Religion, Caste And Tribe Based Reservation - 3

06-07-2006, 07:00 AM

Nehru clan and these Congressi with "Eyes Mind and Behind Shut", can't do anything.
No chance for dummies, Even writing yellow color book with title "For Dummies" won't do any wonder.

06-08-2006, 06:54 AM

Reservation, a ploy to divide Hindus: RSSQUOTESudarshan said the creamy layer among the section of society which has availed the benefits of reservation should desist from further taking the benefits of quota system.

"Will Ramvilas Paswan and those holding high posts in the government offices politely decline the benefits after availing all the benefits and reaching the creamy layer section," he asked.


No, why he and his family will deny free goodies.

06-08-2006, 06:57 AM

You have made me feel low again, Mr Arjun Singh

06-08-2006, 07:47 PM

http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=4
Have quotas or else..., Meira tells pvt sector
PTI | New Delhi
Sounding out a stern warning to the private sector to provide reservation in jobs to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Government on Wednesday said: "Time is running out" for them to act voluntarily.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Meira Kumar parried questions on a definite time frame to the private sector but said she plans to go to the Cabinet with the report of the Group of Ministers on the issue "at the earliest" as the reservation "has to be done and done fast".

Rejecting suggestions that the issue has been kept on the backburner in the wake of the OBC quota row, she said: "There is a lot of pressure on me. I am working under lot of pressure but I want it to be done, done amicably and without any type of confrontation. Time is running out."

In an interview to PTI, she declined to hazard any guess on whether the Government would act in the matter before the Monsoon Session of Parliament commencing next month or before the next round of Assembly polls, including in Uttar Pradesh scheduled early next year.

Asked if she is referring to bringing a legislation in this regard, she said: "If they will not do it, then the matter is before the Cabinet and it will decide".

Rejecting suggestions that the matter has taken a backseat in the wake of OBC quota row as also due to lack of consensus with industry on the issue, the Minister said "our next step is that there has to be a collective decision on it".

06-08-2006, 09:17 PM

QUOTEHave quotas or else..., Meira tells pvt sector
What else one can expect from Madam corrupt from most corrupt Khandan. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='dry.gif' />
"OR ELSE" is family trade.

06-11-2006, 12:31 AM

QUOTEDismantling Discrimination: NRI groups weigh in on reservations in H
"Ra Ravishankar" ra.ravishankar@gmail.com

[This update released by the Friends of South Asia (FOSA), an organization working toward a multicultural, pluralistic, and hate-free South Asia; The Ambedkar Centre for Justice & Peace (ACJP), a Dalit Rights Group; the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA); and the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH)]

http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org
http://acjp.sts.winisp.net
http://www.fetna.org
http://www.stopfundinghate.org

For Immediate Release

June 9, 2006

Dismantling Discrimination: NRI groups Welcome the Decision, Even if Belated, by the Indian Government to Implement Reservations in Higher Education for the Socially & Economically Backward Classes

You can imagine what would happen if a group of young white professionals and students from some of the country's elite universities held an anti-affirmative action rally, and put on a skit where they caricatured African-Americans and lamented the "deterioration in standards" that would occur if "those people" were "allowed" into universities or hired as federal employees. There would be a media furor and a political firestorm would ensue. But this is precisely what happened last Sunday in California's Silicon Valley except that the performers were Indians and Indian-Americans, and the people being caricatured were the socially and economically disadvantaged communities â officially designated as Other Backward Classes, or OBCs â in India.

OBCs are primarily the lower castes that have been shut out of jobs and education by millennia of systemic caste oppression, and the overwhelmingly upper-caste crowd at Sunday's "protest" was objecting to attempts by India's federal government to make government jobs and elite educational institutions accessible to the OBCs. Protesters used signs, slogans and skits filled with derisive casteist and sexist imagery, all in service of their claim that the quality of education would be diminished if OBCs were to gain access to institutions of higher learning through government sponsorship. What underlies the vehement opposition by the upper castes to attempts by India's elected representatives to ameliorate the condition of the lower castes? Is it just ignorance of the socio-economic realities in India? Or is it a willful refusal to see the caste-imposed disabilities on the majority of India's populace? Is it fear of losing entrenched caste privilege? Or is it, perhaps, just visceral caste-hatred? All were on full display at the rally Sunday at Fair Oaks Park in Sunnyvale, California.

We are appalled by such protests against reservations by some students and urban professionals in India and abroad. While there are legitimate questions related to the specifics of implementing reservation/affirmative action policies in India, fundamentally questioning their need is not an option. The rhetoric of equality of opportunity employed in these protests is disingenuous at best and belies the real goals of this campaign: the defense of structures of privilege that favor an elite minority through the preservation of a corrupt and oppressive socio-economic order where members of upper-caste communities in India continue to monopolize positions of power.

The upper castes, though less than 15% of India's population, constitute 90% of Class I officers (the highest civil service grade) [1], 90% of all High Court judges, [2] and hold over two-thirds of the positions in Indian Media. [3] In contrast, members of lower castes, and the Dalits and Adivasis, who together are more than two-thirds of India's population, mostly live in grinding poverty, have severely limited or no access to education, are malnourished, lack access to health care, labor in outrageous conditions, and continue to face severe social ostracism.
Given such a radically asymmetric distribution of power, it is unreasonable and more than a little dishonest for the anti-reservationists to advocate the use of academic "merit" as the criteria for admission. Merit is the product of socio-economic conditions and is intrinsically tied to financial advantages and social support systems enjoyed by students in communities of privilege. We thus understand the proposed reservations as an effort to extend access to education to students of hitherto marginalized communities so that they too may emerge "meritorious".

We also reject the claim that the reservations reinforce caste divisions. Reservations are an acknowledgment that the caste system has marginalized large swathes of the citizenry and state intervention is needed to ameliorate the disabilities imposed by millennia of oppression. Similarly, the call for the exclusive use of economic criteria also involves a collective amnesia on the part of privileged sections of Indian society regarding centuries of oppression. Girish Agrawal, who researches comparative constitutional law and socio-legal history, points out that similar calls to forget the histories of inequality were heard from Whites when post-Apartheid South Africa tried to undo the damage of a century of racial oppression, and from segregationists in the U.S. when Congress pushed through equal protection and voting rights amendments in the aftermath of the Civil War, and again when the Kennedy-Johnson administrations called for equal access to education and jobs during the Civil Rights era to end the segregation and exploitation of African Americans in the United States.

Some of us from FOSA attended the Fair Oaks Park rally with the intent of challenging some of the myths being perpetrated about the issue of reservations, and to make the case for an educational policy that is just and humane. A majority of the reactions we met ranged from dismissive to abusive, but we were heartened to meet and talk with a handful of attendees at the rally, who, when presented with the facts, seemed open to seeking a better understanding of the underlying issues.

We call on members of the Indian American community to support the long-overdue democratization of access to public education as a means to pursue the goals of true social justice for all the people of India, and to reject ideological positions that seek to further defend upper-caste privilege and the tyrannical socio-economic order that sustains it.
Yogesh Verhade, a Dalit Rights Activist who heads the Ambedkar Centre for Justice & Peace said "Reservations are essential to address the extreme marginalization faced by lower caste communities and must be implemented if India is to call itself a democracy". FOSA has proposed a town hall meeting, to be organized jointly with other concerned organizations, where we can engage in informed conversation in order to educate each other about the full range of issues. More details are forthcoming at http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org.

Press Contacts:
* Girish Agrawal, Member, Friends of South Asia, mail@friendsofsouthasia.org
* Ramkumar Sridharan, Member, Friends of South Asia, mail@friendsofsouthasia.org

06-11-2006, 03:17 AM

QUOTEFriends of South Asia (FOSA), an organization working toward a multicultural, pluralistic, and hate-free South Asia; The Ambedkar Centre for Justice & Peace (ACJP), a Dalit Rights Group; the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA); and the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH)]

These commie and terrorist supporting organisation are against Hindus in CA Textbook case. These organisation supported rally with "Allah destroy Terrorist State of India" rally.
They work with ISI and anti India Pakistani organisation. Now these morons are for pro-reservation, they don't even acknowledge Sarswati civilization or anthing Hindu.
They survive on creating friction in society so that foregin organisation feed them with money for retirement.

06-11-2006, 09:19 AM

THE INDIAN EXPRESS - CNN-IBN POLL CONDUCTED BY AC NIELSEN Majority favour reservation but most of them want income as criterion, not purely caste QUOTEThe popular verdict in this poll is 57 per cent to 37 per cent in favour of the governmentâs decision to extend quotas to higher education for the OBCs (the remaining 6 per cent did not have an opinion).

Given the over-sampling of urban educated and well-off respondents in this survey, it can be guessed that if all sections of the population were to be fairly polled, the verdict will be 70 per cent to 30 per cent for the quota

............

The ruling UPA appears to have an upper hand in the calculus of votes: it is more likely than the NDA to retain its old voters and to snatch voters from its opponents. But these are very small gains and the sample of this survey is too small to arrive at any definite conclusions in this regard. 

The poll was conducted between June 3 and 6 among 776 adult persons in and around five major metropolitan centres (Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Nagpur).

Half of the sample was selected from rural locations at least 30 km away from city centres. Quota sampling was used to ensure that the social profile of the sample reflected the countryâs social profile: 25 per cent SC/ST, 40 per cent OBC, besides 11 per cent Muslims. A survey of this size and kind is subject to a 5 per cent standard error and, therefore, can only be broadly indicative of the larger population.

Therefore, the poll can be seen as the first broad indicator of the national mood after the governmentâs decision to implement the OBC quota in higher education


Look at this fraud.
Sampling size is 776 adults and India's population is 1.1 billion.
They had presumed what Mandal's 1931 population ratio is correct.
55% is reserved or will get reservation.

Politically NDA will gain some votes, bad news for UPA because they had gained some seats on very small margin.

Anyway NIELSEN's are always wrong.

06-11-2006, 08:38 PM

Shourie questions very notion of quotas in new book QUOTENew Delhi, June 11 (PTI): Amid the furore over reservations for OBCs in higher education, former BJP Minister Arun Shourie has joined the anti-quota chorus, egging on the judiciary to strip political parties of their populist cover once and for all.

In his new book 'Falling Over Backwards: An essay against reservations and against judicial populism,' he documents what he says are attempts by state legislatures and Parliament to bend the law for their benefit, and how the courts - including the Supreme Court - have been virtually ineffective in tackling arbitrary government functioning.

The book, which comes in the backdrop of the government's proposal to reserve 27 per cent seats for Other Backward Classes in higher education as well as a move to reserve jobs in the private sector, charts the history of reservations and and questions the very notion of quotas.

Shourie begins by quoting the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who said quotas based on communal lines would lead to disaster. He then cites a number of instances to prove that "affirmative action through reservations" has done little to improve the lot of the underprivileged across India.

The former disinvestment minister justifies his stand after analysing more than 50 Supreme Court judgements, government archives and census reports of the 1930s and even earlier.
.........
...................
How did caste-based reservations come to be accepted despite the fact that Constitution had forbidden it, where did the figure of "52 per cent OBC population" come from, why were reservations at entry extended to promotions, do the so-called "backward castes" really need special privileges, what has been the role of successive governments and why did judiciary allow this perversion of the Constitution, he asks.

For instance, he mentions, the Mandal Commission derived OBC figures from the 1931 census. That census did not define "caste". The Commission tabulated the "castes" and then assumed these were the same as "classes".

06-12-2006, 01:58 AM

Now, Muslims demand quota in politics, jobs

06-12-2006, 09:56 PM

QUOTE(Mudy @ Jun 11 2006, 04:28 PM)Now, Muslims demand quota in politics, jobs
[right][snapback]52388[/snapback][/right]

'Muslim institutes can hold separate CET'

QUOTEThe Supreme Court on Monday permitted institutions belonging to the Muslim community in Maharashtra to hold separate Common Entrance Test for admission to professional courses for academic year 2006-07.

Where does this stop?

06-12-2006, 10:02 PM

OBCs should throw away the demeaning crutches offered
QUOTESo what should the OBC students, for whom the politician's heart has suddenly started bleeding, do? They should join the anti-reservation agitation and agitate for decent schools, good teachers and scholarships and refuse to be taken for an easy ride by the vote seekers. They should maintain their dignity and refuse the segregating ignominy of backdoor entries into institutions of higher learning. They should ask for better training, better running shoes, better coaches and show that they too can race with the others.

They should throw away the demeaning crutches offered.

I know this will not come to pass. The IIT campuses will be made 50-50, 50 backward and 50 forward, splitting it in the middle along the caste divide, the handicapped and the non-handicapped crowding, jostling on the same race track, nobody going anywhere.

If segregation is a legislative imperative, I suggest that it is better to have it on different campuses, rather than on the same campus. That is a win-win, 100-100 reservation situation. The SC/ST, OBC, BC and FC all having their own IITs with 100 per cent reservation, not only for students, but for faculty and staff too (why stop at students?). Maybe we could thus have healthy academic caste wars. Each group on its own racetrack.

06-12-2006, 11:40 PM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/argue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='argue.gif' /> Islamic Vote Bank Politics - Ominous Portents for IndiaThe mainstream media obsessed currently with Rahul Mahajan, World Cup Soccer and the Al-Zarqawi killing has not given much thought to what started in Assam to consolidate votes to protect the interests of illegal muslim immigrants from Bangladesh during the recent Assembly elections in India is now spiralling into a concerted movement by Muslim bodies to build an Islamic Vote Bank in India. To what extent the Assam phenomenon can be replicated in the rest of India remains to be seen but the Muslim bodies buoyed by the Ajmal experiment have now set their sights on the 2007 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

For years despite practising a brand of politics that favored Muslims through unapologetic minorytism, parties like the Congress and more recently regional outfits like Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, UP and Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janatad Dal, RJD in Bihar, never really had a consolidated bloc of Muslim Voters they could rely on elections after elections. Sensing an opportunity in exposing the hollow minorytism practised by the likes of Congress, SP, RJD and more specifically AGP in Assam, a group of muslim outfits under the leadership of a Businessman turned Politician Badruddin Ajmal formed the Assam United Democratic Front or AUDF.

The Ajmal experiment in Assam paid off rich dividends with the AUDF contesting in 69 seats and winning 10, contrast this with the BJP contesting 125 seats and also winning only 10. What is astounding is the vote percentages with which the AUDF supported Muslim candidates won the elections in these 10 seats. For example in Bilasipara West in Assam the total turnout was 82%, which is very high for any election in India, however the winning Muslim candidate from AUDF polled only 24% of the votes. In Katigora which had nearly 70% voter turnout, the winning Muslim candidate from AUDF polled only 37%. Badruddin Ajmal himself in Jamunamukh which had a voter turnout close to 80% polled less than 50%. The story is pretty much the same in the rest of the seats save a couple. The lesson from Assam seems to be that despite a fragmented polity, there was sufficient consolidation of Muslim votes behind an upapologetically Muslim Political Outfit to ensure electoral victory despite very high overall voter turnouts.

Leading the charge in Uttar Pradesh is Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Maulana Syed Ahmed Bhukhari who on saturday announced the formation of a political front Uttar Pradesh United Democratic Front (UPUDF) to replicate the Assam experiment. Lending support to Bukhari are Assam's AUDF and C.M. Ibrahim of the AIPJD from Karnataka as well as the grand old dinosaur of Indian Politics V.P. Singh's Jan Morcha. The electoral strategy of these outfits is to target 150 odd assembly seats which they claim to have more than 20% Muslim population. The effectiveness of this front in consolidating the Muslim Vote Bank remains to be seen, however this consolidation on the political front is having its ripple effects further south in Mumbai.

At the Maharashtra Muslim Convention, hosted jointly by the All India Ulema Council and Mumbai Aman Committee, at the Anjuman-e-Islam near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, Muslim leaders demanded that besides Parliament, state assemblies and councils, representation on the basis of population must be given to Muslims in the police, bureaucracy, local bodies and private institutions. The convention also appealed to Muslims to unite and prevail upon political parties to give representation to them on the basis of population ratio. The convention was also attended by a representative of Assam's UDF.

Over the last 12 months events in India have seen an environment of increasing Muslim Mobilization on Islamic issues. Starting with the controversy in Uttar Pradesh over the Danish Cartoons which were followed by the rather shameful mobilization of Muslims in favor of Iranian Nukes and then against the visit by President George Bush by the so called secular parties. Close on the heels of this mobilization India witnessed Islamic Terrorists strike in New Delhi on the eve of Diwali and in Ayodhya, Varnasi, IISC Bangalore and now in Nagpur on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS headquarters.

The increasing activity of Islamic Terrorists in interior parts of India and the ease with which arms are delivered and distributed goes to highlight the safe havens that Islamic Terrorism now enjoys in India. An environment of Political Mobilization of Muslims on religious grounds has spawned competitive minorytism amongst the so called secular Political Parties and the State Governments where they are in power.

Offstumped Bottomline: By condoning Muslim Fundamentalist violence during the Iran and Cartoon Issues and Pan Islamic Political Mobilization over these issues the Governments in UP and in New Delhi have contributed to the creation of an environment where it is ok to encourage, shelter and patronise those whose loyalties to a Global Islamic cause are stronger than their respect to the Laws of their Motherland.

This when combined with the Muslim Criminal elements who have been given a free reign in Uttar Pradesh Governance creates Institutional Safe Havens where Islamic Terrorism can germinate and flourish with no fear of consequences because there are many layers of Secular Cover that they can operate under.

All of the above will only receive further boost as these Muslim bodies organize themselves politically thus pushing the so-called secular parties to work overtime in wooing them with rabid minorytism. All of this has portends ominously to the future of internal security in India.

06-13-2006, 12:48 AM

Capt Manmohan Kumar,
While posting, please provide link / url.

Thanks,

06-13-2006, 02:20 AM

QUOTE(Mudy @ Jun 10 2006, 05:47 PM)<div class='quotetop'>QUOTEFriends of South Asia (FOSA), an organization working toward a multicultural, pluralistic, and hate-free South Asia; The Ambedkar Centre for Justice & Peace (ACJP), a Dalit Rights Group; the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA); and the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH)]

These commie and terrorist supporting organisation are against Hindus in CA Textbook case. These organisation supported rally with "Allah destroy Terrorist State of India" rally.
They work with ISI and anti India Pakistani organisation. Now these morons are for pro-reservation, they don't even acknowledge Sarswati civilization or anthing Hindu.
They survive on creating friction in society so that foregin organisation feed them with money for retirement.
[right][snapback]52344[/snapback][/right]
</div>

You'll note, our 'friends' are not requesting reservations for minorities in other south asian nations like Pakistan or Bangaldesh or Lanka for that matter.

06-13-2006, 04:50 AM

QUOTENew fronts open in quota war 
link
Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi
Quota within quota row in Andhra ---- Even as the debate rages on reservation in academic institutions and private sector employment, the beneficiaries of caste quota are busy fighting among themselves to corner maximum advantage. A case involving two powerful scheduled caste groups from Andhra Pradesh has compelled the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry to act.

The Madigas, the majority scheduled caste group in the State with a population of 68 lakh have accused the Malas, the second largest group of scheduled castes of usurping their share in reservation by grabbing all opportunities.

The Union Ministry has decided to set up a committee headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court to suggest ways to deal with such a problem.

The fight for quota within quota simply brings forth the lacunas in the country's reservation policy that does not guarantee that the benefits of quota reach the needy first. If Madigas are the major beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh, the Meenas in Rajasthan get away with the lion's share in the quota cake of STs.

The case is more or less the same among OBCs where the creamy lot among Yadavs, Kurmis, Kushwahas and Lodhs in north India and their counterparts in south India usurp a major chunk of quota in jobs.

In north India, Valmikis and Paswans are the major beneficiaries of SC reservation, while Musahars, despite being in a good number, always find themselves pushed against the wall.

Despite the provision of the creamy layer, the benefits of quota have not percolated adequately to the needy at the grassroots level. "As the gap between the haves and have-nots among the reserved category groups of society continues to be wide, the demand for more and more quota within quota is inevitable," an official said.

"Andhra Pradesh Government, in fact, gave in to this pressure by enacting the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Act, 2000 for the sub-categorisation of SCs," the official added.

Malas are opposed to any such arrangement that earmarks the quota to SCs in proportion to their population. They favour "a free for all" condition where one has to compete with the others to get the job. Adi Andhra, another scheduled caste which is in a minority but grabs more in the quota, has also lent their support to Malas on this front.

As per the sub-categorisation of SCs, the State Government earmarked 7 per cent quota for Madigas, 6 per cent to Malas, one per cent each to Rellis, and Adi Andhra, totalling 15 per cent in Government jobs and State owned and funded institutions.

The Malas, with 54 lakh population have captured 65 per cent job opportunities but have moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Act, 2000 of the State Government.

"The State Government's rationalisation of reservation among the scheduled castes was based on the recommendation of Justice P Ramachandra Raju committee report, concluding that the distribution of reservation benefits was not in proportion of the beneficiaries' population. Malas and Adi Andhra group of scheduled castes are the major beneficiaries of the reservation," Ministry sources said.

In November 2004, the Supreme Court struck down the State Government's Act, stating that by the impugned legislation, the State has sought to re-group the homogenous group specified in Presidential notification for the purpose of reservation and appointments. It would tantamount to discrimination in reverse and would attract the wrath of Article 14 of the Constitution.

Hahahha!!!
Quota within quota.
GS is right, how very limited section were able to use or I say abuse reservation.

06-14-2006, 06:50 AM

To those of you who frequent the 'other' forum, perhaps it is time to terminate our memberships there.
Shiv is suggesting that, as a solution to the reservation situation, we should convert to Islam or Christianity - and he is not being sarcastic.

G.Subramaniam · 06-14-2006, 07:43 AM

QUOTE(vishwas @ Jun 14 2006, 06:50 AM)To those of you who frequent the 'other' forum, perhaps it is time to terminate our memberships there.
Shiv is suggesting that, as a solution to the reservation situation, we should convert to Islam or Christianity - and he is not being sarcastic.
[right][snapback]52480[/snapback][/right]


Shiv is being very realistic
Under pressure of poverty, brahmins are giving their daughters to dravidianists and taking up cleaning latrines
Some more of anti-upper caste pressure, and I can see poor upper castes
converting to xtianity for money

The reservation mania is being directed by xtian missionaries to screw
the upper castes

However, upper castes once in xtianity will again rise to the top and screw
the backwards
The Indian church is upper caste controlled
Indian muslim society is upper caste controlled
Commies are upper caste controlled

Egalitarianism is a false hype
there is stratification in every society

06-14-2006, 07:54 AM

QUOTEhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...637472.cms

Secularism Under Attack
Gurpreet Mahajan

There has been a spectacular increase in the number of institutions seeking minority status in the recent past.

In all of 2005, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions received just 380 applications from institutions seeking minority status; this year with the government announ-cing its decision to reserve an additional 27 per cent of seats for OBCs in all centrally-funded educational institutions, the number of applications received by the commission is already more than 2,000.

At this moment, it seems that schools and colleges that had not previously sought minority status are now seeking that special status to ward off government intervention.

If the proposed reservations for OBCs come into effect, we can expect the number of minority educational institutions to steadily increase. As the number of open seats in prestigious educational institutions decline with increased reservation, less brilliant Hindus will be driven towards community colleges that will come up to fill their need. 

The urge to woo these community educational institutions will also get stronger and these institutions will emerge as the beacon of hope. This is what has happened in south India where quotas for OBCs have been in place for several decades.

According to the Ministry of Health Report 2006, over 60 per cent of all private medical colleges in the country are located in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry.

Now with Mandal II we can expect not just private professional colleges but minority professional colleges to proliferate. 

In south India, there are already a number of minority educational institutions performing this function. In Kerala, more than half of the medical and engineering colleges finan-ced by the state are run by minority communities.

These minority institutions meet the needs of a large number of young aspirants who are unable to secure seats in state-run institutions. In neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka the story is no different.

Here too linguistic minorities along with private trusts have set up professional colleges in significant numbers. There are now Telugu minority engineering and medical colleges, along with others offering MBA and MCA.

Is this the model that we wish to emulate or prescribe for the rest of the country? This is the question that policy-makers need to address urgently.It is also important to remember that minority educational institutions are administered by a range of different communities.

While those established and run by Christians, Muslims and Sikhs are readily identified as minority institutions, in reality institutions run by sects and denominations even within Hinduism have received minority status.

The most striking case is that of the Arya Samaj, which was designated as a minority in the state of Punjab by a ruling of the Supreme Court in 1971.

In fact, when the Bill on National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions was discussed in 2004, members of the BJP argued that institutions run by Hindus in states like Nagaland should have the status of minority educational institutions. 

More and more are now justifying such claims for Hindus in other states of the north-east, Jammu & Kashmir, and Punjab.

Besides, in India it is not just religious communities but also linguistic minorities are entitled to establish their own educational institutions. We can therefore expect Hindus as a community in some regions and linguistic groups in others to seek and obtain minority status.

It is collectively these community-run institutions that will emerge as a real option. Community identities that surfaced around narrowly conceived religious issues like mandir and Hindutva may have waned easily but similar identities consolidated around development-related needs are likely to have a longer staying power.

They are likely to bring into the public domain a more intense and resilient form of communitarian politics.

The middle class plays a crucial role in determining the nature of democratic politics. When a large segment of this class starts relying on community resources, it is community identities and networks that are going to take over the social and public arena.

This will undoubtedly give a fresh lease of life to identity-based parties which stand somewhat isolated today. Parties like BJP have so far been complaining of special treatment accorded to minorities. 

But we will soon find them and other like-minded groups supporting commu-nity-based institutions and rushing to set up charitable trusts and institutions to win favour with the majority community.

In doing so they would easily emerge as saviours of the common man, and most certainly of the bourgeoning middle class within the Hindu community. 

It is not the fate of political parties that is of concern here. What matters is the kind of civil society and citizens that are likely to emerge in a context where community-run educational institutions are pivotal players.

For some time now we have focused on the real possibility of caste identities becoming fixed markers of our identity on account of caste-based reservation policy.

It is time to recognise that steady increase in reservation quotas is likely to trigger a process of desecularisation along with the consolidation of majority community identity and this is going to have serious implications for the future of secular India. 

The writer is professor in politics, JNU.Â

06-15-2006, 09:28 PM

QUOTEAfter quota, Centre mulls 22.5 pc budgetary share for SC/STs 
PIoneer.com
Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi
After quota in jobs and academic institutions for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, there is a proposal to earmark 22.5 per cent of the total budget for their welfare. The sub-group of Ministers on the budgetary allocation has agreed on the budgetary quota, a development that would open a Pandora's Box for the Centre already beleaguered on the quota issue.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee is the chairman of the sub-group on the budgetary mechanism for the scheduled castes' special component plan. Sources said Union Fertilisers, Chemicals and Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan raised the issue of 22.5 per cent quota for the SC/ST in the budget. "There was total unanimity over the issue in the meeting on Tuesday," sources said.

The day might not be far off when the OBC leaders too join the SC/ST bandwagon for 27 per cent share in the budget. At present, SC/ST have 22.5 per cent reservation in jobs and Government academic institutions. OBCs have 27 per cent quota in jobs, and the Centre now proposes to get them quota in Centrally funded academic institutions too.

Talking to The Pioneer, Paswan said the Government would only ensure all round development of SC/STs by earmarking 22.5 per cent of the budget for their welfare. "The recommendation is in consonance with the spirit of the Government's objective behind setting up the Committee of Ministers on Dalit Affairs. There was total consensus on the matter in the meeting held."

Paswan, who chairs the sub-group of Ministers on the basic amenities for SC/STs in the rural and urban areas, said: "Our sub-group of Ministers recently decided to develop all villages with 50 per cent SC/ST population as the Prime Minister's Model Villages. Every such villages will have all the basic facilities."

Asserting the move would change the face of the country in five years time, Paswan, also the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, said: "There are around 38,000 villages where SC/ST population is up to 50 per cent. All these villages would be developed as the model villages in three phases. Planning Commission has agreed to finance the initiative."

According to him, these villages will have everything from primary schools and health centres, they would have phone and road connectivity too. "These villages would also have a residential school till the middle level class in every panchayat," he added. The sub-group also recommended setting up of a high school at the block level


Next Paswan will ask for seperate country on caste basis with Muslim as King. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' />

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