An increasing realisation is dawning upon the minorities in India that most political parties remain aloof from their problems and their issues crop up only when elections are round the corner. The political parties, except paying lip service and making empty promises, do nothing substantial to improve the miserable state of affairs of the minorities.

It is also being realised that by professing to be secular, political parties championing the cause of the minorities, want to grab the initiative to demonstrate that they are true custodians of secularism in the country.

The irony is that after more than 50 years of independence, this thinking continues to lure the minorities, sidelining their real problems and keeping them neglected as ever.

Recently, a new twist has come into this thinking, as those who professed to be championing the cause of the minorities are being dubbed as pseudo-secularists, pandering to vote bank politics. Those who oppose pro-minority politics mobilise the majority community on a strident anti-minority campaign saying if the majority community is not united, then the minorities would grab political power.

Caught in the cross fire of competitive politics, the Muslims in India are the single largest religious minority community in the country. To have a clear look as to what colossal neglect has helped shape the Muslim community, let me quote some statistics. Muslims, who constitute 12 per cent of the population, officially hold only 6.6 per cent of public sector jobs. They hold less than six per cent of jobs in the private sector.

Muslims have limited access to the power structure. They are under-represented in the country’s administrative bureaucratic structure. Their representation in the national police force is less than five per cent. In the Central services, their representation is less than three per cent. Is this not one of the shocking failures of independent India?

Like its majority counterpart, Muslims too are not a monolithic entity. They are as diverse as the country itself, their problems as multifaceted as those of the rest of the country. Their real problem hinges around basic human and citizenship rights. They face the problem of illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, communal pressure and the right to live with dignity and honour. They want an end to riots, which have become a common feature.

Fearing majority backlash, no political parties would like to espouse their cause. Muslims in India have been made the proverbial cat beset with the problem as to who would tie the bell round its neck. It is said that the problems of the Muslims are linked with the partition of India, which happened over 50 years ago but still haunts the Indian psyche. It ensured for the minorities complete equality of citizenship, including fundamental rights. This approach of the Indian government towards its minorities continues to remain the bedrock of Indian secularism, at least in the pages of the Constitution. However, in the course of our journey since independence, we find constant erosion of the ideals set before us by our founding fathers. It is common to hear the lament of the dilution of the Indian secular consensus. If we look back a decade preceding the partition of India, we find the Congress Mass Contact Programme with the Muslims in 1937 was the last effort made to sincerely address the problems of the minorities. The Hindu right wing that came to dominate the political scene shortly before independence became defensive for a while, following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. This allowed room for the ‘secular consensus’ to establish a foothold in the country. Muslim leaders such as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Zakir Hussain helped Nehru to uphold the democratic and secular values in India. In fact, it was Maulana Azad’s hard-hitting speech from Delhi’s historic Jama Masjid, which stopped lakhs of Muslims from migrating to Pakistan.

However, in the post-1947 period, the task of de-linking nationalism from the communalism that lay before the secularist proved to be Herculean. As the right wing forces started asserting themselves, the centrist and left forces started losing ground. The centrist parties, instead of making any sincere efforts, started making political compromises.

In fact, the erosion of secularism began with Indira Gandhi, the most powerful lady in this country. Electoral politics came in her way and linkages between communalism and politics began to dominate her political agenda. She compromised with secularism at every stage for political gain. More than anyone else, it was the ‘Iron Lady of India’ who cultivated the nationalism of communalists in this country. Advani and company just emerged at the right time to reap the political harvest.

Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, tried hard to uphold the legacy of his grandfather, but his shoulders were too weak to carry the burden of the heavy cultural baggage of India. Eventually, Rajiv too succumbed to communalist pressures.

The political dynamics that have emerged in recent times see the role of the minorities in a very limited sense. Even the secular parties shy away from giving them significant representation. If we make a head search, we hardly find any Muslim leader who can match the stature of Maulana Azad or Zakir Hussain in contemporary India.

The job of the Muslim leaders is confined to mobilising their community’s vote bank. Their utility ends once the ballots are cast. This has a devastating impact on the psyche of the minority.