and his Secretariat , to begin with, till this need is obviated.
FUTURE FUNDING
It is proposed that the activities of the Leader and his staff be funded from fees collected from such members of the IMC who are willing to contribute .Fees can also be collected for services rendered by the Leader’s Secretariat, to the IMC .
A VERY IMPORTANT POINT: ASSISTANCE TO/FOR NON –MUSLIMS
This scribe has suggested before in 1997 a similar step
in another context and suggests again that about 14 % of the future funds
collected be handed over to organisations working for poor non –
muslims, mainly Hindus….in order to create an atmosphere of good
relations between the two
communities and for making the hate mongers that live and work in our
society, initially less relevant and eventually irrelevant!
14 % is suggested because Muslims form roughly the same %age of the total
Indian population.
AD HOC APPOINTMENT BY NOMINATION
This scribe feels that it is so important for the IMC to have this Leader that it will be reasonable to request a suitable person to take on this onerous task on an ad-hoc basis till this referendum is held , its result announced and an elected leader installed….an exercise that is likely to take no less than 24 months.
This scribe proposes that the AD HOC LEADER be nominated by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board . The AD HOC LEADER should be a person possessing all the qualifications that are outlined above for the Candidates for Leadership and be appointed for an initial period of 24 months, extendable to meet the point of time when the Leader is elected and takes charge of his post.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has been suggested as being the nominator for the Ad-hoc Leader as well as for the Referendum Committee: the reason for this is that AIMPLB has been a long standing institution of the IMC and it has well withstood the various tests that it has been subjected to, during these many years.
PRAYER
This scribe prays that this suggestion to appoint one Leader of the IMC
for its secular issues will be well received and well implemented to the
IMC’s satisfaction and will receive the good wished of all non –
muslim brothers ,particularly our Hindu brothers.
END.
The author requests the readers to write their opinions
and suggestions on how to proceed further to achieve the aim of the article.
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