Sunday, March 14, 2010

Full Page Advertisement( 18 February) by Ministry of Minority Affairs Misinforms Public & Hoodwinks Muslims .



ALL INDIA MUSLIM MAJLIS-E-MUSHAWARAT
[Umbrella body of the Indian Muslim organisations]
D-250, Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110025 India
Tel/Fax: 011-26947346 Email: mushawarat@mushawarat.com
Full Page Advertisement( 18 February) by Ministry of Minority Affairs Misinforms Public & Hoodwinks Muslims
.
Statistics should be Community-wise & Year-wise to Carry Conviction.
New Delhi: 14 March, 2010 Mr. Syed Shahabuddin, President of AIMMM has issued the following statement.
The full page Advertisement by the Ministry of Minority Affairs on 18 February, 2010 on its achievements under Prime Minister’s 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of the Minorities has been  designed to misinform the public and to bluff the minorities and particularly hoodwink the Muslims. Indeed, the Advertisement conceals more than it reveals.
Religious minorities constitute clearly 20 % of the national population, of which nearly 15 % are Muslims. The Advertisement speaks repeatedly of ‘minority concentration districts ( MCD) but to cover up poor performance in Muslims concentration districts or their proportionate under-coverage the Advertisement gives no information about Muslim concentration districts. This deliberate omission is evident from the following item-wise analysis.
I. Bank Branches
: 1562 public sector bank branches are claimed to have been opened since 207-08, but neither their location nor the community-wise break-up of the number of accounts and credit flow are revealed.
2. New Schools:
8764 new schools are said to have been opened upto 30.09.09. But whether they are primary/ middle / secondary schools is not mentioned nor their number in Muslims areas nor the extent to which they cover school deficit compared to national norms.
3. Institutional Allocation
: Increase in the Share capital of NMDFC and the corpus of Maulana Azad Education Foundation are given. But actual disbursement year-wise are not.
4. Multi-sectorial Devolvement Programmme:
807.01 Crores are said to have been released to States/ UTs up to 01.01.2010 for 90 MCDs but readers are not informed of how much has been actually utilized and the programme taken up, district-wise.
5. Increase in Plan Provision for Ministry:
It is well known that every year the Ministry has failed to utilize the allocation fully.
6. Earmarking of 15 % of Outlay for Muslims, Scheme-wise allocation and the number of total & Muslim beneficiaries are not provided
.
7. Awards of 22, 23,841Scholarships to Minority students
: The status of awards to Muslim community, state-wise, is not given nor the number of scholarships & amounts which have been actually disbursed.
8. Indira Awas Yojana
: 9,29,141 Minority BPL families are said have benefited but district-wise or community-wise break-up is not given.
9. Swarn Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana
: 1,46,090 beneficiaries form minorities are claimed but the number of Muslims is not given.
10. Swarn Jayanti Garam Swarojgar Yojna
: 4,75,253 persons form minorities are said to beneficiaries but the number of Muslims is not given.
11. Free Coaching
: 14,966 students have been coached at the cost of RS 20.75 crore but the break-up, course-wise, state-wise or community-wise are not given.
12. Recruitment of Minorities Government
: The advertisement claims advance to 9.18 % share in recruitment in 2008-09 over one year but does not give the numbers total & of total & Muslim actually recruited in government or public sector, level-wise, Moreover, the cumulative representation of Muslims in any department or paramilitary force is not revealed nor their current % in the total.
CONCLUSION
The net impact of the advertisement confirms the doubts in the mind of the Muslims that they have made no real progress nor received their due share of development benefit or place in governance.
To remove the credibility gap, the AIMMM urges the Government  that the statistics should be transparent and give both the overall picture of total& Muslim share representation, as well as the increase recorded in given year over the last year.
It is also suggested that to establish its credibility, the Ministry should publish brochure on progress made by community in 2009-10, under UPA II.
As it is, this advertisement only serves to provide material for anti-Muslim propaganda by the communal forces. That Muslims are being appeased.

Authorised for Publication (Abdul Waheed)
Office Secretary
New Delhi, 14 March, 2010