Is the aged Congress bidding goodbye to the Minorities?

Vartha Bharati | 04-04-2019 | 14:49:00 IST

"We don't give tickets to Muslims" said K.S. Eeshwarappa, a veteran BJP leader of Karnataka recently. That blunt statement was discussed in a few circles but did not surprise anybody as people were accustomed to more uncharitable remarks from this leader and others in his Party. Muslims of Karnataka were however shocked when their own favorite Congress party conveyed them the same message without using so many words.

The party has asked the Community in Karnataka to be content with a mere single seat, while the Community wasexpecting at least 4 of its members to be fielded as Congress candidates in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections 2019. As the contributions of the Community and its long standing loyalty to the Congress party is well acknowledged, it was natural for the Muslim Community to look forward to some reciprocation and rewards from the Party. Its demand forfielding its members as Congress Candidates in at least 4 Lok Sabha constituencies was justified considering both the demography and the history of those constituencies. With some persuasion, the Community would have accepted 3 seats. But no serious negotiation was held in this regard with the leaders of the Community. In fact the Community lostits innocent hope of getting 4 seats, only when the Party announced the names of the candidates for the first phase of polling in the state and only one Muslim candidate found a place in that list. It was really a frustrating experience for the Community. Now inevitably, they were preparing themselves to be content with mere 2 seats. They had no doubt that a Muslim candidate will be fielded from Dharwad. But alas, the party refused to show even a minimum level of sensitivity towards the Community and totally disappointed them by depriving them of the Dharwad seat too. The message was quite loud and clear. The Congress party indirectly told them almost the same thing that Eeshwarappa had stated directly - of course, with the narrow margin of mere one seat.

Then came the most awaited Election Manifesto 2019, with the most unforeseen pack of shocks. The new Manifesto in fact delivered the final blow to all the bond that the Community had with the age old Party. Leaders of the Community who in the past used to complain that their trusted Party has consistently failed to deliver on its promises were now shocked to see the Party refusing even to make the basic promises. Leaders of the various sects and organisations of the Community had met the Central leaders of the Party long before this Manifesto was launched and had complained to them that the Party Manifesto of 2014 was incomplete and had failed to state any significant commitment towards the Community. They had insisted that the new Manifesto must expressly promise that recommendations of the Justice Sachar Committe, Justice Ranganath Mishra Committee, Prof. Amitabh Kundu Committee, Partly the recommendations of the Sudhir Commission of Telangana will be duly implemented and must outlay the time plan for the implementation of these recommendations. Those who had ignored the fact that the Party had inducted only one member from the Muslim Community in the 19 member Manifesto Committee, are now left with no doubt at all that the Congress Party is swiftly moving towards the suicidal policy of Zero representation to Muslim Community. It is obvious now that instead of fighting the Communalism of BJP the Congress Party has resorted to outwit BJP by being more Communal.

The Congress Party has always been notorious for taking Muslim votes absolutely for granted and also for practically being the B Team of BJP in terms of its attitude towards the Minorities. To the utter disappointment of those who hoped for any positive change in the attitude of the Party under the new leadership, things have changed only for the worse. If the latest Manifesto is any indication, the Party has for the first time, decided to stop even pretending to have any compassion towards the Religious Minorities in the Country. In a radical departure from its own tradition, the manifesto does not offer any independent slot to discuss the issues related to the Religious Minorities. Rather, it has clubbed them with the Linguistic Minorities and thereby manifested the latest unwritten policy of the party that is close to refuse recognition even to the existence of the Religious Minorities as a distinct entity.

Those who are under an illusion that the Congress Party might some day grow up to serve as a formidable Secular force in the country will have to embark on a search operation through the recently released electoral Manifesto of the Party even to be able to see any mention of the Religious Minorities. In fact there is no separate section for the religious minorities in the Manifesto while there are such section for almost all other important segments of the society. The promises and the commitments of the party for almost all important segments of the society have been laid out in the document in the form of 53 banners under 9 chapters. Religious minorities find a place only in a remote corner of the Manifesto, clubbed with the Linguistic Minorities (under the 39th banner, titled 'Religious And Linguistic Minorities' in Page 22). There are in total, 11 points under this banner and at least 6 of them are exclusively about the Linguistic Minorities, leaving the Religious Minorities with only 5 points in the new Manifesto. Except for a commitment to provide security against hate crimes nothing significant is found in this section.

Thus the Party from its side has completed the process of saying a loud Goodbye to the religious Minorities.

Of course there is a possibility, a tricky one, that can not be ruled out. Is the Congress Party so adversely influenced by the 'appeasement' propaganda that it wants to go out of the way to disprove the charge by teaching lessons to the Minorities? Or is the Party doing all this to provoke the Minorities to protest against the congress and show that as evidence to prove that Congress is on the course of agonizing the minorities rather than appeasing them. In any case a loud and effective protest against this hypocrisy of the Congress Party is urgently called for.

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Ex-Army officer assaulted, robbed at gunpoint by woman he met through matrimonial website

05-04-2025 ¦ 05-04-2025 IST

Representational Image | PC: Meta AI

Mathura(UP), Apr 5 (PTI): A retired Army colonel from Haryana has filed a police complaint here, alleging that he was held hostage, assaulted, looted and forced to participate in an "obscene video" at gunpoint with a woman he met through a matrimonial website, police said on Saturday.

The woman from Mathura, who was allegedly in on the plan to rob him, was working with other accomplices, the ex-armyman said in his complaint filed on Thursday.

According to Barsana Station House Officer (SHO) Raj Kamal Singh, Colonel Rajneesh Soni (retired), a resident of Gurugram, reported that he was contacted by a woman from Barsana on a matrimonial website in January. The woman allegedly agreed to marry him, and they began communicating.

The woman allegedly persuaded the colonel to visit Barsana on January 25, requesting that he visit the Radharani temple. When he arrived, she arranged for his stay at a guest house and took him on a tour of the area, including a visit to the temple, the complainant said.

After returning to the guest house, the woman and her accomplices allegedly told the colonel that her brother had been involved in an accident and they needed to leave immediately. They then led him to a waiting car.

"Once outside the town limits, the colonel alleges that he was attacked by the occupants of the car. They seized his phone, physically assaulted him, and forced him to contact relatives and friends to transfer money," the SHO said.

"He was then taken back to the guest house, where he was allegedly forced to participate in obscene videos and photographs at gunpoint. He was threatened that the videos would be made public if he reported the incident," the officer said.

The colonel has alleged that his purse, bag, gold chain, debit card and Rs. 12,000 in cash were stolen from the guest house.

After an unsuccessful attempt at locating the perpetrators himself, the colonel finally reported the incident to the Barsana police two days ago, he said.

"A case has been registered under relevant sections of the BNS and all facts are being investigated. Further action will be taken as per facts found in the investigation," the SHO said.