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Now India wants
quota for minorities
WSN
Bureau
NEW DELHI: Ironical
are the ways in which the Indian Government often functions. Close
on the heels of re-defining minorities in such a way as to leave
Sikhs in Punjab out of it, New Delhi is now trying push for a quota
in jobs and admissions for minorities on the basis of religion.
Indian Home minister
Shivraj Patil on January 16 said in Delhi that the government was
not averse to the idea of giving land to landless members of
minorities, just as it had been given to SC/ST and recently to
forest dwellers.
Patil was speaking at
the annual conference of the State Minorities Commission.
Significantly, he said the constitutional right to minorities to
propagate their religion would be protected.
Referring
particularly to the demand for reservation, he said whatever can be
done for this purpose should be done. “We have to apply our mind how
best to do this, and the government is looking into this aspect.”
Patil's statement
comes within weeks of Punjab and Haryana High Court scrapping the
quota for Sikhs in admissions in Punjab saying the Sikhs are not a
minority in the state. The definition of minority till date has been
on a countrywide basis. The Centre however is trying to force the
term 'minority' to be defined on a state basis, thus ensuring that
even Muslims will not be a minority in Jammu and Kashmir.
The WSN notes with
alarm the absence of a minority sub-plan, as recommended by the
National Commission for Minorities, in the 11th Plan document even
though Planning commission member Bhalachandra Mungekar, himself a
strong proponent of affirmative action for Dalits, has often shown
his sensititized nature in various speeches. The WSN particularly
hailed his address at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study during
a seminar on Multiple Identities wherein he made his views clear in
the presence of CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri and other Indian
elite.
Mungekar said there
was no need of a minority sub-plan if the Prime Minister’s 15 point
programme for minorities was implemented.
23 January 2008
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