[Reader-list] Statement :Joint Committee of Muslim Organizations for Empowerment

[Yogi Sikand]

30 July, 2007

Press Statement



The Congress Manifesto and the Common Minimum
Programme of the UPA followed by repeated assurances
by the Prime Minister to the Muslim Community for due
participation in governance and fair share in the
fruits of progress and development have raised high
expectations in the Muslim Community. Since its access
to power, the UPA has revised the Prime Minister's 15
Point Programme for the Welfare of the Minorities.
Subsequently, the government has been considering the
Report of the High power Sachar Committee on
educational, economic and social status of the Muslim
Community. The government has also appointed Justice
Ranganath Mishra Commission for considering the
question of reservation. This Commission has submitted
its report and its recommendations are in the public
domain and to a large extent supplement and complement
the recommendations of the Sachar Committee.

However,none of these recommendations are being
implemented adequately or expeditiously with the
urgency that they deserve. The Budget for 2006-07 did
not reflect the 15 Point Programme or the Sachar
recommendations. Except for vague guidelines for
implementation of the Programme and some cabinet
decisions on a few points of the Sachar Report and the
publication of a list of Minority Concentration
districts, no concrete measures for the uplift of the
Muslims have been spelt out. Consequently, the Muslim
Community has not yet experienced so far any increase
in access to government jobs or higher education or
bank credit or benefit of development schemes.

Now that the UPA government has completed more than 3
years, there is growing disappointment and frustration
in the Minorities particularly, the Muslim Community .

Muslim Organizations of national eminence, after wide
consultations reached the considered view that the
government has been moving slowly and is reluctant to
speed up implementation primarily because of the
pressure exerted by the political forces in the
country which are not sympathetic to the cause of the
Minorities and do not support any change in the status
quo. The Sachar Committee has clearly indicated that
after 60 years of independence the Muslim Community is
almost as backward as the SC/ST and is more backward
than even the non-Muslim OBC's. The anti minority
forces have been openly threatening to incite Hindu
masses and stirring a 'Hindu backlash' if the
government were to take any effective positive action
to uplift the Muslims.

The situation, therefore, calls for organized
mobilization by the Muslim Community not only to exert
pressure on the government but also to secure the
support of all secular forces including sympathetic
political parties and members of the intelligentsia
sympathetic to their legitimate aspirations. Peaceful
mobilization alone can place the case of uplift of the
Muslim Community on the national agenda in the larger
interest of the country as it forms nearly 1/6 of the
national population and its backwardness impedes the
overall progress of the country.

With this in view, major Muslim organizations of
namely, the Jamiat Ulema Hind, the Jamaat
Islami-e-Hind, the All India Muslim
Majlis-e-Mushawarat, the All India Milli Council, the
Jamiat Ahle Hadith, the Movement for Emplowerment of
Muslim Indians, All India Momin Conference, All India
Shia Conference and the All India Muslim Educational
Society and the Imarat-e-sharia, Bihar formed the
Joint Committee of Muslim Organizations for
Empowerment , with Mr. Syed Hamid, ex-Vice Chancellor,
AMU, as the Patron. It may be added that subsequent to
its formation, the All India Qaumi Tanzim, Student
Islamic Organization and the Popular Front of India
apart from several state level organizations have
joined the JCMOE

The JCMOE defined its overall objective as empowerment
of the Muslim Community through recognition as a
Backward Class with a separate sub-quota for
reservation in public employment, higher education,
fruits of development schemes and flow of bank credit
and the creation of a Muslim Sub-Plan. The JCMOE
formulated a Charter of Demands (attached) and has
established both a National Advisory Committee
consisting of the patron and the heads of associated
organizations and a National Organizing Committee.

The various associated organizations and their state
and district units jointly and severally,have been
organizing public meetings in various places and
submitting memoranda based on the Charter of Demands
to the state governments and the Central
government.The JCMOE has also been meeting the leaders
of various political parties and the members of the
government to plead the Muslim case.

The immediate demand of the Community is that there
should be in depth discussion on the situation of the
Muslim Community in the Parliament. In order to awaken
the conscience of the nation as well as to build a
national consensus and for urgent and effective line
of action to raise the educational and economic status
of the Community.

The National Advisory Committee assisted by the
National Organizing Committee held a meeting on 27
July, 2007, reviewed the progress of the mobilization
campaign and decided to organize a 'token dharna' by
the leaders of member organizations at Jantar Mantar,
New Delhi, on 14 August, 2007 and submission of
memoranda to the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the
Lok Sabha and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

It was also decided to appeal to the Imams of Masjids
in the country to relate their Khutbas on successive
Fridays to the Charter of Demands.

It was also decided that in addition to the meetings
at the district level, the states JCMOE's shall hold
meetings public meeting in the state capitals of all
13 states of Muslim concentration during the period 10
August to 14 September, 2007.

t has also decided to authorize the states JCMOE's to
organize Bandhs by the Muslim Community on suitable
dates.

It was also decided that a Muslim Rally shall be
organized in New Delhi with the participation of
contingents from all over the country in the second
week of September.

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National Organizing Committee

Mujtaba Farooque (JIH) Navaid Hamid (MOEMIN)
A.H.Nomani (JUH) Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan (AIMMM) Mauji
Khan (AIMC) Maulana Aquilur Gharvi (AISC) Dr.
S.Q.R.Ilyas (Afkar-e-Milli) Amanullah Khan (U.P.Rabita
Committee) Dr. K.K.Usman (Forum of Faith and
Fraternity) , Ml. Abdul Karim Madani, Jamiat Ahle
Hadis

Coordinators

Mujtaba Farooque (JIH) 9810499096

Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan (AIMMM) Mobile: 9811142151

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Authorized for Publication:

New Delhi,

30 July, 2007 (Dr. S.Q. R. Ilyas)