Author: Navin Upadhyay
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 16, 2006
The exercise of doing a headcount of Muslims
in the defence forces could ultimately pave the way for religion-based quota
in the services.
As jawans and Generals of the forces fret
and fume and the Government cowers under allegations of communalising the
most sensitive wing of the defence establishment, there are clear indications
that the Centre may use the data collected during the headcount to boost the
number of Muslims in the three services.
The terms of reference of the Sachar Committee
and the wording of a public invitation issued by the PMO to help it prepare
a report on social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community
of India, did not leave any scope for doubt about the motive behind setting
up the six-member panel.
While notifying the panel, the Government
had tried to defend the brazenly communal exercise on the ground that "there
is a lack of authentic information about the social, economic and educational
status of the Muslim community in India which comes in the way of planning,
formulating and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes
to address the issues relating to the socio-economic backwardness of this
community".
What gives away the Government's ulterior
motive is Clause 5 (a) of the of the panel's terms of reference which seeks
to answer: "What is the Muslims' relative share in public and private
sector employment?"
That the headcount is not a mere academic
exercise and its findings will be used by the Government for further action
is underscored by the fact that the notification says that "the committee
has to consolidate, collate and analyse the above information to identify
areas of intervention by the Government to address relevant issues relating
to the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community."
It is no surprise that in the backdrop of
such clear-cut guidelines for the panel, the Government has not come out with
any assurance to douse the flames of protest both from within the forces and
the Opposition to dispel impression that it did not intend to bring a religious
quota in the three services.
The Muslim-centric focus of the exercise is
in line with the UPA Government's obsession with appeasement of the community
for achieving its political objectives. The fact that the Government left
out other minority communities, which are equally backward and not fully represented
in public and private sectors, shows that vote-bank politics was uppermost
on the mind of Prime Minsiter Manmohan Singh when he decided to set up the
panel.
Meanwhile, amid a raging controversy on the
reported headcount of Muslims in the Armed Forces, Government on Wednesday
said the character of the Indian Army would not undergo a change even as Muslim
bodies denounced parties opposing the move.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declined to
comment on the reported move, saying the Government had already clarified
its position.
However, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee
said there was no scope for controversy surrounding the headcount of Muslims
and the Indian Armed Forces were totally "secular and apolitical."
"There is no scope for controversy. The
character of the Indian Army is not going to be changed," he told reporters
in Kolkata.
The Indian Army did not maintain any figure
on the basis of caste, creed or religion and the survey by the committee was
aimed at creating a database, he said.
"The Navy and the Air Force have already
provided the data on the number of Muslims they have and we are taking up
the survey in the Army, which had no such data till now," Mr Mukherjee
said.