Bangalore:
Indian Muslims are being discriminated against in their own country, Dr. A. U. Shaikh, a retired IAS officer, alleged here on Oct. 27. Despite the government’s claims to its secular nature, the Muslims in the country were not treated on par with other citizens, he said. Quoting an example, he said that Muslims constituted 26 per cent of the armed services personnel in 1947, but their number was almost negligible now. Dr. Shaikh was delivering the Tippu Sultan shaheed memorial lecture organised by the Al- Ameen Educational Society – Bangalore, on the “Socio-economic testament of the 100 million Muslims in India”. About 80 per cent of the Muslims in the country were illiterate and a higher per cent lived below poverty line. Surveys had shown that 33 per cent of the slum-dwellers in Madras, Bangalore and Lucknow were Muslims. He criticised the Muslim leaders for neglecting the welfare of the Muslims in the country.
Historians too had contributed towards communal disharmony in the country by distorting facts. He called for the rewriting of Indian history in the true spirit of nationalism.
(Indian Express, Oct 28)
