The Hindu : Secular parties urged to unite to fight NDA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 29, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Secular parties urged to unite to fight NDA

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE, MARCH 28. The All-India Milli Council (AIMC) has urged secular parties to forget their likes and dislikes and unite to fight the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The secular parties had lost their chance earlier, following the BJP-led coalition Government's fall in 1999. But now, it was pertinent that the secular forces close their ranks instead of letting the NDA coalition come to power to push its hidden fascist and communal agenda, urged the AIMC white paper on the performance of the NDA Government from 1998-2004, which was released to the press by the AIMC State general convener, K.M. Ashraf, here today.

Declaring that it would not fall prey to the BJP's new-found love for Muslims, the AIMC's white paper also stated that the community was not impressed by the NDA Government's performance in the past five years. The NDA coalition had failed to fulfil its own 42-point National Agenda for Governance (NAG), it said.

Claims such as the allocation for Urdu promotional activities increasing ten-fold during the NDA regime and two major schemes for minorities' education— Area Intensive Programme for Educationally Backward Minorities and the Scheme of Financial Assistance of Modernisation of Madrassas— merged as a comprehensive scheme were just election propaganda, the white paper said.

Sops doled out to the Muslims in the last five years like increasing embarkation points for the Haj from five to 13, hiking the Haj Committee quota from 66,000 to 72,000, starting training camps for Haj pilgrims, granting Rs 100 crores to madrassas for modernisation, etc. did not attract the community due to its "lack of faith in the BJP ''.

The NDA Government had sanctioned Rs 2.5 crores for construction of `rain basera' at Ajmer Sharief, opened Maulana Azad Sadbhavna Kendras, improved relations with Pakistan, and had taken steps to decrease violence in Jammu and Kashmir. But the BJP had not changed its approach to contentious issues such as uniform civil code, building of temples in Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura.

It alleged that the BJP was trying to surpass other parties in showing concern for the Muslim community because of the changes that had come after the Assembly poll in four States in 2003 in which the Muslim vote percentage had reportedly increased. The Muslim vote obtained by the BJP was 23 per cent in Chhattisgarh, 11 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 10 per cent in Rajasthan and 12 per cent in Delhi according to a post-election survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), it pointed out.

"The trend had actually forced the BJP to make some cosmetic changes. That is the reason why the party had organised a minority development conference at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on February 25, 2004. The BJP's parent body, RSS, too endorsed its new -found love for Muslims, '' the white paper said.

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