As elections to five State Assemblies are nearing, the despicable vote bank politicians from the Congress, the Mulayam Singh's SP and Mayawati's BSP, alongwith communal bigots in academia and intellectual class, are vying with each other to shamelessly play the Muslim quota card. The issue is being hotly debated in the media, particularly TV news channels. In one such discussion on December 1 night, one was struck by an unexpected parochial mindset of one leading panelist, the vice-chancellor of the Jamia Milia university who was unabashedly batting for Muslim quota. Fortunately, another Muslim panelist and a Muslim student in the audience, challenged the vice-chancellor as to why reservations should be done on religious and not economic basis?
Why this self-serving perception is being deliberately perpetuated that Indian Muslims are the most backward and impoverished lot? Why are we refusing to look at the misery and deprivation of other groups? What have Muslim leaders and other well-off members of the community have done to extricate their community from self-imposed obscurantist ways and madarsa teaching? Who is responsible for keeping Muslim women backward, homebound and in purdah(burqa)? Is the quota demand not dangerously divisive and disharmonious?
Why this self-serving perception is being deliberately perpetuated that Indian Muslims are the most backward and impoverished lot? Why are we refusing to look at the misery and deprivation of other groups? What have Muslim leaders and other well-off members of the community have done to extricate their community from self-imposed obscurantist ways and madarsa teaching? Who is responsible for keeping Muslim women backward, homebound and in purdah(burqa)? Is the quota demand not dangerously divisive and disharmonious?
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