Recently, several Seminars and Conventions have been organised to discuss the implications of the Sachar Committee findings – at Gwalior, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Aurangabad and Ramgarh in Hazaribagh.
In Gwalior, the Indian Association of Lawyers organised a seminar on 27 May on the implications of Sachar Committee findings regarding the condition of minorities in India. The well-attended Seminar was presided over by the well-known Urdu poet Qasim Rasa, and one of the key speakers was Sachar Committee Member Prof. Rakesh Vasant, a professor of IIM Ahmedabad, and also Revolutionary Youth Association President Mohd. Salim. He said that the communal forces like the Sangh Parivar and BJP were responsible for whipping up hatred against the Muslim community and indulging in fascist pogroms. He also spoke of the role of the Congress and other professedly secular formations in bolstering legitimacy for various communal anti-Muslim myths – such as the myth of anti-nationalism.
At Darbhanga a Convention was held in the Town Hall on June 17 on ‘The Condition and Direction of Indian Muslims and Democracy – in the Mirror of Sachar Committee Report’. It was inaugurated by the National Convener of the Inquilabi Muslim Conference Comrade Ibnul Hasan Basru, who said that the recommendations of the Sachar Committee must certainly be implemented but Indian democracy must also seek an answer to the shameful crimes of the Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat genocide, Malegaon blasts, and the spate of extra-judicial and custodial killings and witch-hunt of Muslims. Noted Advocate of the Darbhanga Court Anwar Imam Hashmi, Inquilabi Muslim Conference leader Javed Baig, as well a range of educationists, peasant leaders and others also addressed the Convention. The key speaker at the Convention was CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the Sachar Committee had highlighted the social and economic backwardness and neglect of the Muslim community, but had avoided locating the political process responsible for this condition. The neglect of Indian Muslims is intimately linked to the politics of Congress-BJP and other so-called secular parties, all of which have embraced a pro-US position and implement anti-people policies at US behest. We need to link the struggle for Muslim empowerment with broader struggles against imperialism and for people’s democratic rights.
