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Muslim count not mere academic exercise

Muslim count not mere academic exercise

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.


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