[Reader-list] “International Conference on Dalits and Muslims would herald a new social awakening”: Ram Vilas Paswan.

[arshad amanullah]

"International Conference on Dalits and Muslims would herald a new
social awakening": Ram Vilas Paswan.



Ram Vilas Paswan is a popular name in both Dalit and Muslim
communities. After Jagjivan Ram he is considered a messiah of the
down-trodden people. He founded Dalit Sena in 1983 to the cause of
Dalit emancipation and welfare. It was at his initiatives that the
neo-Budhists or Dalit Budhists were included in the Article 341 of the
Constitution during the regime of V P Singh in 1990. He organised the
first international conference on the issues of Dalits and Muslims in
1994. After 12 years he is holding another international conference on
Dalits and Muslims on December 27-28. At a time when the atmosphere is
agog with the talk about Sachar Recommendations, this conference has
enthused special interest in Dalits and Muslims. He has made his
mission to serve the backward sections. That's why irrespective of his
association with any political party, he continues to be a trusted
leader of the excluded sections of the society. In the following
exclusive interview to A U Asif, Editor, fanawatch.com, he talks in
detail about his concern for the excluded sections and his ensuing
international conference on Dalits and Muslims.

Born on July 5, 1946, he spent early years in Shaharbanni village in
Khagaria district of Bihar. His legislature career began in 1969 with
his election to the Bihar state assembly in 1969 on the ticket of the
Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP). In 1974 he came closer to Loknayak
Jaya Prakash Narayan. He was also closely associated with Karpoori
Thakur and Satyendra Narayan Sinha. He remained in jail during
Emergency. After getting released in 1977, he was elected to the 6th
Lok Sabha for the first time on the newly formed Janata Party ticket.
Since 1977 he continues to be a member of Lok Sabha. He became a Union
Minister first time in 1989 in the cabinet of V P Singh. Then he held
the portfolio of labour and welfare. Again in 1996-98, he served as
the Union Railway Minister in the cabinets of Deve Gowda and I K
Gujral and as the Union Communications Minister in 1999-2001, and Coal
Minister in 2001-2002 in the cabinet of Atal Behari Vajpayee. He
became the Union Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers in 2004
in the present regime of Dr Manmohan Singh. He is President of Lok
Janshakti Party (LJP) since its inception in 2000.

Following are the excerpts of the exclusive interview:

Question: At a time when Sachar Report is out but there is a hue and
cry over it from a section of the society, you have called an
international conference on Dalits and Muslims?

Answer: This hue and cry is political. This is actually the politics
of weakening the country. It is my firm belief that our nation can't
progress until the weaker sections get justice. Dalits are poor by
both mind and stomach because they have lost power of thinking.
Similarly, there is found a feeling of insecurity in the Muslim
community which is very harmful. Sachar Committee has actually done
the work of presenting these realities related to Muslims.

As is obvious, Muslims, Christians or Dalits have not come from
outside. They all are of this soil and even a few people, who came
from outside, too gave sacrifice for this country and became a part
and parcel of the land. It is said that disgusted with the social
injustice, some people converted into other religions. Most of them
were poor. The people who changed their religion ultimately got social
security but the economic backwardness remained there.

The Constitution of our country doesn't make any differentiation on
the basis of religion. It makes the economic and educational
backwardness the basis of uplifting the backward sections of the
society. The question is: If special provisions can be made for
Dalits; seats can be reserved for them in Parliament and state
legislatures and if these facilities can be provided to the Dalit
Sikhs also, then why it can't be done for the Muslims?

The situation is that 50 per cent of the total population of the
Scheduled Castes is reserved. It is true that Muslims were kept within
the purview of Mandal Commission but they are not getting benefit from
it. Therefore, it is my demand that reservation should be given to the
Muslim community for its backwardness as a whole, besides quota for
'Ajlaf' under Article 341 of the Constitution in Parliament and state
legislatures as well as government services. The section of the Muslim
community coming under the provisions of Mandal Commission should get
reserved seats separately. Similarly, economically backward Muslims
should also be provided 3 per cent quota.

In my view, only reservation should not be meant enough to uplift
these backward sections of the society. The reservation is, in fact,
just a step in this direction. It would play the role of a catalyst.
There is also a similar need to earmark a portion in the budgets of
all schemes and plans of welfare and education in proportion to the
population of different minorities. It is also my view that the fund
of Rs 1800 crore earmarked for the welfare and education of minorities
and SCs and STs is like a peanut. The Muslim community should be
allocated a fund for its welfare and education in proportion to its
population.

 However, it does not mean that we want to divide the Muslim
community. Our only objective is that economically backward Muslims
should also get a separate quota like those Muslims coming under the
provisions of Mandal Commission. This can be done through a
Presidential Ordinance like those of Sikhs in 1956 and Neo-Budhists in
1990.

Besides, we should also ponder over the facts that the much talked
about reservations in Kerala and Karnataka are enforced for several
years on the basis of religion and there has arisen no controversy or
objection over it. Therefore, the hue and cry of a particular
political group that is opposing tooth and nail the reservation for
the Muslim community, saying any reservation made on the ground of
religion would be against the spirit of the Constitution, is
politically motivated and not up to the mark.
It is to point out that Andhra High Court has not declared
unconstitutional the five per cent reservation given to the Muslim
community by the state government. Rather, it has only stated that
substantial evidences/ data were not properly collected.

So far as this international conference on Dalits and Muslims is
concerned, it is not my first effort. In this connection, I have been
working for about 40 years. However, this is the most opportune time
for such a conference. An alliance coming into being in the name of
safeguarding Secularism and establishing justice is now in power at
the Centre. Its National Common Minimum Programme comprises all the
points related to the above objectives.

Question: What makes it different from the conferences held on this
issue in the past? Is there anything new and special?

Answer: This international conference on Dalits and Muslims being
organized on December 27-28 is different in many ways from such
efforts, including the one convened by me in 1994, in the past. The
earlier efforts were actually for creating a congenial atmosphere. Now
the atmosphere has already been created. The time for action has now
come. The government has to move for 'inclusion of the excluded
sections of the Indian society' and the oppressed communities have to
take advantage of it.

Question: Is it not connected to the ensuing assembly elections in
Uttar Pradesh and other states?

Answer: No, not at all. Its agenda is quite clear. It has nothing to
do with politics and elections.. That's why 80 per cent of the
participants to this conference would be from academic, welfare and
activist circles as well as NGOs. They would be the real
representatives of these sections. This conference would also prove
that Dalits and Muslims are united in their struggle for progress and
development. It would give the message that these sections would no
longer remain neglected. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh would
inaugurate it. Besides a number of Union Ministers, over a hundred
Dalit and Muslim delegates from about 15 countries as well as
thousands from inside the country would participate in the two-day
conference.

Question: Other highlights of the conference?

Answer: There would be presented two status papers before the
international conference---one on Dalit situation by P S Krishnan, a
former Secretary to the Government of India and former
Member-Secretary of the National Commission for Backward Classes,
headed by late B P Mandal, and the other on Muslim situation by Qurban
Ali, a media celebrity. These status papers by two experts in their
arena would be the basis of entire discussion on the issues concerned
in the two-day conference
The outcome of the international conference would herald a new social
awakening, leading to empowerment of the disempowered sections and as
a whole help develop India into a strong and self-reliant country so
that it can play a decisive role of a super power in the century that
has just begun.

(http://fanawatch.com/index.php?do=news_view&id=189)