{ முகநூல் கருத்துக்கள்}{ட்விட்டர் கருத்துக்கள்}

The 2009 Indian Parliamentary Election witness the arrival of many new political parties - with the avowed aim of serving the aims and aspirations of the 120 million+ strong Muslim community. These parties have sprung all over India - in the North as well as in the South.

There are divergent views being expressed about this phenomena. The questions asked include whether more Muslim parties are required at all, can't the secular parties do the work as well as the existing Muslim parties and so on. There are no easy answers to these questions. There is enough ammunition to argue both the sides of this case.

Despite this though, one can contemplate on the general issues faced by the muslims and the way forward in addressing those issues. The Sachar Committee report had highlighted the poor condition of muslim communities across India. The community's share in the realms of education, jobs and business is vastly below its presence in the overall population. Number of people from the community living below the poverty line is above the national average. So goes the woe list.

The fact is it did not require a Sachar Committee to bring out all this to our attention. To anyone with eyes and ears, all this was apparent. So it must have been to our community leaders and the Secular leadership. Yet, for all these years, most energy had been spent in peripheral and non-issues - such as getting a holiday declared for Prophet's birthday, increasing the Haj quota every year, free doles, renaming a district with a muslim leader's name and constructing mousoleum for the dead.

In recent years, a great deal of attention has been paid to the issue of reservation of jobs and seats in government departments and educational institutions for muslims. This is a bread-and-butter issue - with the potential to impact the lives of thousands. Muslims in many states have been successful in getting some reservation implemented. This is an improvement on the tokenism which muslims had clamored for in the past. Yet - we must not forget this is not the silver-bullet solution to all our problems. Number of people getting benefits out of reservation will be small. Take a simple example: About 40,000 muslim students take the Higher Secondary Public Exams in Tamil Nadu every year. Reservation guarantees about 60 medical seats for them.

Though welcome in its own ways, Reservation cannot solve all the problems the Community faces. Community primarily must be seeking a favourable atmosphere - with the goal of education for all, where it is easier to setup educational institutions - so that our educational levels improve, where our skills can be developed. We must also be seeking a positive atmosphere where muslims can open businesses and take care of their own needs.

In short, the community must stop looking at the Government as the provider. Instead it must start seeing it as the enabler and urge it play such a role.