It is not in our stars that we are underlings by Mustafa Khan

There is not much that is new in reports on the backwardness of the Muslims in India. To carry any weight fact-finding must be matched by political will and social acceptability. As the two have been and are in short supply we must explore other avenues to be of some use to the downtrodden. The social upheaval we are passing through is a ripple of the much larger cataclysmic changes unleashed by market based economy and other factors. If Muslims are backward it may be because they have been denied jobs. Who denies jobs to whom is not as important as a vibrant section of society growing leaps and bound is disabled from performing useful productive work for the welfare of the nation. The ubiquitous complain that honest and dedicated people are not available for defence services and the police force and the intelligence agencies is because we have not gone out much into the open sea and thrown out nets much wider or else we could not have missed Humayun Kabir’s progeny and his ilk in the intelligence gathering that is so vital for security of the country.
The much touted need to include Muslim and Christian dalits in reservation of jobs and education is a matter of belated self correction of the democratic process. It was incorrect to keep reservation on the basis of religion and if the state realizes that it made a historic mistake and the move to accommodate Muslim and Christian dalits, now, is the imperative on the state. No one should make reductio ad absurdum argument of reservation for its own sake. The Sachar report has made some ripples on the surface indicative of how deep does the standing water of apathy and unconcern run. The growing sense of the polity that political correctness can be rewarding at hustings must at least impinge on the consciousness that what is passing phase must be a turning point for a substantial minority to look within and achieve the real improvement.
Inbuilt inhibition in the form of interest money involving credit may preclude Muslims from loans and therefore they must evolve or adopt strategies which are open to all. The four basic principles of Narayana Murthy are the sauce which are good for the goose and must be good for the gander. We must strictly adhere to meritocracy, be willing to work hard, adopt global best practices in training and follow absolute discipline. No one in his most deranged condition would call this as appeasement. But these would surely make a chemical change in the public relationship field and would be salubrious in the interest of the nation.
Systemic failure is the cause of the present furor over the backwardness of Muslims. If it were not so the latest National Sample Survey would have
presented a different scenario. The NSS shows that between 1999-00 and 2004-05 there was nearly 45% drop of Muslim males in the category of regular employees’ in the urban areas. This is quite grave a concern because bulk of the Muslim population is in urban areas only. However sharp rise in female Muslim in employment is quite welcome change due to increased attention paid to their education or due to the overall India-level increase in female literacy.
Enlightened citizenry engaged in useful work not only can create wealth for itself but can create surplus for the nation. Reservation or no reservation but the self-enforced working ethics will automatically make a sea change. Try it on all and those who do not fit into it must gracefully leave or be chucked out. At least there cannot be any quota on whom to chuck out. No supreme court should have any qualms over throwing out those who do not abide by the work-discipline. The Sachar committee report emphasizes the need for informed public debate. Into that debate we must admit the need to overhaul the bureaucracy from the point of view of identifying those who get into service but fail any benchmarking of efficiency and usefulness. This would remove complacency and proprietorship of those who come to believe that they have a right to jobs permanently irrespective of how they perform. Anyone having such undesirable qualities deserves demotion or the axe and his reserve category loss of next turn in recruitment Unless some such process is evolved we cannot “ensure inclusiveness through embracing diversity.”
In a globalized world based on market economy no section can afford to lag behind. Muslims are no exception. Their present plight is temporary. Their slumber resembles that of Philoctetes in Sophocles’ play of that name. The Greeks cannot win Troy without his charmed archery, a gift of Hercules. Ulysses who had himself abandoned him on the island of Lemnos must take him with the rest. Philoctetes is bitten by a snake and cries in pain which others cannot bear. Achilles’ son Neoptolemus looks at him and remarks:
Sleep hath overtaken him. See, his head is lain
On the cold earth; the balmy sweat thick drops
From every limb, and from the broken vein
Flows the warm blood; let us indulge his slumber.
To win the globalized world we need all sections to work hard. As for the present festering wounds of Philoctetes, the sons of Aesculapius would restore him to health. All the Greeks must work together. Justice S.N.Srivastava of Allahabad court my rule that the Muslims are not minority in UP or the Supreme Court may overturn the ruling but what cannot be ruled out is that the Muslims must have or create the opportunity to work for themselves and thereby for their country of birth, India.
In the charged and thwarting atmosphere in the country, can they afford to run berserk like the Gujars and the Meenas?