Did Dr Manmohan Singh Ever Said Muslims Have ‘First Right’ to Wealth In India?

Using keywords such as ‘PM Manmohan Singh First Claim on Resources’, we looked for more information regarding this statement.

• This led us to an article by The Times of India, published on 9 December 2006, which carried a similar headline.
• The report mentioned that in Singh’s speech, he said that “plans for minorities, especially Muslims, must have the first claim on resources so that the benefits of development reach them equitably.”
• It also stated that the former prime minister had said this during the 52nd meeting of the National Development Council.
• The search also led us to an archived version of a press release carrying a clarification issued by the PMO, which mentioned that former PM Singh’s statement had been deliberately and mischievously misinterpreted, “fuelling a baseless controversy.”
• It carried the transcribed version of a part of the former prime minister’s speech, offering context to his statement.
• While speaking about “collective priorities,” former PM Singh had remarked on the need to develop several sectors – like agriculture, irrigation, water resources, health, education and others.
• With this, it becomes clear that former PM Singh had stressed the importance of prioritising plans and schemes which work towards uplifting Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), other backward classes, women, children, and minorities, and not just the Muslim community.In his speech, former PM Singh said that these plans must be prioritised for resource allocation, “to share equitably in the fruits of development.” He did not say that these groups had the “first right” to resources, as claimed.The full text of his speech, dated 9 December 2006, can be accessed here.

  The Congress Manifesto and Redistributing Wealth

  The Congress’ manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, called the ‘Nyay Patra‘, the party makes several statements regarding income inequality, India’s wealth, people belonging to economically weak sections, and the allocation of government land and resources.

  We saw many points regarding empowering minorities, one of which mentioned ensuring that minorities received institutional credit from banks without discrimination.

  

  In another point, the manifesto spoke about the Congress’ plan to conduct a “nation-wide Socio-Economic and Caste Census to enumerate castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions” to “strengthen the agenda” in order to take affirmative action for these groups, based on the data they obtain.

  

  Similarly, the party also spoke about establishing an authority to monitor the distribution of government and surplus land among poor or economically weak sections of society.

  

  The 2024 manifesto also mentions the “first charge” on resources in a point under the ‘Welfare’ section.

  It mentions that India has “nearly 22 crore people who are poor,” and under their governance, “the welfare of the poor will be the first charge on all government resources.”

  

  Lastly, another point in the manifesto talks about “growing inequality of wealth and income,” adding that the party will address this issue “through suitable changes in policies.”

  

  The Congress’ manifesto makes no statements regarding surveying gold owned by Indian women, nor does it say that this ‘surveyed wealth’ will be redistributed among “Muslims”, “infiltrators”, or “those with more children.”

  The Muslim Community and Population Boom

  In the clip, PM Modi referred to an oft-repeated theory which talks about Muslim families producing more children. The theory alleges that Muslim women have higher fertility rates as compared to other women, which will cause a disturbance in the demographics of India.

  Speaking to the Press Trust of India (PTI) on this topic in 2022, former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi said, “”Yes, Muslims have the lowest levels of family planning (FP) – only 45.3 percent. Their total fertility rate (TFR) is 2.61, which is the highest. But the fact that Hindus are not far behind, with second lowest FP at 54.4 percent, and second highest TFR of 2.13, is completely missed,” PTI reported Quraishi as saying.

  While the CEC was referring to data published in the fourth edition of the National Family Health Survey (NHFS), NFHS-5, conducted between 2019-21 shows a similar pattern

  While it is true that Muslim women have higher total fertility rates (TFR) – which refers to the average number of children born to a woman in her life – of 2.36 children per woman, it is only marginally higher than that of Hindu women, which was at 1.94 children per woman.