Our schemes are dovetailed for the minorities as well: Najma Heptulla

Interview with Minority affairs minister

Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla believes that programmes for minority development cannot be stand-alone. She tells Aditi Phadnis that such schemes and programmes tend to be forgotten and die. Edited excerpts:

As minority affairs minister, you are an extremely important minister in any government, but particularly in this one. What are the new initiatives your ministry has taken in the last one year?

You have to judge any government on the basis of the commitments it makes during the election and how much of that it is able to implement once it comes to power. Narendra Modi's commitment was: 'sabka saath sabka vikas' - inclusive development for everyone without discrimination.
 

In the Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto, there were six important points to be taken up for the development of the minorities. The first was to do with education. Minorities receive scholarships over a spectrum - pre-matric, post-matric, merit cum means and so on. These are ongoing. In keeping with the prime minister (PM)'s belief in digitisation and information technology to ensure quick delivery and transparency, we applied these principles to scholarships. We are now transferring benefits directly to post-matric students' bank accounts. To the boys and girls who get scholarships pre-matric, we transfer the benefits to their parents' accounts. The Jan Dhan Yojana has also helped us to directly transfer benefits. We are also linking it to the Aadhaar cards so that there is transparency.

The second focus in the manifesto was on job-creation: skill upgradation in cases where they are already engaged in skills; and teaching them new skills, so that once they are literate and educated, jobs are not a problem. Finally, what do you need? A person capable of earning a good living. When I met the PM for the first time after I was appointed a minister, he shared his vision for minorities. He told me: 'The minorities did not get the basic amenities that an Indian should be entitled to: good education, roti, kapda, makaan (food, clothing and housing) and sanitation.

So, all the schemes launched by the PM: the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Jan Dhan Yojana, other social security schemes - they have all been dovetailed by us for the minorities as well. We have used Swachh Bharat to create toilets in clusters, especially poverty-ridden areas where there are ghettos.

We have a number of financial support schemes for skills through the Maulana Azad National Academy for Skills (MANAS). When we launched it in November last year, I said we want to create bhale manas - good people - so that in the one hand they carry a pen, and in the other, an instrument. The PM has said in one of his speeches that he wants madarassa education to be such that Muslims should be able to carry a Quran Sharif in one hand and a computer in the other.

I have launched a scheme called 'Nai Manzil', so that the minorities can look forward to a new future in other, new professions. Madarassa students can do a bridge course and after coming out of the madarassa, can join any institution of higher education. They have the choice of skill-development or joining engineering or medical institutions.

But there are minorities that are engaged in traditional skills. That learning has to be protected, so that it does not die out; and you can do that only by marketing the products that these skills produce. Whether it is the banarasi sari or Bagh printing or brocade or zardozi embroidery... these skills have to be modernised and linked better to the market. They have to get dignity and respect - otherwise, the youth will gradually drift away from these occupations. Upgradation of Skills in Traditional Arts and Craft in Development (USTAAD) is designed to hone inherited skills.

The role of the National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC) is crucial for this. I have taken only one item to the Cabinet - increasing the corpus of the NMDFC from Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore. Previous ministers had been asking for an increase but did not get it. I took it to the Cabinet. I am happy to report that the Cabinet cleared it without discussion in one minute flat. That is the primacy our government gives to providing finance and capital to entrepreneurs belonging to the minorities.

The previous government had also launched programmes for minority development. What's the differences between yours and theirs?

Programmes for minority development cannot be stand-alone programmes. They have to be dovetailed with programmes for everyone. That's the difference.

We have the Jan Dhan Yojana, MUDRA Bank and other schemes - they have to be encouraged to leverage these.

Many of them are self-employed, so they have no security. They have to be made members of the Atal Pension Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana. So, five schemes are backing my USTAAD scheme: because stand-alone schemes tend to be forgotten and die.

Waqf lands are also with you.

Yes, according to an act of Parliament. Waqf property amounts to around 600,000 acres. We are the second largest landowners after railways. We can't develop all the property - because there has been encroachment and the property comprises graveyards and so on; for encroachment, there is a Bill pending in a Rajya Sabha committee, which I intend to move as soon as I get it back. But we want to help Waqf boards develop the commercial value of this land for educational and health institutions on their property. We are identifying this kind of land.

All our schemes are area-specific. I went to Chennai and we have launched schemes in the leather industry. We have signed an agreement with the film actor Kamal Haasan to provide training to minority students in the film industry - not just acting but the technical, behind the scenes aspect of the industry. In the logistics industry, we have placed many boys - and you will be happy to know that for the first time, Muslim girls are undergoing training as security guards! We are training young boys and girls in the retail sector, in the paramedical sector...

My next job is monitoring the results of the training we are giving and publicising the results - that is when more and more people will come forward. Already, the results of the scholarships we are giving are extremely encouraging. Girls have managed to get 46 per cent of all the scholarships we give.

Your junior minister has made some remarks about those who eat beef. Those have been questioned by members of your own government.

I generally don't comment on the statements of my colleagues: whether in my ministry or in the Council of Ministers. Everybody has their own perception. My perception is: my religion teaches me that if anybody's sentiments are hurt, I should not do that. Not only in my food habits but in my attitudes, in my utterances. I should not say anything that hurts anybody.

The Maharashtra government's decision on beef has hurt a lot of people; many have been thrown out of business. As minority affairs minister, shouldn't you have been asked before a decision like this was taken? Decisions like these can't make your job any easier...

Food habits are not part of the domain of the minority affairs minister. My job is to find alternate jobs for those who get thrown out of their jobs because of a decision of the government. I am a positive person.

The only thing is, I don't want anybody to be hurt.

Beyond this, it is for the state government and the central government to decide. I would rather not speak on this subject.

I am a Muslim and I am proud to be a Muslim. As Maulana Azad said, I have a heritage in this country of 1,400 years. But I live in a society that is multi-religious. I must learn to adjust to this.

I was happy to read a statement by the PM when he said - in Patna, I think - 'I am a Hindu and I am proud to be one. But I am an Indian and a nationalist Indian.' That applies to all religions.

Some of your colleagues have made statements that are offensive to the feelings of those who are not 'raam-zade'. What do you have to say to them ? How do you feel as a minister and an Indian on hearing this...

We have all taken the oath to uphold the Constitution of India. The Preamble to the Constitution says there should be no discrimination on the basis of caste or religion. The directive principles also point to duties of an Indian citizen. One of them is to create a tranquil atmosphere in the country.

Whether I am a minister or not, I am an Indian citizen. And I believe in the Constitution. Others should read it and believe in it as well. The PM has also said so.