The Sachar Committee report is not sacrosanct like the Quran and has to be looked at with a critical eye, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said. "The Sachar Committee report is not Quran. It could be wrong and its recommendations and observations need to be looked at with a critical eye. The recommendations should not be seen as a special thing given to Muslims," he said. The Rajinder Sachar Committee was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He brought to the fore the socio-economic and educational conditions of the Muslim community.
The report was tabled by Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay.
Handing a warning to the United Progressive Alliance, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday said the Centre should immediately implement the Sachhar Committee recommendations for the welfare of Muslims, failing which it will have to go out of power.
However, the panel was silent on the issue of reservations for Muslims.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee has pulled up the government for mere lip service to the recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee it had itself constituted in 2005 to study the status of Muslims in India.
'The Haj subsidy is a trap used by politicians to curry Muslim votes,' says Abusaleh Shariff, member, Rajinder Sachar Committee.
In this interview with rediff.com, member-secretary of the Rajinder Sachar Committee on the status of Muslims, Abusaleh Shariff explains the trend, its reasons and ways to reverse it.
"Because Muslims are part and parcel of India, if members of the community today lag behind the rest of the people in India, then logically the country would lag behind, too."
Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Monday promised reservations to Muslims as well as Marathas, implementation of Rajinder Sachar committee report, and support for `statehood to Andaman and Nicobar' in its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections, released in Mumbai.
'When there exists a feeling within a minority - either at the higher or lower levels - that there is discrimination, then steps must be taken to remove that feeling, that perception,' says former judge Rajinder Sachar.
'The armed forces cannot be an exception to the concept of citizenship in a multi-ethnic society. Nor can they demand to be shielded from scrutiny just because they perform a role in India's defence.'
'Putting Yogi Adityanath in the CM's seat two years before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is something to be read carefully.' 'Opposition parties would be dishonest themselves and unfair to secular people if they failed to unite and work as a single force to defeat the BJP.'
The Bombay High Court on Friday stayed implementation of the controversial decision of the erstwhile Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra to provide reservation to Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions announced ahead of the state assembly election.
It is unusual in democratic countries two decades into the 21st century for laws to become regressive instead of progressive. But that is clearly what is happening in India today and more of this is ahead, asserts Aakar Patel.
'Electricity, better roads and uninterrupted water supply are problems for everyone in India, not Muslims alone.' 'Regional parties are solving these problems much better. And for that reason, Muslims favour regional parties.'
With its refusal to accept the modern social values, the Indian Muslim community is going down the slope of progress, says Najid Hussain.
'Muslims are depressed and disillusioned.' 'The safety valve is that we still have a multicultural mosaic in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.'
'Is Rahul turning the Congress' covert soft-Hindutva support into overt support now?' 'And if so, following in the BJP's footsteps, is the Congress going to abandon Indian Muslims and Muslim causes altogether?' asks Dr Najid Hussain whose father-in-law former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat riots.
The families of the Muslim youth from Hashimpura who were shot dead 28 years ago had some committed supporters in their long struggle for justice.
'Bangladeshi Muslims want to increase their population in India.' 'They have made colonies in India.' 'Rohingyas are doing the same.' 'This has to stop.'
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