'Muslims will not vote for Congress'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay
The Congress may not be able to woo back the Muslims to the party fold with its special package.
Though the party has promised to create a ministry for the minorities and provide them with job reservations, few Muslims seem to be convinced.
''Despite such promises, Muslims will not vote for the Congress,'' seems to be the consensus among the community which is cut up with the party since the Babri mosque demolition on December 6, 1992.
Speaking to Rediff On The NeT, Janata Dal leader Azmi Maulana Obaidullah Khan said, "The Congress is solely responsible for the minorities's miseries. In the last 50 years, the Congress has done nothing for their upliftment."
Expressing surprise over the Congress's decision to create a separate ministry for the minorities, Muslim League leader G M Banatwala said, "Today, the minorities are completely disillusioned with the Congress. And such sops won't reverse the trend as the Congress never kept its election promises to the Muslims."
Asked how the community reacted to the Congress's apology -- the party's plenary session at Calcutta in August expressed regret for the demolition, Banatwala said, "The Congress is now talking about the apology. But what about the thousands of Muslims who lost their lives because of the Babri mosque?"
Though a section of Congress leaders felt that Muslims would come back to the party fold after former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao handed over the party's reigns to Sitaram Kesri in 1996, the community continues to repose faith in Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and other non-Congress secular parties.
Says Salahuddin Sultan Owaisi, the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen chief and Hyderabad MP, "The Congress won't regain the Muslims's confidence. It will take them years to rebuild that kind of trust. The community knows that it was during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure that the Babri Masjid was unlocked and the shilanayas took place."
Even the Sonia factor, said Banatwala, will not help the party for the same reason.
Considering that a vast majority of Muslims were economically and educationally backward, then prime minister Indira Gandhi had appointed the Dr Gopal Singh Commission in the 1980s. The commission favoured job reservations for Muslims.
"Forget reservations. Why have they never announced any kind of package for the Muslims? All these points have left a deep scar in the minds of Muslims," said Banatwala.
Despite this, the community will not vote for the BJP, added the leaders. ''In case no other secular party is strong enough, the Congress may get the community's votes.''
Says Owaisi, "In states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and to some extent Maharashtra, where there is no strong secular force other than the Congress, the Muslims will vote for the party."
EARLIER FEATURE:
The Myth of Muslim Appeasement
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