By Syed Ubaidur Rahman
Muslims in India recently launched a movement seeking reservation for
the impoverished community in jobs and education. This is probably the
first time in the history of Independent India that Muslims
representing all sects, organizations and forums came together on a
single platform demanding reservation for them.
Though no one is sure as to how long this bonhomie of Muslim
organizations will continue and how long they will be able to sit
together forgetting their internal squabbling, but so far they have
been able to concentrate on the issue. And before Lok Sabha elections
they want to up the ante against the government on the issue of quota
for community. They are furious that instead of implementing Justice
Ranganath Mishra Commission report, the UPA government did not bother
to even table the report in Parliament. Justice Ranganath Mishra, a
former Chief Justice of India had submitted the report to Prime
Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on 22 May, 2007.
During the first large meeting on the issue of reservation held at
India Islamic Cultural Centre that of late has become a center of
community activities in New Delhi, Muslim leaders tried to make the
right noises. They seem to have taken a cue from Gujjar agitation and
are preparing for a long haul. It is not yet clear how they will
accomplish an agitation of the same scale as Gujjar agitation in
Rajathan that often turned violent.
A retired judge of Rajasthan High Court, Justice (Retd.) Mohammad
Yamin while speaking at the jam-packed meeting said, the Muslim
community should get ready for a long fight for this cause
(reservation). Giving example of Gujjar movement he said Gujjar
community has sacrificed 25 lives for reservation which remains a
dream for them even now.
Another delegate from Kerala E M Abdur Rahiman who heads Popular Front
of India also made similar remarks. He said, "the demand for Muslim
reservation will require a sustained and continuous struggle and the
community should be ready for it. Whatever reservation Muslims got in
Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is the result of decades' long
efforts of social organizations there".
During the United Progressive Alliance's five-year rule, two important
reports on Muslims were submitted before the government. One was
Sachar Committee report that laid bare the plight of Muslims in India
and their lack of representation in jobs and education. The report
also detailed as to how Muslims were discriminated in almost every
segment of government as well as private sector.
More important than the Sachar report was Justice Mishra Commission
report that still awaits its turn to be tabled in Parliament. Way back
in 1983, Gopal Singh Commission's findings were not very different
from what Sachar Committee found almost a quarter century later.
Mishra Commission report has changed the whole dynamics of debate on
Muslim reservation in the country. So far there was a preconceived
notion that reservation for Muslims was untenable on constitutional
ground.
Mishra Commission clearly said that religion was no basis to deny a
community the benefit of reservation. "We recommend that in the matter
criteria for identifying backward classes there should be absolutely
no discrimination whatsoever between the majority community and the
minorities; and, therefore, the criteria now applied for this purpose
to the majority community — whatever that criteria may be – must be
unreservedly applied also to all the minorities", the commission said.
It went on to add, "As a natural corollary to the aforesaid
recommendation we recommend that all those classes, sections and
groups among the minorities should be treated as backward whose
counterparts in the majority community are regarded as backward under
the present scheme of things…To be more specific, we recommend that
all those social and vocational groups among the minorities who but
for their religious identity would have been covered by the present
net of Scheduled Castes should be unquestionably treated as socially
backward, irrespective of whether the religion of those other
communities recognises the caste system or not".
In another path-breaking recommendation the Commission asked the
government to treat equivalent of Schedule Castes among Muslims and
Christians as such and give them reservation under similar quotas. "We
also recommend that those groups among the minorities whose
counterparts in the majority community are at present covered by the
net of Scheduled Tribes should also be included in that net; and also,
more specifically, members of the minority communities living in any
Tribal Area from pre-independence days should be so included
irrespective of their ethnic characteristics".
Given the low education level among minorities, the commission asked
the government to give them15 percent reservation in educational
institutions. "…we strongly recommend that, by the same analogy and
for the same purpose, at least 15% seats in all non-minority
educational institutions should be earmarked by law for the
minorities…" the commission added.
On the line of quota in educational institutions the Commission
recommended 15 percent reservation for minorities in central and state
government jobs. "Since the minorities – especially the Muslims – are
very much under-represented, and sometimes wholly unrepresented, in
government employment, we recommend that they should be regarded as
backward in this respect within the meaning of that term as used in
Article 16 (4) of the Constitution – notably without qualifying the
word 'backward' with the words "socially and educationally" – and that
15% of posts in all cadres and grades under the Central and State
Governments should be earmarked for them…", the Commission said.
Syed Shahabuddin, a former MP who now heads Joint Committee of Muslim
Organizations for Empowerment (JCMOE), spearheading the demand for
Muslim reservation says, "Muslim community today is demanding
reservation as a Backward Class, as a deprived group, who is almost as
backward as the SC/ST and more backward than the non-Muslim OBC's. It
is not staking any historical claim or desiring any preferential or
special dispensation".
Shahabuddin says it is notable that the total space covered by
reservations has widened over the years and has made it more difficult
for any deprived group, which does not enjoy reservation, to compete
on equal terms with the more advanced groups. "In fact, OBC Muslim
cannot fairly compete with other relatively advanced groups within the
OBC quota. This is a general phenomenon and explains why there is a
rising surge for categorization based on relative levels of
development within the SCs, ST's and OBC's, because in each case a
relatively advanced minority receives disproportionately larger
benefit to the deprivation and denial of the others".
When asked about the long standing argument of arzal (lower) Muslim
castes giving similar argument that their quota will be usurped by
afzal (upper castes) groups in the community, he said that they can be
given reservation within reservation based on their ratio in
population. Shahabuddin said that this way any dispute in this regard
can be sorted out.
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Abdul Karim Chisthi
MD Cptr Sect., Almech Enterprise,
c 15 Industrial Estate, Coimbatore- 641021,
ak@almech.co.in, mobile: 9944497786.
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All my Articles Available At http://karim74.blogspot.com
Assalaamu Alaickum
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