Maulana Azad's Grandniece Says Muslims Not Minorities in India !
By Riaz Haq
CA
"Muslims are not minorities. Parsis are. We have to see how we can help them so that their numbers don't diminish...This is not the ministry for Muslim Affairs. It's the ministry for Minorities Affairs." So says Indian Minorities Minister Najma Heptullah, Grandniece of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
It appears that Najma Heptullah, Narendra Modi 's minister for minorities affairs, thinks the main focus of her job is to look after the welfare of India's 60,000 Parsis, three-fourths of them living in Mumbai's exclusive neighborhoods. Her statement implies that she does not consider her fellow Muslims as a minority that needs any of her attention.
Her statement raises the following questions:
1. Is she merely expressing her own personal opinion or articulating Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's well-thought-out view of her job?
2. Is there a real need for a federal ministry for a mere 60,000 Parsis most of whom are concentrated in just one Indian city?
3. Is she aware of the widespread discrimination against Muslims in education, employment and housing ?
4. Is India's criminal justice system fair to Muslims and other minorities?
5. Does she know that Muslims make up 13% of India's population but 28% of Indian prisoners ? Similarly, Christians make up 2.8% of India's population but 6% of India's prison population? The newly elected parliament has just 4% Muslim representation?
6. Has she seen the ghettoization of Muslims in Indian cities? Have any of her fellow Muslims told her that they are excluded from living in nice urban neighborhoods ?
7. Does she know that her fellow Indian Muslims are now worse off than the lowest-caste Hindus , or Dalits, in terms of education and employment? Has she seen the 2013 update of the Sachar Commission report which shows little improvement for Muslims since the original report was published in 2006?
And the final question is: Is she willing to be just another Muslim token in Prime Minister Modi's cabinet? Or does she plan to set the agenda to shape Mr Modi's policies to help all of India's minorities, including the Indian Muslims?
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