While the main opposition party, which lost power in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections after a six-year stint in office, remained unclear on the leadership issue, it remained upbeat for having found an 'emotive issue.'
Amid talk of mid-term polls, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party appear to have gone into election mode and have launched hectic efforts to get their acts together.
'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.'
Accepting a key recommendation of the Sachar Committee, the Centre has asked the states to appoint at least one Muslim officer in police stations in areas with a high concentration of Muslim population. In a communication to chief secretaries of all states, Union Home Secretary R K Singh asked them to send a status report on it by the end of June.
On the lines of the Sachar Committee for Muslims, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has set up a panel to assess the status of Scheduled Tribes, to ensure their progress in socio-economic, health and education fields.
"Implementation of the Sachar report must take women's issues into notice," NCM Chaiman Hamid Ansari said.
He said these opinions could be incorporated in the ATR.
Faced with elections in Uttar Pradesh, home to a large Muslim population, the Centre has already announced that it will implement the Sachar report in toto.
The committee found that Muslims had not been attempting for the civil services examinations in numbers proportionate to their share in the population.
Announcing the measures, the government presented an action taken report in Parliament on the steps it proposed to take to implement the Sachar Committee's suggestions. The government, however, remained silent on the Sachar Committee's recommendation favouring reservation for the most backward in the 150-million strong community.
'We cannot forget 2002. We cannot forget Modi's approach nor can we believe him.' 'The Sachar Committee says the lives of Muslims in India are even worse than that of the Dalits. Since the Congress has ruled for 50 of the 66 years, who is responsible for this?' 'When the Samajwadi Party got the opportunity, they gave us the gift of Muzaffarnagar. In some ways, this has been one of the worst riots ever.' Varanasi's Muslim-dominated weaver community is disillusioned with the Congress and Samajawadi Party and far from being impressed with Modi. Savera R Someshwar/Rediff.com listens in.
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."
Recognising that madrassas have played an important role in providing religious education, the committee said linking madrassas with a higher secondary school board would enable students to shift to mainstream education.
'... The girl's parents would probably react in the same manner as the parents of the Hindu girl who marries a Muslim boy.' Minority Affairs Najma Heptulla, in an exclusive interview.
Paying back Narendra Modi in kind for his remarks of Himalayan arrogance, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today hit back at him saying, "Arrogance is dripping from every inch of his body."
India Inc on Thursday pitched for lowering income tax burden on common man, increase in capital expenditure, and firm steps to contain food inflation in their nearly two-hour long interaction with finance minister Nirmala Shitharaman ahead of the Union Budget. During pre-Budget consultation with Sitharaman, the industry leaders and associations also urged the government to focus more on infrastructure development with a view to maintaining the economic growth momentum. The industry leaders also laid stress on boosting the MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprises) sector, considered a backbone of the Indian economy and main employment generator.
The Bill to amend the Wakf Act, 1995, will make it mandatory for Waqf boards to register their properties with district collectors to ensure their actual valuation.
Stating that providing reservation was no solution to development concerns of Muslims, Najma Heptulla, who took charge as Minister for Minority Affairs, said the new government will ensure progress of all communities, with special stress on education facilities for minorities.
While there is no denying that certain sections of the community deserve aid, the politics of reservation can be suicidal for India.
He said that exclusion and discrimination including failure to provide security has to be corrected by the state.
Making no effort to conceal his prime ministerial ambitions, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday said the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections were "a matter of honour" for him.
'It is inconceivable that there are no gays working in Indian corporations but obviously, the subject remains taboo enough in the workplace for those of alternate sexual orientation to feel safer remaining in the closet,' notes Kanika Datta.
Permissive communalism, as represented by the Sachar Committee report, cannot become the basis to counter the threat of majoritarianism, says D L Sheth.
Batting for minority rights, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday cautioned people against forces weakening the country's secular ethos and said communal harmony should not be disturbed over small, local incidents.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which is going to contest next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core "vote bank".
'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.'
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.
A delegation of Muslim leaders led by Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi during which she asked them to ensure that secular votes did not split in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi, saying those who don't believe in secular values cannot grasp the spirit of patriotism, and will lead the country to destruction if they get power.
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.
The Congress, however, said state chiefs are free to take their decisions within the party's norms and constitution.
'Why isn't the BJP ready to give reservations to Muslims despite the high court telling it to do so?' 'A K Antony said the Congress lost the 2014 election because of Muslim appeasement. Antony should have gone to the jails of Maharashtra and found out how many Muslims were arrested during Congress rule. I don't know what kind of appeasement this is.' 'We reposed faith in so-called great secular leaders and they deceived us.'
'Muslims are depressed and disillusioned.' 'The safety valve is that we still have a multicultural mosaic in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.'
The new government has to make conscious efforts to rebuild social equality and bring the people together.
HDFC Bank is on a global search to find a successor to the founding-chief executive Aditya Puri, as he would turn 70 next year.
A fundraiser for the Aligarh Muslim University hosted in California saw keynote speakers talk about the plight of Indian Muslims and a way out.
70-plus years after Independence, 'Hindu India, metamorphosised as 'Hindutva India', is proving the British right -- and for all the wrong reasons. Mohan Bhagwat should have answers for the why of it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi sharpened his attack on Nitish Kumar, saying the Janata Dal-United leader's "arrogance" and "ambition" to become prime minister drove him to split from BJP, and compared the socio-economic conditions of Muslims in Gujarat and Bihar to claim he practised "true" secularism.
