The election year is knocking on the door and with this the PMO is busy preparing the report cards of various ministers and their ministries. Reliable sources associated with the PMO tell that in the first phase of the rating of performances, Gadkari’s Road Transport Ministry, Rural Development Ministry of Narendra Singh Tomar and the Ministry of Minority Affairs of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi have passed with distinction.
Anyway, Naqvi’s ministry is talk of the town with the latest results of the UPSC examinations. After the independence of the UPSC in 2017, the success figure of minority candidates touched a new high. In the latest results, where 131 candidates of the 990 successful candidates are from the minority community across the country, out of which 51 are Muslims. There are 6 Muslims in the list of top 100 successful candidates, out of which 3 are girls. The ministry claims that such a scheme has become possible due to the ‘Nayi Udaan-Naya Savera’ under which the children of the minority community are instructed not only to prepare for the UPSC exams, but also given a Rs 50 thousand to 1 lakh financial help.
The data released by the Ministry has shown comparative data of 48 months of Modi government as opposed to 48 years of other governments, in which it has been stated that in these four years of scholarship and other educational empowerment schemes, the ministry has assisted 2 crore 66 lakh children. Under the ministry’s ‘Seekho aur Kamaao’, ‘Ustad’, ‘Nayi Manzil’, ‘Kaushal Vikas Yojana’ schemes, 5 lakh 43 thousand 594 minority youth have been helped. Before 2014, the number of such beneficiary youth was only 20,164. Under the women empowerment schemes, 121 lakh minority girls have been helped. In the minority dominated areas, more than 340 ‘Sadbhav Mandap’ multipurpose community centers were established. And even though this government has ended the Hajj subsidy, but for the first time, Muslim women are going to Hajj without any ‘mahram’.
Although the figures boast of the achievements of the Modi government, the wrinkle of worry on the face of the community remains intact and is not being addressed anywhere.