Mangalore: Minorities still deprived of social justice: Prakash Karat at Muslim convention

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SS)

Mangalore, Oct 27: “India is a country where unity exists along with diversity, where people of different religions, cultures and communities co-exist. Citizens feel they belong to one country, however, despite the fact that we have a political democracy since 1950, minorities in the country have a long way to go before they can achieve social justice,” said CPI (M) general secretary and member of parliament Prakash Karat.

He was addressing a convention on Muslim rights organized by Communist Party of India (Marxist) in association with CPI, DFYI and CITU Dakshina Kannada zone at Shanti Nilaya here on Sunday October 27. Various issues faced by Muslim minorities were discussed during the convention, in the presence of a host of CPI (M), CPI and CITU members and volunteers including party general secretary Prakash Karat and other prominent leaders.

Karat further said, “For a vibrant democracy, it is essential that minorities are given equal status socially, economically and politically, but even after 66 years of Independence we are still striving to accomplish it. The Constitution was adopted and framed in 1950, the basic principle stated that all citizens are to be treated alike without any discrimination, but in practice due to class system in the country we have had more than six decades of capitalist development, thus oppression of caste and discrimination still exist.

“The history of communalism is full of instances where political mobilization has taken place on the basis of religious ideas, political ideologies and forces that try to keep the people divided on the basis of religion. We have to still struggle to achieve that constitutional goal where all citizens are treated equally and the state is truly secular. The nature of socio – economic development in our country has led to a situation where the Muslim minority constitutes 14 % of Indian population; still they have been facing discrimination socially, politically and economically, as per the Rajindar Sachar committee report,” he said.

“The report also describes the plight of Muslim women and men, and their backwardness in areas such as education, employment and health facilities; whereas the general Indian idea for the backwardness in the community is due to socio-religious reason, which is not true. It is the responsibility of the government to trace and rectify these issues”, he added.

Prakash Karat also said, “The Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission report acted as a social indicator, suggesting the government to give 10% reservation in jobs and education to the Muslim community, but it has not been implemented yet. There is a need for Constitutional amendment and it is the responsibility of the central government. The Congress government has been resistant towards the Muslim minorities, because of allegations made by BJP and the other communal forces that the government is trying to play vote bank politics.

“When it comes to Karnataka, the Hindutva parties have been creating communal tension on issues such as cow slaughtering, girls and boys fraternizing and so on. Harassment of women and girls in Muslim community has been potrayed as a patriarchal trait in the Muslim society,” he added.

Prakash Karat concluding his speech noted three important points that need to be imparted - social justice for minorities, equal rights to every Muslim as per the Constitution, and eradication of communal politics.

The CPI(M) has collected Rs 60 lac of funds from all over India and will use it for people affected by communal violence who are in refugee camps. The convention also highlighted issues such as communal violence and moral policing and the need to curb them, priority for education in Muslim community, protection of Wakf property, reservation of government jobs for Muslims and consumption and transportation of cattle which they said should not be prohibited.

DYFI district president Muneer Katipalla said, “The convention has been organized in order to highlight the problems faced by the Muslim minorities in the country. Instances of communal violence have been increasing at large, and moreover, the promises made by the Congress party towards welfare of Muslims have not been fulfilled.”

B Madhava, CITU state president; Shariff Rao member of DYFI; Sunil Kumar; J V Sriram Shetty, K Yadav Shetty; Krishna P; Mohjib Rao; K Umesh and others were present on this occasion.