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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Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly

28-01-2026 ¦ 28-01-2026 IST

Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma | PTI

New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.

“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.

The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.

Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.

“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.

“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.

In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.

“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.

The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.

According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.

On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.