By Pervez Bari
BHOPAL—Dr. Ali Abbas Ummeed, Bhopal-based well-known litterateur of national repute, has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement, wherein he played the card of Pasmanda Muslims or Muslim Backward Classes and pitched for Uniform Civil Code along with the “issue” of triple talaq of Muslim women in the backdrop of several state elections that are due at the end of this year including Madhya Pradesh and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. PM Modi described himself and his own BJP as their supporter and said other parties used them merely as vote banks.
Prime Minister Modi stressed on the above three points amongst others while addressing the BJP workers in Bhopal last week.
Dr. Ummeed has raised many questions to the Prime Minister and asked him that if the Pasmanda Muslims have been cheated by non-BJP governments, then what did his own Central government and his state governments do for them? He said that PM Modi should answer why the scholarship of Muslim backward class students have been closed since last year? Why is the subsidy in self-employment stopped for the poor Muslim backward class?
However, it is said that the BJP has now undertaken a special drive in 65 minority-dominated Lok Sabha constituencies across the country to reach out to the poorer sections within the community, euphemistically called Pasmanda Muslims. These sections are believed to have been benefiting from the Central government’s social sector schemes.
Pasmanda Muslims are said to be the most backward and socially oppressed among the community. The word ‘Pasmanda’ is derived from a Persian word which refers to those ‘left behind’. While Ali Anwar Ansari, founder and president of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, has reportedly said in the media that Pasmanda Muslims in the country are said to be the most backward and socially oppressed in the community. About 85 per cent of the global Pasmanda Muslim population is in India.
Rs. 15 cr. Grant to Minority Dominated Districts stopped!
Meanwhile, talking to this correspondent Dr. Ummeed recalled that UPA Government had declared 99 districts of the country as Minority Dominated Districts and had fixed Rs.15 crores per year for each of these districts for their development. Why this scheme has been stopped? Why was the grant of Madrasas stopped? Why there is no appointment in the National Minorities Commission? Why Pasmanda Muslims are not being given benefits through National Minorities Finance Development Corporation?
He also questioned that even after nearly 30 years of the order of the full Bench of the Supreme Court, why are the Imams not being given salary? It may be mentioned here that the Supreme Court in 1993, on a petition from the All India Imam Organisation, had directed the Waqf boards to give remuneration to Imams in mosques managed by it.
Grants to Madrasas scrapped!
Dr. Ummeed, who is also a poet, said answers to questions raised by the PM lie with the government headed by him. PM should ask his MP state government as to what it has done for backward class Muslims? How much did the state government provide for the scholarships of the Muslim backward class, the Madrasas of the Muslim backward class and also to their cottage industries?
He also said that the Prime Minister should ask the Chief Minister why Madhya Pradesh Minorities Commission was not appointed, why there was no appointment in Bhopal Masajid Committee, in State Madrasa Board, in Madhya Pradesh Minorities Finance Development Corporation. The Madrasas in Madhya Pradesh have not received grants for the last 3 years, wherein 85 percent of the Madrasas belong to the Muslim backward class people, where all the students and teachers are from the Muslim backward classes.
Dr. Ummeed said that one of the biggest castes of Muslim backward castes is Qureshi who are butchers and whose business is related to meat, bone and skin of animals. Why the business of bone was taken away from them? It is well known that meat and the bone business is in the hands of non-Muslims. Apart from Muslim backward classes, the ancestral business of the people of Dalit society is affected in the past years due to this. Who is responsible for all this mess?
Game of 80-20
He said that he is not related to any political party, but the way the game of 80-20 started in Uttar Pradesh in the election year, on the same lines, the Prime Minister is trying to woo the Pasmanda Muslims and calls them his supporters in this election year. To say that a section of the society has politicized the Muslim backward class is not true. The truth is that this politicization has been done by political outfits. There is no high and low caste within Islam because of their business. All Muslims eat on one “Dastarkhwan” (dining table or dining sheet) and offer Namaz in one “Saff” (one row) standing shoulder to shoulder with each other, irrespective of the social or economic class one comes from.
Dr. Ummeed said that if the PM feels there is discrimination against the Muslim backward class, he should investigate it and correct them. He should also answer why the welfare programmes for Muslim backward classes have been closed down?
