The two dark tunnels

A Story by Sheikh Meelad

The position of muslims in India

My article "The two dark tunnels" represents the current situation of muslims in India right now. It is the current political scenario of India which had promised the idea of secularism since independence. Now it seems the situation is changed for the minorities. Let me tell you why?
India's largest minorities "Muslims" are stuck once again after 1947. This time between two dark tunnels. The "Indian National Congress" and the "Bhartiya Janata Party." It was always clear that the partition in 1947 between Hindus and Muslims which led to the creation of Pakistan was never a solution. I beleive it was amongst the most unfortunate events in history. After Pakistan got created, it was always on the cards that muslims from this side of the border are going to suffer. Now leaving history behind, let me tell you where muslims currently stand between the two dominating forces of Indian Politics.
Lets first start with the Congress Party which was founded in 1885 and enjoys an illustrious past in Indian History. The party has ruled India for almost 50 years with keeping their famous slogan of Secularism in front. Now going straight to muslims, lets see what this Congress Party has done for muslims so far. History speaks for itself, Muslims have always opted to vote for Congress and have played a fair role in making Congress rule the country for years. Its better to talk about muslims with some of my facts. Its hard to beleive but 94.9% of muslims live in extreme poverty and are counted in the Below Poverty Line. Apart from Kashmir where muslims enjoy a good lifestyle mainly due to article 370, the situation is not the same outside the state. It is a pity that muslims earn just Rs 360 per month on average. Well, honestly that is not enough to run a household. It simply isn't enough to provide proper nutrition and education to your family. Now sincerely speaking, i am not a casteist but the Socio Economic status of muslims is even worse than Dalits. Lack of education and illetracy is a major problem throughout the muslim community of India. The literacy rate of muslims is 67.6% as against the national rate of 74%. In premier college only 1 out of 25 for under graduate and only 1 out of 50 for post graduate is a muslim. The situation is even worse for muslim girls. Muslims also have a very low contribution to Indian society as only 3% of muslims are in army, 7% in public adminstration, 3.5% in banking and 5% in Indian railways which is the world's largest employee. These facts are enough for anyone to understand what it means to be a muslim in India. Several Activists and Philonpanthorists have criticised the Congress Government for being unfair to muslims. Politicians including Aam Aadmi Party cheif Arvind Kejriwal who said in a letter that congress has delibrately kept muslims backward so that they could be used as a vote bank. Now we all can imagine what the secular Congress party who muslims choose to vote in every election has given them.
Lets now switch our attention to the other dark tunnel which is the Bhartiya Janata Party. The BJP before the elections due to their charasmatic Prime Minestrial candidate became a huge wave accross the country. Our current prime minister Shri Narendra Modi broke all the barriers of populartity what film stars and sports icons could not even dream of. So the result was very simple as predicted by the voters and media before, BJP came to power. Narendra Modi led BJP to victory with an astounding 280 seats in the Lok Sabha and became the most stable government to be formed without any support since Rajiv Gandhi's victory in 1984. A strong Hindu fundimental group with the ideology of Hinduvta has now taken the responsibility of running the country. Results show that a good portion of muslims had voted for BJP despite being aware of their way of thinking. The only reason why muslims voted for BJP is a hope for a change. Muslims want to get rid of backwardness and want to join India's strong foothold towards development. Lets now be aware of some of the facts to know where muslims stand for the present government BJP. On 16th May, 2014 when BJP won a landslide victory suddenly you notice that its the lowest presence muslims have ever had in the parliment. Our parliment presently has no muslim member from the current government BJP and only 22 muslim members overall. Well, thats a thing to worry about. The parliment is regarded as the voice of people and when you don't have enough members from a particular community to help them reach their voice to the government, it eventually leads to the biggest tragedy ever which is “The absence of a voice”. Moreover, Since BJP's victory there has been a sense of insecurity among the muslims of India. Whether it be the death of that innocent muslim boy over his facebook comments against hinduism or that Shiv Sena MP who forced a muslim canteen worker to eat during his fast. Muslims tend to live in fear since this new government was formed two months ago. Take a look whats happening in Gaza. Innocent people are being brutally killed by the Israeli forces. In India, there has been a strong wave among hindus on social netwroking sites especially on twitter leading to a famous trend "India with Israel". These kind of comments and beleifs by our fellow contrymen are deeply frightening to muslims. With all this which is happening in India, Only one question rises. What will happen to the muslims of India now? I beleive this kind of narrow minded politics will only lead to the destruction of India's democracy and our country could face its worse turmoil.