Union Minister for Minority Affairs Najma Heptullah has courted fresh controversy after she said that Muslims did not need quota and must instead work towards self-reliance, with critics saying her remarks smacked of apathy to the socio-economic conditions of most Muslims in the country.
Ms. Heptulla’s remarks assume significance as they come on the heels of the Maharashtra government’s disinclination to bring a law to formalise a Bombay High Court judgment upholding five per cent reservation in education for Muslims in the State. In contrast, the BJP-Shiv Sena government granted 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs to the Marathas, even though the court had categorically struck down quota for the community.
Ms. Heptulla, who was addressing a gathering of minority and Waqf office-bearers in Mumbai on Saturday, said Muslims did not require the support of the crutches of reservation as it did not address their problem of unemployment. “Instead skill development would make minority youth self-sufficient,” she said.
Gulzar Azmi, secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, criticised Ms. Heptulla’s remarks asking how would Muslims fight for jobs when they didn’t even have access to basic education. “If you want to uplift them, as you say, you must take efforts to give them equal footing,” Mr. Azmi said.
He pointed out that the Muslim demand for reservation was not based on religion but on the findings of the Sachar Committee, that had pointed out that the community lived in more abysmal conditions than the Dalits.
Ms. Heptulla, in an attempt to push through her point, related her own experience in saying that she had risen to her level not because she was a Muslim availing herself of quota or a woman but due to the education provided to her by her parents. However, Ms. Heptulla’s detractors said her “insensitive” comments were borne out of her “privileged life”.
Congress MLA Amin Patel said Ms. Heptulla’s comments were not her own and she was merely “speaking the language of the RSS-BJP.” “She comes from a well-to-do family, lives in a bungalow, and is not aware of the condition of Muslims in the country,” Mr. Patel said.
He said the reservation for Muslims was not asked for the entire community but for the 57 communities that were identified as backward.
Outlining the government’s programme, Ms. Heptulla had said the activities of the National Minority Development and Financial Corporation (NMDFC) and the Maulana Azad National Academy for Skills (MANAS) were being expanded across the country. Four new regional officers of the NMDFC, which is New Delhi-based, would come up in Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Guwahati to cater to the entrepreneurial needs of the minorities in various regions. Under the MANAS initiative, it is targeted to provide jobs to 10,000 youth up to March, 31.
