The government on Tuesday said it did not favour a headcount of Muslims in the armed forces as it would like to maintain their secular and apolitical character and that they will not be included in the study for possible state intervention for uplift of Muslims.
"The armed forces are professional, apolitical, secular and the most disciplined force the country has today... we would not like to include [the armed forces] in such a type of survey, [but] in the case of other departments and ministries, such a study will continue," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Rajya Sabha.
Giving clarifications to queries on his statement on the appointment of Justice Rajindra Sachar Committee to study the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community, he said, "We do not recruit on the basis of caste, religion, creed or region... we do not maintain data based on such classifications."
The government would go ahead with the study to ascertain the economic and educational status of Muslims, the single largest minority group in the country, in other departments, he said.
Mukherjee said the government had mandated the Sachar Committee to undertake study of minorities so that a database was prepared for possible government interventions for their uplift.
"We are not apologetic of appointing a committee to look into economic, social, education and cultural condition of single largest minority group," he said.
The defence minister said his ministry had informed the high-level committee that government wanted to 'keep armed forces out of the survey'.
