Indira Gandhi's policy towards Indian Muslims was nothing but a cynical exploitation spread over a decade and half. Its elements were promises galore coupled with administrative cosmetics. Both were designed to attract and also cover up unredressed grievances and unresolved problems. The record bears a documented recall...

Hinduism of Congress Culture

...Her Party's general secretary C.M. Stephen could freely declare in 1983 that the wavelength of Hindu culture and Congress culture is the same... Indira Gandhi did not contradict Stephen. She acted to prove him right.

On November 11, 1983 she addressed a public meeting at Kurukshetra beside Sanhit Sarova. That on this occasion she should have thought of reminding the minorities of their duties towards the country of their birth reveals the transformation that had come over her. Referring to Kashmir, she said that attempts were being made to create a situation for another 'Dharma Yudh'...

A few days earlier, on November 3, she had participated in an Arya Samaj function. Seema Mustafa's report in The Telegraph graphically described her performance, 'She agreed with Mr. Bhodhoo that 'our religion and traditions' were under attack. She did not use the word 'Hindu' but the reference to the earlier speaker left the audience in no doubt that the prime minister was speaking as a Hindu leader.'

...Nehru said on January 5, 1961, 'When the minority communities are communal, you can see that and understand it. But the communalism of a majority community is apt to be taken for nationalism... He told the AICC once (May 11, 1958), the 'communalism of the majority is far more dangerous than the communalism of the minority.' On May 31, 1984, she assured the majority community that striving to give minorities their privileges did not mean that the government was careless or negligent towards the rights and privileges of the majority. This was surely uncalled for. It suggested a conflict where none existed. But what she added was even more revealing: 'If there is injustice to them (majority) or if they did not get their rights, then it would be more dangerous to the integrity of the country.'

Indira Gandhi had by then moved far away from Nehru's credo. She had begun injecting a sense of insecurity in the minds of the majority community and forged an electoral strategy on that basis. The dastardly crime which removed her from our midst enabled Rajiv Gandhi to pursue that strategy more effectively. As the votes were being counted in 1984, Jagjivan Ram cried: 'It is a vote for Hindu India... on the basis of the constant mention of the Anandpur Sahib resolution and the deliberate omission of Muslims from his (Rajiv Gandhi's) speeches. Of course, Muslims voted for the Congress(I). But what for? They have to vote for the Congress(I) because they have to live in this country...'

The politics which Indira Gandhi followed towards the Muslims did little to ameliorate their situation and a lot to add to their frustration. They fostered a false image of pampering. In reality, the processes of redress were not even begun in earnest.

...The image of 'protector' of Muslims interests lingered long after the Muslims had become no more than a vote bank on which to draw freely while resenting intensely their asserting their rights independently of her or supporting any party but hers. The plight of the Muslims did not improve one bit by 15 years of Indira Gandhi's 'championship' of their rights. On the contrary, the community stagnated in its political stupor.

Communal Violence

Consider first the basic issue of sheer physical survival against communal violence. Indira Gandhi's record of checking riots was an abysmal one. Some of the worst riots in UP took place in 1972 when she herself held the home portfolio. They were not exactly communal riots. As a responsible correspondent reported on March 15, 1973, 'investigations have revealed that the atrocities on Muslims in most of the recent riots in UP were committed not by members belonging to the majority community but the police. They were triggered off by her violation of a solemn electoral pledge on the restoration of the Aligarh Muslim University's status as an educational institution established by a minority... For the first time since independence the demoralised Muslim minority plucked courage to protest against a wrong by demonstrating in the streets. Police repression greeted them. This is how the Aligarh riots begun on June 5, 1972.

Statewise protests were called for on June 16, 1972, a Friday. Riots erupted in Ferozabad and Varanasi. On July 27, 1972 when the state assembly discussed the disturbances, Charan Singh referred to the loss of life and property suffered by Muslims in the two towns and said that there were no communal riots because Hindus had neither been killed nor suffered loss of property. The affair was between the government and the Muslim community. He rightly pointed out that in a democracy religious communities had a right to protest against particular government actions affecting them. The Congress government's attitude was that the Muslims were impertinent and importunate. Charan Singh maintained that at Ferozabad all Muslim houses burnt were around the Kotwali and the Muslims had told him that they had no complaints against Hindus but every complaint against the Provincial Armed Constabulary. A correspondent in the Hindustan Times (August 15, 1972) was more explicit about the source. “A single PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) man, it is reported, had made as much as Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 6,000 from the loot. Socialism, indeed!”

N.G. Goray, MP wrote to Indira Gandhi on August 28, pointing out that as many as 66 people had been killed in Ferozabad. “The Muslim community in that town seems to have been the target of every conceivable form of cruelty: looting, stabbing, shooting, burning, molesting, raping. The most shameful thing is that all this was freely indulged in by the forces of law and order in collusion with local goondas.” Indira Gandhi brushed him off. “The Commissioner and the Inspector-general of Police did not find any substance in the allegation that the police in General had run amuck.”

Unchecked, the riots spread. In Dadri on September 21, 35 Muslim homes were burnt. In Nonari 72 Muslim houses were razed to the ground on November 15. In Sajni, on December 12, about 100 Muslim houses were looted and 43 burnt. Riots followed in Ranimaur (December 29), Durgajot (January 23), Gond (February 14) and Basti. In May 1973 there were communal riots in Delhi itself in Sadar Bazar.

Ample evidence emerged later to show that Indira Gandhi was fully aware of the outrages perpetrated during the emergency and condoned them. On April 27, 1976, Subhadra Joshi wrote to Indira Gandhi: “It is difficult to describe what happened in Jama Masjid and Turkman Gate... You have entrusted Delhi and the Muslims of Delhi, whose houses we guarded, and who had been assured by you, to a few officers and few others whose intention and sanity you yourself would start doubting if you knew the whole thing.” Shortly after her return to power came the Moradabad riots in 1980. As G.K. Reddy was moved to remark, “For the first time after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, as many as 130 people have died in a single incident in Moradabad” on August 13, 1980, the day of Ramzan Id. A UP cabinet minister, A.R. Nashtar, said on August 16 that police excesses on the Muslims in Moradabad simply had no parallel.

But on August 28, 1980 Indira Gandhi characterised the incidents in Moradabad as part of a major conspiracy “to undermine the stability of the government.” The Congress(I) Working Committee the next day said that they showed “a degree of preparedness to provoke confrontation with governmental authority.” As in 1972, the PAC was defended and its victims condemned....

Moradabad was followed by riots in Aligarh, Allahabad, Godhra, Biharsharif, Nalanda, Hyderabad, Baroda, Pune, Phulwarisharif, Delhi, Meerut and worst of all, in Assam in 1983. Even after Meerut, where the PAC’s atrocities have earned the censure of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, Indira Gandhi deprecated in parliament, on February 24, 1983, what she called sweeping con- [text cut off]

Moradabad was followed by riots in Aligarh, Allahabad, Godhra, Biharsharif, Nalandа, Hyderabad, Baroda, Pune, Phulwarisharif, Delhi, Meerut and worst of all, in Assam in 1983. Even after Meerut, where the PAC’s atrocities have earned the censure of Justice J.V.R. Krishna Iyer, Indira Gandhi decried in parliament, on February 24, 1983, what she called sweeping condemnation of the PAC in Meerut.

On May 15, 1983 at Hardwar she asserted that there were no communal riots when the Congress(I) or Janata rule was responsible for them. The figures tell a different and grisly tale...

Public Employment

Next only to the right to life comes the right to a livelihood. Equality of opportunity in state employment sets an example for the rest. Its denial there, likewise, affects the entire society. Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election manifesto contained an admission of wrong coupled with a promise of redress. It pledged the removal of “present discrimination(sic) against minorities in the matter of recruitment in services.”

The promise remained unfulfilled.

Even today the state of Muslim representation in the public services is pitiable. As on January 1, 1981 there were just 116 Muslim IAS officers out of a total of 3,883 and 50 IPS officers out of 1,753—roughly 3 per cent. In Class I/Executive cadre, Muslims formed 1.61 per cent of the total number of central government employees, 3.30 per cent of state government employees and 3.19 per cent of public corporations.

In 1973 it was decided not to compile statistics on minority representation in the services. But it has come out that Muslims constituted 2.2 per cent of the officers and 4.2 per cent of the CRP. As on November 15, 1983 there were exactly five Muslims in the entire central secretariat of the rank of joint secretary and above out of a total of over 300 in these ranks.

Even nominations to the boards of public sector corporations and nationalised banks, where there are no hurdles to overcome, show a total indifference to Muslims. They constitute above 2 per cent of the total number. Who has been keeping the Muslims out of the national mainstream here?

TABLE

(Source: Union Home Ministry)

Urdu

The 1971 manifesto contained a similar admission of lapse and promise of redress in regard to Urdu.

“Urdu shall be given its due place which has been denied(sic) to it so far.”

If anything the position of Urdu has deteriorated, since Indira Gandhi’s government set up the Gurdial Committee on May 5, 1972 but suppressed report submitted on May 8, 1975. It was published by the Janata government in 1979.

Congress(I) MLAs prevented 10 MLAs in UP from taking their oath in Urdu. Indira Gandhi herself prevented chief minister V.P. Singh from promulgating an ordinance declaring Urdu as the second official language. It was even signed by the governor on December 29, 1981 but withdrawn on January 14, 1982 before it was gazetted. Nor did she pull up the excise minister Vasudeo Singh who, on March 22, 1984, opposed the very introduction of an official bill to enact as law an anaemic ordinance which had been made.

In all of Uttar Pradesh, the home of Urdu, there was during this period not a single Urdu-medium school at the secondary level as the high school and intermediate board decided not to grant permission for teaching through the medium of Urdu beyond class VIII in 1952. To make matters worse, in 1984, a new syllabus was introduced which made it impossible for a student to offer Urdu unless he is backward or unambitious. The constitutional guarantees for education in the mother tongue (was) reduced to a farce. The centre’s enormous power to enforce the guarantees remained unused.

Minorities Commission

Indira Gandhi's manifesto for 1980 promised to 'strengthen and give statutory status to the Minorities Commission'. The Minorities Commission was not given statutory status. Worst of all, its independence and integrity were subverted by appointing as chairman M.H. Beg...

Gopal Singh Panel

The Manifesto also promised appointment of a High Power panel... to consider whether these groups receive the benefits of the government's fiscal policies. The Panel, headed by Gopal Singh, submitted its report (on Minorities) as far back as June 14, 1983. It was published by the National Front government in August, 1990...

General Approach

After Indira Gandhi's return to power in 1980 there was a steep deterioration in the communal climate with the growth of Virat Hindu Sammelan and the like. She did nothing to check it. In ways more than one, she actively contributed to it. During her visit to the US in August 1982 she told James Reston of New York Times, 'Enormous amounts of Arab money are coming. And they have made a conscious effort to convert the very poor, mostly Harijans... Hindu communal forces have grown because of this'. After H.N. Bahuguna mentioned this interview in parliament on August 16, 1982 came the usual denial... Yet 'the foreign connection' was freely used to influence Muslims at home even as Muslim states were cultivated for domestic purposes. Witness: the famous dinner with ambassadors of Muslim states on the eve of the 1980 election.

...Opening the All India Muslim Educational Conference on March 30, 1984 she also told her large Muslim audience that as chairperson of the non-aligned movement she was constantly in touch with Iran and Iraq in an effort to bring about a peaceful solution between them. Likewise, she made pointed references to friendship with Pakistan during her election campaign in Kashmir on May 31, 1983. This is how she tried to 'integrate' Kashmir with the rest of the country.

In Indira Gandhi's scheme of things independent assertion was not permitted to Muslims. They had to accept whatever she granted, support her blindly and exclusively and shun the opposition completely.

On August 17, 1973 a delegation of Muslim leaders led by Sheikh Abdullah called on Indira Gandhi. It was treated to a revealing exposition of her outlook. The delegation revealed soon after: 'She pointed out that the Muslim community had sought the support of the opposition without appreciating what the ideals and policies of these parties were... The prime minister, while acknowledging that in the past the Muslim community had supported her in the elections and enabled it to secure a majority, the leaders of the community had not extended their support to her in the same manner.' She reproached them for adopting 'an agitational approach' on Aligarh and warned that she did not, temperamentally, yield to pressures.

A decade later, the late General Shah Nawaz Khan, a member of her own party, was given the same treatment. It was in July 1979 that the pro-Congress(I) Jamiat-ul-Ulema had decided to launch a 'Mulk-o-Millat Bachao Tehrik' (Save the country and the community Movement) against the Janata government to arouse the nation 'against the injustices perpetrated against the Muslims' especially during the riots. It launched two satyagrahas in July and October 1979 with Indira Gandhi's full support.

On January 21, 1983, the general wrote to her as leader of the movement and reminded her of her electoral pledges. 'In case no satisfactory response is received before February 21, 1983, we shall be constrained to launch the civil disobedience movement in collaboration with other like-minded secular forces', he warned. Indira Gandhi replied on January 21, 1983: 'Confrontation and the spreading of an atmosphere of desperation is likely to be more damaging to the minorities themselves by arousing reaction in other communities'. His explanations drew another letter (February 10) in which she said 'any satyagraha of the kind you have in mind, and however peaceful you may think it will be, will be regarded as a direct hit at the Congress'. The 'chauvinistic Hindu organisations which have cropped up recently' were a 'reaction to real or imagined threat from Muslim communal organisations. We can fight them only if we have the support of the minorities... We must remember that no minority can survive if their neighbours of the majority are irritated.'

On the eve of the satyagraha Indira Gandhi set up yet another committee on February 20, 1983 to go into the grievances of Muslims and 'to take effective steps to redress them.' It consisted of four central ministers - P.C. Sethi (chairman), N.D. Tiwari, Buta Singh and Jaffer Sharief - and Begum Abida Ahmad, MP. The announcement provided the Congress(I) ally, the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind, the desperately sought pretext to call off the civil disobedience movement it had so unconvincingly threatened to launch the next day.

Indira Gandhi even issued a directive on New Year's Day 1983 to Muslim legislators belonging to Congress(I) not to associate with other parties for the common issues pertaining to the Muslims. It may be recalled that, on November 5, 1982, 44 Muslim MPs, including Congress(I) MPs, had submitted a memorandum to the P.M. on Muslim grievances. A few of them wrote to her on November 8 requesting an appointment a fortnight later to ascertain... action taken by her. They drew a blank whereupon the memorandum was published a month later. Hence, her ire...

Protected Mosques

The Muslim leaders threatened to say the prayers, all the same, of Friday March 2, 1984 in the Safdarjung Mosque and court arrests. They had been driven to it. But on March 1, they were summoned to meet as many as four central ministers. 'Who intends to fly in the face of the law?' P.V. Narasimha Rao, the foreign minister assured them. March 2 passed away peacefully but the minister's visitors had cause for disquiet. They learnt that the UNI had been asked to withdraw the story concerning the March 1 meeting that very day. On March 12 Rajiv Gandhi not only poured cold water on the accord 'They were opened only for a day'... The episode reeks of bad faith so reminiscent of the Aligarh episode over a decade ago.

It was the Muslims' support which helped Indira Gandhi to defeat the grand alliance in the decisive 1971 elections to the Lok Sabha. In his study of the 1980 election, Myron Weiner estimated that in constituencies with substantial Muslim populations the Congress vote increased from 29 per cent in 1977 to 38 per cent in 1980... Yet, while Indira Gandhi profited handsomely by the deals... with Muslim leaders for the 1971 and 1980 elections, the Muslims emerged as the losers...

(Source: The Economic and Political Weekly, 3 November, 90)