Salman Khurshid 'exposes' Congress' Muslim appeasement politics; viral video sparks backlash (WATCH)
In an undated viral video, Congress leader Salman Khurshid has stirred controversy, shedding light on the party's strategies regarding Muslim appeasement politics. Khurshid's words, during his address at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Rhode island, have sparked widespread debate, particularly in the context of the Congress party's historical approach to minority communities, especially Muslims.
Khurshid articulated how Congress, in its pursuit of political gains, resorted to what he termed as "clawing back" the enlightened and thinking Muslims in urban areas to regain power. This strategy, he suggested, was instrumental in the formation of UPA 1 and UPA 2 governments. The discourse around Muslims, Khurshid pointed out, shifted from being referred to as minorities to Muslims explicitly, marking a departure from earlier political rhetoric.
Tihar Jail denies Sunita Kejriwal visit to Arvind Kejriwal; AAP cites jail's prior engagements
"Congress was able to claw back at least in the urban areas the more enlightened and more thinking Muslims back to the Congress and as a result Congress formed UPA 1 and UPA 2. For the first time since Independence, Muslims were referred to as Muslims and not as a minority. In the past whenever governments wanted to speak about Muslims they would refer to them as a minority not as Muslims. The idea being that you don't highlight the Muslim identity and invite unnecessary hostility so you speak of them in more general terms of minorities. Although in minorities what really mattered throughout either for political reasons or in terms of numbers or in terms of influence in elections was really the Muslim vote, who were about 85% or more of total minority population. There were Sikhs, there were Christians, there were Buddhisits, but not more than 2% Sikhs, not more than 1% Christians, not more than half a percent of Buddhists, but at least 10% of Muslims. Now, as you say, there are about 13% Muslims," the former External Affairs Minister said in the undated video which has gone viral on X amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
"Give them schools, give them scholarships, and a huge scholarship program was unleashed for Muslims. But more than that build up infrastructure in areas where Muslims live. So Muslim concentrated districts about 90 of them or minority concentrated districts about 4 or 5 or 6 were Christian dominated, 1 or 2 were Sikh dominated and largely Muslim dominated districts were given huge amount of funding to set up infrastructure, schools, road, drinking water, colleged, etc. The idea being that you build up those areas, not necessarily give things to Muslims, but give them to the local population and let the entire population benefit from it under the schemes where they would know that they are getting this benefit because of the Muslim population," Salman Khurshid further stated.
Central to Khurshid's narrative is the contentious issue of reservations based on religion. He elucidated how the proposal to allocate a sub-quota of 4% for backward Muslims within the existing reservation framework triggered a fierce backlash, with the Election Commission and the judiciary questioning the use of religion for political ends.
The Congress leader said, "There was also decision about reservations for minorities. Reservations are being given in our country to Dalits... 22% approved by the Supreme Court. Reservations are given... 27% to those who are like Dalits but not Dalits called OBCs or Other Backward Classes. Out of the 22% reservations that are given to backward communities, the backwards amongst Muslims/minorities would be given a sub quota of 4%."
"Election Commission went wild when we made this announcement. They went absolutely crazy saying you are using religion to propagate politics and this happened during UP elections and there was a huge controversy. Then the matters were put to test in the Andhra Pradesh High Court and Andhra Pradesh HC said you can't rely upon religion and give 4%. Now it was a strange thing that the same 4% would be covered in 27 on the same reason and grounds that they were in 27 they were being given a sub quota of 4% to be equitable but the court said no you can't do this. So if somebody was say a person who worked with leather and he was a Hindu he would have reservations, but somebody who worked with leather and was a Muslim initially didn't have reservations," he added.
The viral video has sparked a massive backlash on social media with one netizen stating, "Minority commission was formed in 2004 while this video is from after 2004. He himself is implicating that 'Minority Commission' was in fact 'Muslim Commission' but wasn’t called that for politically correct reasons. WOW."
Another X user commented, "Sonia led UPA was the 21st century version of the Mughal era rule."
"So clear by this as well as by the actions of Congress that Minorities means Muslims ONLY for them," said a third user.
A fourth user remarked, "So blatant. Thanks for bringing this out."
READ ON APP