By Shaik Zakeer Hussain and Mohd Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Bengaluru: Since Election Commission announced the dates for the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the match has been viewed as open and shut case, with many political pundits and media polls reflecting that Indian National Congress have an edge and could get an easy majority due to anti-incumbency and odds faced by other political parties.
As the results already appear decided, the main thing to observe here is what Congress after voted back to power will be having in its baggage for Muslims, its traditional, ‘loyal’ and biggest vote base in Karnataka.
Syed Zameer Pasha has been former IAS officer and secretary of the Minorities welfare in the Government of Karnataka. He was involved in the implementation of Sachar Committee recommendations before joining politics and the Congress party.
TwoCircles.net spoke to Zameer Pasha on what prompted him to jump in the Congress boat for political career. Pasha who has been actively involved in the election manifesto committee of Karnataka Congress also spoke about the challenges of the minority community in Karnataka and how his party is planning to address those issues after getting power in the state.
A former bureaucrat, why did you join INC?
The main reason to join the Indian National Congress (INC) and politics was to serve humanity and to uplift the life of the poor. INC, I believe is not just a political party, but a national movement, where we could get social justice.
You are the part of the state Congress manifesto committee, so what are the provisions and promises for the Muslim community in it?
Congress party is seriously thinking about bringing a special component for the Muslim community in the lines of the scheduled caste in the state. If this plan is commissioned, then it would make a tremendous impact on the socio-economic condition of the minority community. If voted back to power we will be implementing separate sub-plan for the progress of minorities.
We are also working to ensure a sense of security in the Muslim community. Muslims should come out of the fear psychosis that they are not secured in the country. We will work to make sure that liabilities are fixed and district administration will be held responsible if communal riots are not controlled within 24 hours.
What about Sachar Committee recommendations, will it be implemented?
Until the Sachar committee report was submitted, we were unaware of our standing in terms of area of education, infrastructure, etc. We should thank the party leadership for this. The UPA government is taking affirmative actions to implement the findings. We in our Karnataka election manifesto have committed that Sachar committee recommendations and Ranganath Misra Commission recommendations will be implemented in full spirit.
What are the main problems faced by Karnataka Muslims?
The first problem for Muslim community, I observed during my tenure as minority welfare secretary, was in the field of education, there is a demand of scholarships for 9 lakh deprived Muslim students.
Other challenges are in skill development, apart from it there is an urgent need of infrastructure facilities in Muslim areas, and Muslims in Karnataka doesn’t have access to good health care, sanitation and better housing facilities. We believe that separate sub plan for minorities will certainly solve all this problems.
For decades Muslims devotedly voted for Congress, but recent trends shows community is getting disillusioned with the party, why is it so?
Let’s not hide anything, after partition Muslims did face deprivation and injustice. As a former bureaucrat, I could say that there has been an institutional neglect of Muslims, there is a bias in bureaucracy against Muslims, and lack of political will of Muslim leaders make it worse. Even civil society has failed, there is no one wing to be held responsible behind the backwardness of Muslim community, all of us have a role to play.
But time has come to think positive and learn from our past, now there are tremendous opportunities, through education and economic assistance minorities could restore their lost glory.
Congress is a party which stands for social justice, we believe in equitable justice to everyone, here is a platform to achieve justice, and the composite nationhood reflects in our party, we are working towards the development of every community irrespective of any religion.
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