Right from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress has always adopted the divide and rule policy for the sake of Muslim votes. Nehru did not pay heed to Rajendra Prasad and other experts who had advocated uniform civil code. He decided to extend special safeguards to Muslims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just underlined that the Congress has a history of appeasing minorities and terrorists. The Congress has questioned the conduct of even security forces. During the erstwhile Congress regime in Karnataka, quota had been provided to Muslims under the OBC category without any scientific study or recommendations of any relevant committee. Further, the Congress declared in its election manifesto that it would provide 75% quota for various communities, including the Muslims. Is the Congress in a position to amend the country’s basic statute after capturing power at the Centre and in the states? To prevent the splitting of society on religious grounds, the BJP government did away with the quota and decided to extend benefit to the Muslims under the BC quota.
Right from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress has always adopted the divide and rule policy for the sake of Muslim votes. Nehru did not pay heed to Rajendra Prasad and other experts who had advocated uniform civil code. He decided to extend special safeguards to Muslims. During the reign of Indira Gandhi, the Muslim Personal Law Board was created against the spirit of Article 44 of the nation’s basic statute.
In 1985, when the Supreme Court directed the husband of an aged Muslim woman to pay compensation to her, Muslim fundamentalists across the country lodged protests. The Rajiv Gandhi government had to amend the statute to nullify the decision of the Supreme Court. The Rajiv Gandhi government banned the book titled Satanic Verses, authored by Salman Rushdie, on the pretext that some Muslims were against the novel. The Indian government had taken the decision prior to Iranian dictator Ayotollah Khomeini’s fatwa to Muslims to behead Salman Rushdie.
When Bangladeshi writer Tasleema Nasreen authored a book against the discrimination against Muslim women, bigots engineered attacks on her in various cities in India. But the then Congress government did not provide any security to the writer. The Congress did not bother to prevent the entry of communal politics on campuses of various universities. When then Vice-Chancellor Gulam Nabi Vatsani took steps to modernise the Darul-uloom-Deoband University, he was dismissed from service. The puppet PM Manmohan Singh even announced that Muslims would enjoy the first right in national resources. Surprisingly, Sonia Gandhi cried inconsolably when two terrorists were killed in the Batla House encounter held in Delhi in 2008. When Salman Khursheed was the Union Law Minister, attempts were made to provide quota for Muslims in the Union government, government jobs and aided educational institutions. The Election Commission vehemently opposed the quota and urged the then President to act against Salman Khursheed.
During the Congress regime, Rohingya Muslims were provided shelter in several states. The then Uttarakhand Congress CM Harish Rawat went on record that an exclusive university would be set up for Rohingya Muslims. When Muslims from across the border entered illegally into Assam and West Bengal and changed the demographic profile of the two states, the Congress ignored it and provided them with amenities and identity cards and tried to use them as vote banks.
The Congress had remained a mute spectator whenever Muslims seized the properties of thousands of Hindus, assaulted Hindus, and outraged the modesty of Hindu women. The UPA regime tried to consolidate the Muslim votes by implementing the erstwhile 15-point programme for the development of minorities. Although several Congress leaders had objected to use of the Muslims as vote bank, the Gandhi-Nehru family did not pay heed to them.
Even Congress official spokesman VN Gadgil had criticised the Congress, accusing it of ignoring the interests of the majority Hindus to appease the Muslims. Addressing the participants of a Congress training camp held in Kurla in 2000, VN Gadgil observed: “The Congress is responding as though the Almighty spoke as and when Shahi Imam makes a statement. Does the term ‘minorities’ mean Muslims alone? But what about Buddhists, Sikhs, and others? When 36 Sikhs were gunned down in Kashmir, not a single Congress leader sympathised with them. There is no single Buddhist working in the J and K Secretariat. The one and only Buddhist selected through the state public service commission was forced to convert to Islam.”
The PM has made it clear that the Congress would not be able to come to power even if all 18% Muslims vote in favour of Congress. Senior Congress leader AK Antony has remarked that the strength of minorities alone is not sufficient to defeat BJP in 2024 elections. He has observed that the BJP is growing in Kerala surprisingly because the Congress has been appeasing the minorities. The Congress, ignoring the warnings of VN Gadgil and AK Antony, is even now bent on appeasing the minorities. That is why, Hemant Biswa Sarma in Assam and Anil Antony, son of AK Antony, joined the BJP.
The appeasement of the minorities by the Congress reached its peak when the party announced in its election manifesto in Karnataka that it would ban the Bajrang Dal. The Bajrang Dal, formed to provide security to the Rath Yatra undertaken in 1984 by the BJP as part of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, has a force of 5 lakh devotees. The Congress hurt the sentiments of millions of Hindus by drawing a parallel between the outlawed Popular Front of India and the Bajrang Dal.
Several regional parties, turning a cue from the Congress, are taking several measures to appease the minorities. The Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Trinamool Congress, the TRS and other parties have indulged in serving the interests of the minorities. Hence, people welcomed the BJP to come to power in 2014 and showed the door to the Congress.
The Congress and regional parties are facing identity crises today because they could not perceive sentiments of people.
