Vote-bank politics are not only disastrous, but baneful for the nation. These are a curse on the society. The ‘disease’ is spreading like cancer in the body politic, vitiating communal atmosphere.

There is no dearth of leaders like Ram Vilaswan Paswan, Arjun Singh and Lalu Prasad Yadav, to name only a few, who have left no stone unturned in dividing India on communal and caste lines, to enrich their vote-bank polity. This constituency is important for them. R K Laxman’s recent cartoon is quite appropriate. Its caption reads: “Just stand from this constituency. You are bound to win. It has no water, roads, schools, etc. Promise all these during elections, that is how your predecessors had won”.

Paswan promised the Muslims of Bihar that they would get a Muslim chief minister if they voted for his party en bloc. But he failed in his endeavour, because the Muslims understood the ‘tricks’ of his ‘trade’ to empower his vote bank. Paswan tried his best, to the chagrin of the Election Commission, which took umbrage to his repeated pleas for search of a Muslim chief minister. Never mind, he will try again like a spider next time, and in the process may further destroy the secular fabric of the society. He has only helped in creating a big gulf between one community and the other; and between one caste and the other. Intriguingly, he has kept his chant in the fond hope, success would come his way the next time around.

There are different manifestations of encouraging the vote-bank polity. The most attractive one is appeasement of the Muslim community. While Pakistan is made to windup its terror infrastructure, which is closely linked to a mushroom growth of madrassas, Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil has designed a novel methodology of regularising several thousand madrassas, where students are being taught among other things to kill ‘the qafir’ (non-believer).

There is lot of anger in India against madrassas run by the fundamentalist Islamic organisations, which, according to intelligence agencies, form the hot-bed of ‘sleeper cells’ of jihadi terrorist outfits, with bases in Pakistan and Bangladesh. R. R Patil is the only NCP leader, endowed with such wisdom, who has envisaged bringing a measure aimed at roping these schools under the national mainstream. The object is to create a vote-bank for the NCP, headed by Union Minister Sharad Pawar, who has his own unfulfilled ambitions. Patil first succeeded in banning dancing bars. Now he wants to give an impetus to madrassa culture. However, the association of clerics in Maharashtra has already slammed the door on government intervention. They say the financial help is fine, but no interference.

In Pakistan, on the contrary, the authorities, under American pressure, have called for closure of religious seminaries for foreign students, to stem the rot, which had set in there as a result of mushroom growth of madrassas under the direct patronage of military dictators to fulfil foreign policy goals. There is resistance from an alliance of religious parties and seminaries, but at least, Pakistan government has awakened.

The Supreme Court in its recent judgment has given a rebuff to the Andhra Pradesh Government, accusing it of “wanting to appease the Muslims with vote-bank politics, without any concrete measures for their uplift”. It is rather the ‘fourth consecutive slap’ on the Andhra government, which is keen to fulfil its ‘poll promises’. The apex court has stalled the controversial law that seeks to give five per cent quota to Muslims in jobs and in schools and colleges. The court has even held that the “representation of the Muslim community was not gravely disproportionate to the percentage of Muslim population in Andhra Pradesh.”.

A leading national daily in an editorial asked the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leadership to “realise that its present brand of minorityism amounts to segregation, not their integration with the rest of the society as equals under the Constitution… This harms the society at large and the minorities in particular.”

It is a wrong notion that India is a caste-based society. It is notably because of the mindset of such leadership, who wants to perpetuate a system, which is only man-made and not God-ordained. Vedas are the foundation of timeless religion, commonly known as Hinduism. They stipulate a ‘casteless and classless’ society. They speak of oneness of the entire humanity.

For example, the ‘Rig Veda’ says: “All men are brothers; no one is big; no one is small. All are equal.” In the ‘Yajur Veda’, there is a mantra which says “no one is superior or inferior’. Such quotes are endless.

All that is happening in the name of caste system, particularly in Bihar---where Lalu Yadav champions the MY (Muslim-Yadav) card --- is abhorrent, even it is just an aberration. After 1947, the national leadership ought to have terminated the caste barrier. Unfortunately, this was not done though the Constitution was amended several times to fulfil several political and social goals.

Strangely enough, the Centre has drafted a law, under which any politician or a bureaucrat, who is accused of fomenting communal trouble, directly or indirectly, will be stripped of his post and will face punishment. The draft is under discussion at various levels. The omnibus bill envisages invoking Article 355 of the Constitution, giving powers to the Centre to intervene. This is against the federal structure of the country.

If the Union Government is sincere, it could have enacted a law, banning appeasement of any particular community, to preserve democracy and secularism. Even surnames could be deleted to create a casteless and classless society. Former union minister Jagmohan (his surname is Malhotra) is right in saying that ‘politicians no longer feel the need to perform in order to win votes. India requires a complete cultural and social revolution’. But will Paswan like this suggestion? Doubtful, given his vote bank phobia.

The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is said to be toying with a unique proposal to allocate plan funds, in proportion to population of various religious communities. What a brilliant idea? The UPA must think progressive. Minority appeasement will only drive it away from the mainstream of national life.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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