Ghulam Muhammed: Awami Vikas Party writes to President on the gross injustice of a Presidential decree discriminating against Muslims

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Awami Vikas Party writes to President on the gross injustice of a Presidential decree discriminating against Muslims

Date : 09/05/2015

To,
Shri Pranab Mukherjee
The President of India.
Rashtrapati bhavan,
New Delhi – 110004.

Subject: - Request to set aside, cancel the unconstitutional and communally biased order of the President of India, dated 10th August, 1950, regarding the exclusion of all non-Hindu Scheduled Castes, from the reservation, granted under Article 341 of the Indian Constitution and take corrective, and new measures to rectify the injustice done to the Muslim community and adopt policies for the uplift of the Muslim community.

Respected Sir,

Every citizen of India is aware that in the year 1949, the Constitution drafted by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was accepted, and adopted by the government and our present political system is running under the same Constitution.

Further, the Preamble of our Constitution guarantees equal rights and opportunities to all citizens irrespective of their religion, equal rights and opportunities to all irrespective of caste, creed and religious beliefs. Article 341 guarantees that people belonging to the Scheduled Castes will be granted reservation, in all spheres of administration in the government and 15% reservation is granted to all Scheduled Castes. Article 341 does not discriminate a citizen on the basis of any religion and it also does not mention the exclusion of any religious group from the purview of this Article. It is applicable to every citizen of India irrespective of caste, creed, religion, sex, etc.

In the year 1950, the then Prime Minister, Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru, and the then Home Minister Shri. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, in collusion with some communal leaders, recommended to the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad that the reservation guaranteed under Article 341 of the Constitution, should not be granted to, nor given to any Scheduled Caste persons belonging to communities, who are not practicing Hinduism. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President, without going on the merits of the recommendation , without even applying his mind, accepted the recommendation, which was biased, and communal, and issued order on 10th August, 1950, wherein it was clearly stated that the reservation guaranteed under Article 341 will not be given or granted to those who are not practicing Hinduism.

This order was communal and biased and was against the principles laid down in our Constitution, but it was adopted, and since 10th August 1950, the discrimination policy adopted by the then government continues, which has divided communities on the basis of religion and created prejudices in the minds of communities, and a sense of hatred prevails, and it is really sad that some of our national leader are responsible for the divide. In fact, ideally, this recommendation should have been placed before the Parliament and after getting 2/3rd majority in favour of this ordinance, it should have been implemented. However, such an order was unconstitutionally passed and promulgated and implemented.

The order passed by Dr. Rajendra Prasad in 1950 created a divide and all minority communities were debarred from the ambit of this reservation under Article 341. The Government of India, in 1950, back-stabbed all minorities and insulted the Constitution of India, without batting an eyelid.

In the year 1956, the Scheduled Caste people of the Sikh community agitated against the above order and their agitation led to their inclusion in Article 341. Thereafter, in 1990, the Buddhist community agitated and they were also included in Article 341, but till date no amendment is made in Article 341. Though the order was illegal and unconstitutional, none of the presidents who later occupied the president’s office had the courage and conviction to take up this challenge and the divide between communities continues.

Forty classes of the Muslims fall in the category of Scheduled Castes and are entitled to this reservation, and come under the ambit of Article 341, but they were kept away and deprived of their fundamental right of equality and this deprivation has dragged the Muslim community below the poverty line and they have been politically, financially, economically, educationally finished.

This exclusion of the Muslim community from the reservation policy has political repercussions. Out of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, 107 seats are reserved, where no class of Muslims can contest any election and in many cases of these 107 seats, these seats are reserved in areas in which the majority of the population is Muslim. The consequence which follows is that systematically the Muslims are politically finished and thus lack representation in Parliament as well as state assemblies and cannot participate in the election process, in full strength as other communities do.

It seems that this is done deliberately so that the Muslims have no say in the government and would also remain handicapped and toeing the line of the government.

Apart from political losses, they are also excluded from services, education and other benefits which other communities are enjoying. This breach and violation of fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution has hampered the progress of the Muslim community. This systematic deprivation, it seems, has been done with ulterior motives to keep Muslims backward. As per the directions in the Constitution, so far eight commissions were appointed after independence to find out the political, educational, financial position of the minority communities and every commission one after the other reported the grave situation of the Muslim community which was deteriorating from bad to worse. The Rangnathan mishra commission reported that the representation of minority communities, especially Muslim communities, was finished in politics, services, jobs, education, etc. and also opined that 15% special reservation should be given to socially, politically, educationally, financially backward communities and also further recommended that Muslims should be given 10% representation, in the name of socially, politically, educationally, and financially backward class. Thereafter, the last commission, the Sachar Commission had concluded by giving a report that the condition of the Muslim community, socially, economically, politically, educationally is worse than the Scheduled Caste people but the most surprising thing is that in spite of the appointment of commissions and eight reports, not a single commission’s report was placed in Parliament for debate, to accept the recommendations of the commission. The government just appoints the commissions for the sake of it, they do not implement the report the commissions, and shy away from implementation of the reports as they do not want the community to progress. The motive is to keep the Muslim community backward and uneducated, so that they can be used as vote banks. The Muslim community in India is the most deprived, backward and neglected community, and we talk of being a secular, sovereign, democratic republic. It is amazing how our political class is ruling this country without giving a damn about the principles of equality enshrined in our Constitution.

Various Muslim groups have time and again agitated and requested the government for implementing measures for the uplift of the Muslim community and have also strongly recommended granting reservation under special category of political, economic, social, financial, educational backward class. However, since independence, not a single government at the centre has done anything for the uplift of the Muslim community, to include them in the ambit of reservation. The Muslim community is used for vote bank politics and once elections are won they are disposed of as one disposes tissues.

The position of the Muslims was much better during the British regime than post-independence till date. If one goes through the records prior to independence, you will find that the Scheduled Caste of Muslims were given reservation by British rulers, the result being that the Muslim community was representing itself in jobs upto 35% and this has come down to 2% which means the Muslims were better off during the British regime.

The Muslims fought for independence along with other communities and got freedom from British rule, but today, they are chained in poverty and backwardness- ironically, by their own people. The policies of the central government are responsible for this and the main culprit being the Congress party, which has ruled the country for almost 60 years.

On behalf of the Muslim community, I humbly request you to use your good offices and cancel the order dated 10th August 1950, which will be your absolute constitutional decision, the wrong done by one president can be corrected by the other, by taking up this issue you will be giving justice, not only to Muslims, but also to other minority communities, like Christians, Jains and Parsis. This will be lauded and appreciated by the international community. The last Commission, the Sachar Commission, had also reported that the position of the Muslims was worse than that of the Dalits. Similarly, the Rangnath Commission headed by Rangnath Mihra reported that the share of the minority community is diminishing politically, economically, socially and educationally and for the uplift of the minority’s, 15% reservation under special category should be given. Hence, I request you to consider the eight reports of the eight commissions, and the Muslims be given special category as politically, socially, economically, educationally backward community and the minority community be given 15% reservation so that Parsis, Christians, Jains and Muslims will be benefitted and they will get their share in the government, the share which was deprived to them by the earlier ruling parties. We hope and pray that you will cancel the 1950 order before the 10th day of August 2013 and will, thus, open the door for the progress and development of the Muslim community and you will be remembered by the Muslim community till the end of the world and in the way Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar has become the hero of Dalits, so also you will also become the hero of the Muslim community.

I am making this appeal to you as it is my personal opinion that you are a man of calibre and known for your bold decisions and you are one of the strongest Presidents of India. I further request you to cancel the Presidents order on Scheduled Castes, 1950, before the 10th day of August 2013. If you fail to take action, we will presume that you are also uninterested in the uplift of Muslims. I have to further inform you that if we do not get justice as prayed for, till the 10th August, 2013, we will observe 10th August as a black day and portray the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as the murderers of the Constitution and enemies of Muslims, and this campaign will be carried out in all the states of India and if needed we will knock on the doors of the International Court for the injustices meted out to the Muslim community by the Indian State. Even the birthdates of these three leaders will be observed as a black day.

We are sending this letter to all the Chief Ministers and Governors of all the states requesting them to send their recommendations to cancel the communally biased and unconstitutional order of the President of India, regarding Scheduled Castes, dated 10th August, 1950. We will also be seeking a reply from all the Chief Ministers and Governors and seeking their recommendations. If they fail to respond, we will presume that all these states are anti-Muslim states who to the face of Muslims declare that they are well wishers of Muslims but act anti-Muslims and anti-national. Please take this letter in the right spirit, we are hopeful that you, as a bold man, will pass an order at your end and will seek the recommendations of various Chief Ministers and Governors, and will work towards the cancellation of the order. We are forwarding a copy of this letter to the Prime Minister and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi with a request to take steps to cancel the unfortunate order of 1950.

The Congress government was responsible for the order, now they are in power and can correct their mistakes. If we do not get justice by 10th August 2013, we will start a strong agitation against the government. Since independence, till date the Muslim community has been given a step-motherly treatment and has been driven to the wall. It is high time that we, along with other communities, are brought into the mainstream. If it is not done, I think we should stop calling India a sovereign, socialist, democratic republic.

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Shamsherkhan Wazirkhan Pathan.

President

Awami vikas Party