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In the Seminar on
"How to effectively protect Human Rights"
Organised by
Mr. Chairman, dear brothers and friends.
I feel great pleasure and honor in being in your company in this Meet which has been organised to devise ways and means for safeguarding the Human Rights of Dalits and Muslims. The Indian Peace Keepers, the Organizers of this Seminar, deserve our thanks for espousing a great cause, the cause of the amelioration of the pitiable conditions of the oppressed and persecuted Communities of the country who, despite being in majority have been reduced to second class citizens due to the denial and suppression of their Human Rights.
Human Rights are not man-made but have divine origin. They are like air, water, sunshine and all other divine bounties. Addressing the mankind in the Holy Quran, the Creator and the Lord of the Worlds, declares:
"It is We Who have(Surat VII Al-A'raf (The Heights, Ayat 10)
The divine scheme in the creation of man on this earth with all the divine bounties thereon was that every man should have free access to "all the material things which are necessary to sustain, beautify and refine life as well as to those powers, faculties and opportunities which are instrumental in bringing up life to a higher plane and preparing man for his high destiny". But as in the case of freedom we find that though all men and women were horn equally free with the passage of time some men usurped freedom for themselves and put others under chains and fetters so in the case of human rights also we find that though all men and women were horn with equal rights gradually and slowly some of them reserved all the important rights for themselves and restrained others from enjoying the same. In this great land of ours also there was a time when the original inhabitants enjoyed equal rights and lived in peace and prosperity. The Aryans, living in a distant lands received reports of the good fortune of our ancestors, developed avarice and greed and invaded and forcibly occupied our land and killed, oppressed and persecuted our ancestors, usurped everything that belonged to them, suppressed and denied their human rights and reduced them to a worse-than-slave condition. They also tried to sanctify the suppression and denial of the human rights of the original inhabitants of this country by introducing so-called religious scriptures in which the original inhabitants were described as Shudras who were deprived of human rights. The Code of Manu was promulgated as a Divine Law whereby the original inhabitants were restrained from enjoying their human rights. They turned India into an unjust vertical caste-based society in which the Brahmins were at the top and the Shudras were at the bottom and the other castes were superior to one and inferior to another. The original inhabitants fought and have been fighting to this day against the injustice and indignity heaped on them by the invaders. The real history of India since the Aryan invasion of this land till today is, in fact, the history of wars, clashes and conflicts between the original inhabitants and the Aryan invaders, with the former struggling to regain their lost paradise and the latter maneuvering to retain their occupied territory.
India is a member of the UNO and a signatory to the Charter of the United Nations, 1945, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, the International Convenient on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1976, the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief, 1981. But despite our Country's commitment to all those international instruments, the ground reality within the country is that Dalits and Muslims are victims of discrimination and denial of human rights. One glaring example of this situation was brought to light by Murli Krishnan on March 18, 1994 through the Telegraph, Calcutta. He Wrote: "Contrary to the principles of secularism enshrined in the Constitution, the Government does not have any Muslims working in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)". Vir Sanghvi elaborated the matter in Sunday (27th March - 02 April, 1994): "This is, we feel, Just a glimpse of how our Government, at the highest level, treats secularism. It appears as if to them, every Muslim is a potential traitor, out to leak or sell State secrets!…………. Each time a double agent has been uncovered, he has been a Hindu and the betrayal has been occasioned not by extra national loyalties but by a case of Scotch, the promise of green card, a few thousand rupees in used notes and, in one celebrated case, an overdose of rumpy-pumpy". IB and RAW are not the only instances of discrimination against Muslims. In all strategic and Defence services and positions Muslims are treated similarly. The proportion of the representation of Muslims in general services and in economic and educational fields also is, according to the reports of authentic surveys, far far below the proportion of their population. The statistics gathered by Dr. Gopal Singh on the Economic condition of Muslims and Dalits was and is an eye-opener but the powers-that-be never cared to improve upon their economic condition.
In the field of Politics, the representation of Muslims has been steadily falling in every democratic institution and has never been in proportion to their population. The present Lok Sabha was constituted in 1991 when the population of Muslims in the country, according to 1991 census, was 12.12 percent. In view of their population their should have been at least 66 Muslim members in the Lok Sabha but there are only 17 of them. The representation of Muslims in the democratic institutions at lower levels such as State Assemblies, Municipal Corporations, Municipalities, Zilla Parishads, Panchayat Samities etc. is no better, rather still worse. Their percentage varies in inverse proportion to their population. What is true of Muslims is true of Dalits also and, in fact, Muslims are categorised the Dalit population into the minorities, SC and ST etc. in order to divide and rule. It is due to this artificial division of the Dalit population that during the 44 years of so-called democratic rule no government was headed by a Dalit Prime Minister and, under the present system, no Dalit can aspire to become the Prime Minister because no political Party on either side of the political divide is projecting a Dalit as the future Prime Minister.
The qualitative representation of Dalits and Muslims in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas is worse than their numerical representation. The reservation of seats for
SC, ST in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas has turned out to be a tool in the hand of the powers-that-be to get their stooges elected on those reserved seats. The majority of the SC, ST and Muslim members on those legislative bodies is, like the elephant's tusk, more for show than for any useful purpose. The politics of our country is in the hands of major political parties whose nexus with the criminals is now well known. Almost all such parties are under the control of Brahmanwadi brains. In such a scenario and system we cannot hope for a proportionate, genuine and effective representation of Dalits and Muslims in the democratic institutions of the country.
Vigilance, it is said, is the price of liberty. Vigilance is also the price of attaining the educational rights, economic rights, religious, cultural rights, democratic rights and all other human rights. But vigilance does not mean only a passive assessment of a situation and the perception of the dangers inherent therein. We have had enough of that. We know that despite several guarantees in the Constitution which, it appears, were incorporated more for show than for show than for implementation, the plight of Dalits and Muslims have not improved in the 48 years of independence and they have been subjected to genocide and discrimination of all sorts. The Operation Blue Star in Golden Temple, the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the thousands of anti-Muslim, anti-SC, anti-ST and anti-Sikh riots, loss of lives in thousands and loss of properties in billions, insignificant representation in economic and educational fields are some of the glaring examples of this gruesome fact. Article 44 of the Constitution is hanging like the Sword of Damocles on the Muslims of India. A common Civil Code to replace the Shariat Law regulating the personal and family matters of the Muslims of India was never needed, is not needed and will never be needed to serve any national cause or purpose. India's unity has always been a unity in diversity. In terms of culture, ethnicity, religion, languages, customs and usage's etc. India is not a Monolith and any attempt to convert it into Monolith by legislation or force will have far reaching consequences and will be dangerous to the unity and integrity of the country. When all Indians do not have a common mother-tongue or a common life-style and in many spheres of life they think and act differently what is the need of a common civil code touching their personal and family matters. The sooner Article 44 is thrown out of the constitution the better.
The discrimination against Dalits and Muslims is widespread and all pervasive. In the enumeration during census operations, in the preparation of voters-lists, in the delimitation of electoral constituencies, in the setting up polling booths, in the preparation of text-books, particularly history books, in the serials on DD; in the news stories and write-ups in papers and magazines, in speeches by leaders and politicians, in short, in every matter, the bias against Dalits and Muslims is clearly discernible.
Vigilance means and includes the will and capacity to take necessary action to prevent a wrong and procure a right. The first and foremost duty of Muslims and Dalits, in the existing circumstances, is to awake, arise and act. Our enemies are, no doubt, powerful and are using and will use all the Kautalyan methods to divide and discourage us but we should have faith in the truth and righteousness of our cause and must know that the sword of truth and righteousness is mightier than any other sword. We must take inspiration from the divine promise, contained in Surat 35, Ayats 10-11, to fight for a just cause:
"He who seeks glory and power, to Allah belong all glory and power. To Him ascend good words, and He exalts righteous deeds.. But those who plot evil shall be sternly punished. And the plotting of those will come to nothing."
Any action-plan by Muslims and Dalits to secure for themselves a share in each and every aphere of life proportionate to their population will be successful only when they will act untidily. Muslims and Dalits must, therefore, unite on one platform and under one banner and fight untidily to secure their legitimate rights.
The agenda for any action plan by Muslims and Dalits is very vast but the first item on the top of the agenda is the need to secure genuine representation for themselves in every democratically elected body in the country in proportion to their population and, to achieve that objective, to get the Constitution and the Election Laws suitably amended. The present election system has so far failed to produce any truly representative popular national or state government. In most cases the governments which came to power as a result of the elections held under the existing laws did not represent even the majority of those who voted. Normally a candidate getting thirty to forty percent of the polled votes gets elected. Another aspect of the matter is that elections are at times rigged and bogus votes are cast in the name of genuine voters. Muslims and Dalits are the worst victims of the present election system.
The first and foremost task before the Dalits and Muslims of India is to fight for necessary amendments in the Constitution and the election laws to ensure that their genuine representatives in proportion to their population are elected to all the democratic institutions in the country. The task is difficult but not impossible. If we, the Dalits and Muslims of India, work with unity, faith and discipline, we can certainly change the course of events.