Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 27, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Cong_mulls_sops_to_secure_Muslim_votes/articleshow/2313027.cms
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: Given the
way secularism is practiced in India, the intellectuals will authenticate
this strategy of the Congress party, and continue to give it a certificate
of being an authentic secular organisation!]
Spooked by the prospect that the Indo-US nuclear
deal might put its Muslim vote bank at risk, the Congress-led UPA government
is working on a special economic package for minorities based on findings
of Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely
to announce the package after a debate in Parliament.
Crisis managers in Congress have taken this
route not just to pre-empt the Opposition denting the Muslim votebank but
to deflect the Left's campaign against India cosying up to the US. According
to Congress sources, Singh may announce the package before the 123 Agreement
is put to debate in Parliament in early September. There are chances that
the nuke debate under the non-voting motion in Parliament will be deferred
to September instead of the earlier schedule - August 28 and 29.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress leaders maintain
that the package being crafted on the lines of the 15-point programme that
the PM has already announced for Muslims will help them score over the Left
Front government in West Bengal.
"The Sachar Committee report has bared
the plight of the Muslims in West Bengal. Only 2.1% of the Muslims in West
Bengal have got government jobs under the 30-year Front rule, when the percentage
stood at 5.8 when Siddhartha Shankar Ray was the chief minister. A comparison
with Congress-ruled Assam and Uttar Pradesh under Mayawati reveals that Muslims
have been deprived in Left ruled Bengal," leader of the Congress Legislative
Party in West Bengal Manas Bhuniya said.
The Pradesh Congress will build pressure on
the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to circulate the findings of the Sachar
Committee.
"The Left Front government has not implemented
the PM's 15-point economic programme for the Muslims even. The Communists
seem more keen on creating confusion on a nuclear deal that the Prime Minister
has signed on national interests. Their objections have only made our neighbours
such as China and Pakistan happy," Bhuniya said.
The Pradesh Congress plans a campaign on these
lines in the first week of September to counter the Left's anti-US protests.
