The ministry also submitted that the identification of scheduled castes is centred around a specific social stigma that is limited to the communities identified in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950.
What is the effect of the report of a commission of inquiry that has been rejected or not accepted by the government, and whether the empirical data which formed the basis of the report can be looked at while determining a constitutional issue, the Supreme Court wondered on Wednesday while considering the question of quotas for Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.
A private member resolution seeking that the government implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report and other reports that have discussed the educational and social backwardness of Muslims and enact a legislation for the prevention of atrocities against minorities was moved in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
In an interview with Neerja Chowdhury, Union Minister of State for Minority and Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid explores the arguments for and against reservation for Muslims, and concludes that it is necessary to implement such a step.
After lying low for some time now, veteran congress leader Arjun Singh, who created a nationwide furore after asking for reservation for backward class students in higher education, is once again out to create trouble for the party leadership.
Raking up the issue of 1984 riots, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Monday alleged that those guilty for the "state sponsored" violence still remain unpunished.
In a veiled reference to the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday said those who have been in power for the last 60 years have followed the "divide and rule policy in the country and conspired to snatch the rights of Dalit and backward communities".
A bench of justices G S Sistani and G P Mittal also asked Kumar to appear before the Registrar General of the high court to furnish bail bonds on September 2 in the case.
With an eye on assembly elections after severe drubbing in Lok Sabha polls, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government on Wednesday approved 16 per cent reservation for Marathas and five per cent for Muslims in government jobs and education institutions.
I am not here to play negative politics in the name of Muslims, says the leader of yet another electoral front in Bihar.
'This is India, bhai. This kind of country does not exist anywhere in the world.'
Permissive communalism, as represented by the Sachar Committee report, cannot become the basis to counter the threat of majoritarianism, says D L Sheth.
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