Muslim leaders on Sachar panel

The Rajender Sachar panel findings on the status of Muslims has provided them political ammunition to fire before assembly elections in five states, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Nov 19, 2006, 02:20:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Rajender Sachar panel findings on the status of Muslims has not surprised Muslim leaders but has provided them political ammunition to fire before assembly elections in five states and revive the debate on reservations for Muslims, even though the panel has not recommended any such move.

Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Bukhari termed the report as a political bandwagon for the Congress to appease Muslims before the elections in UP. "The report indicts Congress for our present status," he said and demanded reservation by defining the entire community as "backward".

Others also did not fall short of making similar demands. MMM Madani, general secretary of Jamiata-ul-a-Hind, sought an amendment in the Constitution to remove hurdles in the reservation for Muslims.

Deepak Sharma, spokesperson of Diwan Darga Ajmeri Sharief, said reservation in the only way to end discrimination against Muslims. Abdul Rahim Qureshi, spokesperson of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said the Sachar committee report should be taken as a basis for declaring the entire Muslim community as backward under Article 16 (4) of the Constitution. When Hindu Dalits get reservation why not Muslim Dalits?, Bukhari wanted to know.

But apolitical Muslims like Zaffarullah Khan, former Cabinet Secretary, said reservation provides a limited solution. Such moves will be ineffective till the government places an accountable mechanism at the grass root level to ensure the betterment of Muslims on social indicators, he said, while stressing on the need to end discrimination against Muslims at the middle and lower levels.

Sachar panel recommendations on at least 15 per cent government schemes for Muslims can check this discrimination, Sharma said. Khan wanted the government to immediately implement the panel recommendation to have at least one Muslim in each of its recruitment committee.

Muslims leaders agree with Sachar panel that Muslims need better access to education but differ on the mode. "We will not allow the modernisation of madarsas till the government ends discrimination in opening Muslim schools," Madani, whose organisation runs 3,000 madarsas, said. Deoband is also opposed to government interference in madarsas.

Qureshi and Khan favours relevant education in madarsas and wants the government to open more schools in the Muslim dominated areas. "Islamic and modern education should be amalgamated," Bukhari also added. Qureshi pointed that only 4 per cent Muslim children study in madarsas (as Sachar panel states) and it indicates lack of basic education facilities for Muslims.

Email chetan@hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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