The Hindu : National : We are concerned about deprived communities including Muslims: Pranab

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We are concerned about deprived communities including Muslims: Pranab

Amit Baruah

We are concerned about our deprived communities: Pranab

— Photo: PTI

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Naseem Ahmad at the 57th convocation of the university in Aligarh on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government will be "judged" by the extent to which it can "bring change" to the lives of "our marginalised masses," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Aligarh on Saturday.

Delivering the annual convocation address of the Aligarh Muslim University, Mr. Mukherjee said: "I am aware that the assault on our secular order is taking place even as there are deep concerns about the standing of the larger Muslim community in India, which, particularly in north India, is seen as being deprived and marginalised."

With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections just a month away, the External Affairs Minister said no nation could aspire to greatness when large sections were excluded from achievement and progress.

Muslims' plight

"I would like to convey to you... that as a responsible and responsive Government, we are deeply concerned about the status of our deprived communities, including the Muslim community, and we stand committed to ensuring that matters pertaining to their welfare and progress are addressed," he said, at the University founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

Rejecting the notion that socio-economic development could be taken care of through a simplistic adherence to the "trickle-down theory of economics," the Minister called for vigorous governmental action at the grassroots-level where "such" deprived communities existed.

Without naming a party or organisation, Mr. Mukherjee said there were those "within our body politic" who defined our history and nationhood in "exclusivist terms."

"In the debate pertaining to the idea of India, we are all denied the luxury of academic detachment. We have to enter the debating hall and vigorously combat elements preaching the exclusivist ideology with all its passionate simplification and alluring appeal," he told the students.

Rejects thesis

According to him, the forces that had promoted the Partition of India on a communal basis were "consistently supported by our imperialist masters, who saw in the division a long-term value in terms of their strategic interests in South, Central and West Asia."

The Minister argued that India, with it rich history of linkages to other parts of Asia, and its adherence to the values of democracy and secularism, was "well-equipped" to participate in the global effort that rejected the "clash of civilisations" thesis and promoted dialogue.

India's foreign policy was a product of its history, geopolitical setting and the needs and aspirations of its people as distilled by its democratic institutions.

"It also has to reflect our national ethos of secularism and democracy."

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