<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Explosive Sachar report tabled </b>
pioneer.com
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
We'll implement it in three months: Antulay
The lure of Muslim votes in the coming electoral battles prompted the UPA Government to present the Rajinder Sachar Committee on socio-economic and educational status of Muslims in Parliament on Thursday and assure its implementation before February next.
<b>But the combative tone of the BJP-led Opposition on the issue and a Hindu backlash forced it to stop short of making any commitment about reservations for Muslims.</b>
"The Cabinet will discuss the recommendations and personally I feel it should be implemented before February," Minorities Affairs Minister AR Antulay told mediapersons just after the controversial report was tabled in both the Houses.
Asked if extension of the quota-regime for Muslims was on the cards following the slew of minority welfare measures suggested by the committee, Antulay was at pains to underline, "The basis of the recommendations is not reservation. It says that justice should be done to the community."
The 404-page report makes out a strong case for governmental interventions to deal with the deprivations of Muslims and wants the Government to focus on inclusive development and mainstreaming of the community.
But it also amounts to a damning indictment of the Congress by holding it responsible for the marginalisation of Muslims during its 60 years of rule.
<b>By underlining acute deprivation of the minority community in States like West Bengal and Kerala, it also puts a question mark over the credentials of the Left parties that claim to be torchbearers of secularism and minority rights.</b>
The timing of the report and the undue haste with which Antulay announced the Government's resolve to start implementing it before February shows that the entire exercise has been dictated by the political imperatives of the Congress party, political observers feel.
<b>"Crucial State Assembly elections are due in UP, Uttaranchal and Punjab early next year and the Congress is desperate to woo the Muslims," conceded a UPA Minister, </b>not wishing to be named.
A section in the Congress seems to realise that the exercise could prove a double-edged weapon for the party. It fears it could lead to a rat race for cornering Muslim votes between the Congress and its allies and supporters, some of who are already demanding reservation for Muslims.
This was reflected in the statement of AICC spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who said there was no proposal to introduce reservations for Muslims as a community and the issue should be looked at in a "holistic manner".
Congress leaders seem to realise the dangers of overplaying the Sachar card.
"Parties like Samajwadi Party will try to push the Congress into an unviable situation by making unreasonable demands on the basis of the Sachar Committee and we will have to do tight rope walking on the issue," said a senior AICC functionary.
In a scathing comment on the condition of Muslims, the seven-member committee, headed by a <b>former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, has found that despite the economic boom, Muslims have had to bear the brunt of the so-called competitive forces unleashed by liberalisation.</b>
It also revealed that in urban areas of Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, poverty among Muslims is even higher than the scheduled castes and tribes.
"Even in rural areas, poverty levels among Muslims are high. In some States, the headcount ratio among Muslims is much higher than the SCs/STs, not to speak of OBCs and general (category)," the report said, adding that the poverty among Muslims is very high in rural areas of Assam and West Bengal.
The panel also favours a group of Muslims with traditional occupations as that of scheduled castes be designated as most backward classes (MBCs) and provided "multifarious measures", including reservation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted the seven-member committee in March this year and its tenure was extended till November 30. It submitted its report to him on November 17.
The report has come in the backdrop of the Prime Minister's suggestion that Muslims should get a "fair share" in Government jobs, including those in security agencies and the armed forces.
The BJP, that had launched a vigorous protest against the committee's move for a Muslim headcount in the armed forces, has already announced that the composition of the committee and its "prejudiced report" would form a key component of its political offensive against the UPA Government's unabashed pursuit of vote bank politics, jeopardising the security of India.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Another ploy to divide nation: BJP </b>
Pioneer news service | New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that <b>Rajinder Sachar Committee's recommendation for 'religion based quota' was reminiscent of what the Muslim League sought in 1906 that led to the partition of the nation</b>.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"Exactly a 100 years later, the nation is confronted with a similar situation. The UPA Government at the Centre has again brought the religion-based quota back in the focus. It would culminate in what the nation witnessed in 1947," </span>former Union Minister and Member of Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj said.
Terming the report of Sachar Committee as divisive in nature, Swaraj said that the report was full of biases and prejudices. <b>"It seems that a lot of efforts have gone into preparing the report, but in the wrong direction and with a skewed vision. It will not serve any good purpose. It talks of nominating Muslims to the different bodies and houses to increase their representation,"</b> she said.
Swaraj said the BJP had sought discussion in both the Houses of Parliament and the Government has agreed for the discussion, most probably on Monday. "At the moment, the party is giving only preliminary reaction to the report. The detailed reaction would come when the matter comes up for discussion in the two Houses," she said.
<b>"As there are no scheduled castes in Muslims, how can they be given reservation in the jobs? Which is why the Muslim leaders opposed when the Government wished to bring their institutions into the ambit of the quota. They had said that they would not be able to give caste-based quota to Muslims, as there are no castes as such in Islam,"</b> she said.
Referring to the inclusion of certain Muslim sections in the list of other backward classes (OBCs), Swaraj said that these sections have been availing quota in the Government jobs on the pretext of their being socially and educationally backwardness. "We are not opposed to the social and economic uplift of Muslims, but not through the manner in which the present Government wants," she said at the party's regular Press briefing in Parliament on Thursday.
Accusing the Congress and its allies for the present state of affairs in the Muslim society, Swaraj said: <b>"The backwardness among Muslims is a reflection on the governance of the Congress. Even today, the Congress does not want them to join the national mainstream."</b>
<b>Swaraj also took pot shots at the Government for not including any woman as member in the Sachar Committee. "It is a well known fact that the condition of women is not good among Muslims. You cannot have a comprehensive policy to address their problems through a committee devoid of woman members," </b>she said.
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http://www.samachar.com/showurl.htm?rurl=h...~IAS~exams'
<b>Recognize madrassa degrees for defense, IAS exams: Sachar </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New Delhi, PTI:
The Sachar committee has suggested degrees from madrassas (Islamic schools) be granted recognition for eligibility in defense, civil and banking examinations.
"The idea is to facilitate a process whereby madrassa graduates too have a choice and an incentive to participate in these employment streams," the seven-member committee headed by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajindar Sachar said in its report on social, economic and educational status of Muslims.
The report, tabled in Parliament today, noted that madrassas should not be looked upon as alternative to regular school, but as a complement.
<b>"This (recognition to madrassa degrees) should, however, remain within the existing framework of these competitive examinations,"</b> it said.
The committee suggested mechanisms be evolved to link madrassas with higher secondary school boards in order to enable their students to shift to regular and mainstream education.
Flexibility, it said, should be introduced so as to enable madrassa graduates to move across to regular mainstream education after graduating from these institutions, if they so wish.
"In other words, opportunity should be made available to them, especially in courses where admission is done through an entrance test/competitive examination," the committee added.
It noted that modernized madrassas were unlikely to satisfy the educational demand of the Muslim community and that the government would have to set up mainstream schools where they are not available. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Are they going to do same with other religious schools?
Obviously Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, WB and Goa are the best places for educated salaried forward castes if they want their sons and daughters to get seats in engineering and medical colleges. Who knows by settling in all these places, "forward" castes can actually become the majority, thereby giving less justification for huge reservation to "backward castes". Or the politicians seeing a bigger votebank will start advocating reservations for "forward" castes.
Tamil Nadu has 87% "backward" castes including SCs STs. It incidentally also is one of the prosperous and most industrialized states in the country. <b>Cannot imagine that 87% of the population is still backward with state moving so much forward or is it that all the benefits of progess has been pocketed by the 2-3% Brahmins in the state.</b> Frankly this seems like if we were to argue in Pakistan, Muslims being given reservation bcos they are above 90% or in India, Hindus been given reservation bcos they are 83%. Tamil Nadu state govt's logic is that since they have more % of backward castes, hence they should be allowed to give greater reservation. Obviously if you are heading a state where you argue 87% of your own janata is backward, then you have some serious inferiority complex or you want to garner 87% of the vote. I actually feel at present at least in states such as TN, "forward" castes are being victimized because they are a minority.
Please see
The point is what benefit is reserving a few 100 seats and some more at IITs going to do to alleviate the condition of the actual backward sections of the society, who don't even have access to good primary education.
The flaw is with the concept of reservation itself. I can be accused of being very general and metaphorical, but I can't but say that it seems to be to be a cructh for the lame person. You essentially say the lame person that don't worry you stay lame for life, the crutch will take care of you. A crutch can be good as an initial starting point, it also can build a self confidence, but then you need to make a person stronger from within. Do we want India to be a nation of weak men or a nation where every person can have the character to come up in life regardless where he was born. Sadly we don't have nation builders today, we have only those who harvest what has already been sown. There has been some Gandhi bashing in some discussions on this forum, but the great thing about Gandhi was he built the character of a nation. He said to be free, you got to be ready to take freedom. As a nation are we ready today for greater heights. This question needs to be asked by each and every Indian regardless of his caste or religion.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Communal quota </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Backdoor reservation for Muslims
Desperate to woo Muslim voters before Assembly elections are held next year in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttaranchal, and later in Gujarat, the Congress is willing to take any and every measure, irrespective of the damage they are bound to cause to the nation's social fabric, making it that much more vulnerable to communal discord and disharmony. One such measure is the proposal to include so-called other backward classes among India's Muslims - in effect the entire community - in the 27 per cent OBC quota which Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh is determined to impose on both Government and private sector educational institutions. The 27 per cent OBC quota itself is undesirable because not only does it attach premium to certain caste identities while discounting merit, but also threatens to re-open the wounds that were inflicted by the implementation of the BP Mandal Commission's report. What makes the UPA's move, courtesy Mr Singh's diabolical plan, particularly sinister is that it serves as a cloak to hide the Government's real purpose: Introduce a quota for Muslims in educational institutions and thus legitimise rank communalism. The immediate cause for concern on this front is the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development endorsing the backdoor introduction of communal reservation by including Muslims in the 27 per cent OBC quota as proposed in the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill. This also amounts to implementing one of the divisive recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee whose report has understandably left those who wish to see India emerge as a powerful nation seething with rage.
But, and this merits reiteration, much as the Government may claim to have secured unanimous parliamentary approval for its regressive casteist and communal quota policy through the Standing Committee's report, the fact is to the contrary: All six BJP members of the committee have refused to append their signatures to this mockery of democracy; instead, they have attached a note of dissent. If the Congress and its allies in the UPA have any sense of political honesty and moral integrity, they will not overlook the note of dissent and claim unanimous approval, as is being made out to be by drum-beaters of the regime. Parliamentary Standing Committee reports are meant to reflect bipartisan agreement on contentious issues and pave the way for Bills to be passed with minimum discord through amendments supported by all parties. The report on extending the ill-conceived 27 per cent OBC quota to include Muslims is no such document of bipartisan support. To portray it as such is to ridicule both tradition and system. Worse, the Congress's approach shows that it has learned no lessons from past mistakes and remains as arrogant and deceitful as ever, confident of bluffing its way through the storm that is bound to break when the Bill comes up for debate and voting. Ironically, while imposing a Muslim quota on Government (and later unaided private) educational institutions, the report and the proposed Bill exempts cash-rich engineering, medical and management colleges run by Muslims from any such obligation. And yet the people are expected to believe that this is a Government devoted to minority welfare
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It was painful to read the finding of the Rajinder Sachar Committee that Muslims exhibit "deficits and deprivation" in almost all aspects of development (Dec. 1). The report has exposed the false propaganda of the sangh parivar that Muslims have benefited immensely from the appeasement policy of various political parties. As expected, the Sachar Committee report too has come under attack from the saffron brigade.
The Centre should implement the Committee's recommendations, including reservation for some Muslim groups. It is envisioned that the 21st century will belong to India. But by systematically keeping a sizeable section outside almost every field of activity, India cannot translate this vision into reality. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
K. Abdul Nassar,
Aluva, Kerala
Successive rulers have either appeased or denigrated the Muslim community to strengthen their vote banks. While the Sachar Committee's recommendations are far-reaching, the exercise will bear fruit only if Muslims cooperate in their implementation. A mass campaign to spread social awareness about the importance of education will improve their social status. Kerala Muslims bear testimony to this. Even before the Gulf boom of the 1970s and 1980s, their awareness of the importance of education was widespread. The Gulf boom complemented it.
O.D. Damodaran,
Thrissur
I welcome the Committee's recommendation to create an Equal Opportunity Commission, modelled on the U.K. Race Relations Act. Besides being a corrective measure, it will also serve as a monitoring authority that looks into the grievances of not only Muslims but of the SCs, the STs, and the OBCs. Such a commission set up in Hong Kong to address the grievances of the minorities has been functioning successfully.
Arabi Haja Mohideen,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
The root cause of their backwardness is the insecurity among Muslims. State-sponsored carnages like the post-Godhra riots add fuel to the fire. In most instances, the administration does not act on their complaints. The need of the hour is affirmative action to make them feel secure and part of the national mainstream. The state should not stop with announcements to win their votes.
Shashikant Singh,
Roorkee, Uttaranchal
The Manmohan Singh Government's intention may be noble but it has given the BJP and the sangh parivar a weapon to hit Muslims with. The report, I am sure, will gather dust. What was the need to appoint another committee when reports of the National Minorities Commission on almost the same issues are lying with the Government?
Shariq Alavi,
Lucknow
Mr. Sachar's statement that data from the armed forces on the number of Muslims in their ranks have not been used comes as a relief. No aspirant to the armed forces is denied selection on religious grounds. Esprit-de-corps, instilled by timeless values and traditions, is the force that binds armed forces personnel, not religious identity. Politicians should refrain from involving this glorious institution in controversies.
K. Sarath Chander,
Bangalore
The Sachar Committee has not revealed anything new. Most educated and affluent Muslims migrated to Pakistan during Partition. Those who stayed back preferred to follow traditional skills. Those who broke the religious barriers have risen and found a place in government services. The community's case for reservation in jobs is defeated by the fact that many Muslims drop out of school fairly early. The benefits of reservation will go to the creamy layer leaving the really backward at the mercy of madrasas.
J.M. Manchanda,
New Delhi
While a community cannot be allowed to suffer continuously, it is important to identify the causes that have contributed to its state. Reservation will only serve as a cover-up, and fail to achieve the real objective of bringing about radical changes.
Gaurav Sobti,
Pune
The Muslim community has itself to blame for its backwardness. Muslims ruled the country for centuries. They, therefore, cannot be compared with the backward classes on whom other sections thrust backwardness.
A. Mrinalini,
Hyderabad
Were Muslims, once the rulers of the country, oppressed like Dalits? There are so many groups that are economically backward.
The Sachar Committee's recommendation that specific Muslim groups be included among the Scheduled Castes, if implemented, will be vote bank politics at its worst.
G. Nageswara Rao,
Hyderabad
Reservation for the SCs, the STs, and the OBCs was provided with a view to offset the social oppression they suffered for centuries. There is no evidence of such oppression vis-Ã -vis Muslims. In fact, they enjoyed preferential treatment for centuries under Muslim rule.
If today Muslims are backward, it is they who are to blame. Religious conservatism and isolation are responsible for their backwardness, not lack of opportunities.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Cabinet rejects panel quota recommendation </b>
New Delhi
<b>The Union Cabinet on Thursday night rejected the recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee to exclude creamy layer from the purview of the 27 per cent OBC quota in Government-aided institutions of higher learning. "After considering all aspects, it was decided to stick to the original Bill with the basic framework of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs," </b>Information and Broadcasting Minister PR Dasmunsi told reporters after the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dalit Muslims in SC category? No, says BSP </b>
Pioneer.com
Akhilesh Suman | New Delhi
Is Mayawati willing to risk alienating the Muslims just to consolidate her Dalit votebank before the much awaited Assembly elections?
While the UPA Government is mulling some mechanism for Muslims in general and Dalit Muslims in particular, ahead of the State Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, ruling Samajwadi Party's major challenger Bahujan Samaj Party is not ready to accept the incorporation of Muslims in the existing Scheduled Caste category.
<b>"Where is a Dalit category in Muslims? Do you see it anywhere? If it were there it would have been envisaged by the makers of the Indian Constitution like Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar,"</b> Rajesh Verma, a Mayawati confidant and leader of BSP in Lok Sabha told The Pioneer.
<b>"For 60 years after independence, no one saw Dalits in Muslims, but now all of a sudden Sachar Committee has discovered it," </b>he said, hinting that the Congress wanted to use the Sachar report as a ploy to attract the Muslim voters.
In a State where Muslims form a formidable vote bank capable of affecting the future of any political party, the BSP leader's statement is indicative of the strategy being chalked out by the Dalit outfit.
"If Congress wants to give reservation to Muslims, we have no problems, but we will not let them encroach on the existing reservation for Scheduled Castes," Verma said.
Pointing out that the Muslims are already present in the reserved category of the OBCs, the BSP leader warned that any move to carve out a place for some of them in Dalit category would be treated as a conspiracy against Dalits.
Earlier the BSP supremo Mayawati had also tried to distance her party from the policy of Muslim 'appeasement' when she said in Merut that Muslims liked fanatic leaders. She, however, clarified later that she did not mean that all Muslims are fanatic.
Observers feel that BSP is trying to show the mighty upper caste, especially the Brahmins of the state that she is not in the game of minority appeasement and can call a spade a spade. Though a risky gamble, this strategy may work for her as she foresees a tough competition for Muslim votes in UP between the Congress and the SP.Â
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sour cream </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Manmohan's final quota betrayal
In rejecting the recommendation of a parliamentary standing committee to introduce a "creamy layer" clause to the Bill seeking to provide a 27 per cent OBC quota in Government-aided institutions of higher learning, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has signalled his final and unmitigated surrender to political blackmail. When Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh mooted OBC reservations in the IITs and IIMs, the crafty Minister's attempt was clearly to embarrass the Prime Minister and pre-empt the report of the Knowledge Commission that Mr Manmohan Singh had handpicked. At that point the Prime Minister - and the Congress - promised the country that they would not reject the imperatives of merit and not constrict opportunities for general category students. They promised to augment capacity so that, in numbers at least, the seats lost to quotas were made up for and affirmed that there would be no blind application of the caste provision. <b>Indeed, the Veerappa Moily Oversight Committee was set up for the purpose of fixing modalities. A key issue in this entire period was rationalisation of the list of OBCs, and removal of wealthy, long-empowered communities - such as the Yadavs, for instance - from an affirmative action programme aimed at helping the truly indigent among the OBCs become management graduates and engineers.</b> In coming up with an "all OBCs are equal" Bill, the Government has betrayed India, the Congress has betrayed its constituency, and Prime Minister Singh has betrayed his conscience. Failure to stand up to the OBC chieftains - from Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav to the Ramadoss father-and-son firm - in the UPA has meant the Congress has sacrificed the larger interest. Like Mr VP Singh in 1990, it is seeking to pander to upper OBCs in, primarily, northern India but is not going to win their vote - the middle peasantry walked out on the Congress in 1967 when Charan Singh quit the party.
Well-meaning but simplistic liberals often confuse the reservation provision for Dalits in 1951 with the Mandal binge of 1990, as extended by Mr Manmohan Singh and Mr Arjun Singh in 2006. Dalits were genuinely the wretched of the earth, and deserved state support in post-Independence India. The OBCs/Backwards - at least groups like the Jats and Kurmis and Kunbis/Marathas - are beneficiaries of the Green Revolution and of free India's economic development. Entire communities have been economically and politically empowered. They don't deserve easy access to higher education; at least successive generations of the same family don't. About the only way Mr Manmohan Singh can atone is by ensuring that ordinary Indians - those who can't parade a "politically correct" caste tag or just don't want to - don't suffer due to his inaction. The proposal to open up higher education to private and foreign investment should be pushed through, irrespective of what the intellectual luddite who runs the HRD Ministry says. India has given Mr Manmohan Singh a lot. It deserves some reciprocity.
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<b>9 More States May Vote On Affirmative Action Ban</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->(AP) LANSING, Mich. Nine western states could be among the next sites for debate over whether race and gender should be considered in determining who gets into public universities and who gets government work.
The expanded effort announced Wednesday was sparked by the recent success of a ballot proposal to amend Michigan's constitution, said Ward Connerly, chairman of the Sacramento, Calif.-based American Civil Rights Coalition. The group supports banning public affirmative action programs based on race and gender preferences, a proposal that passed in Michigan in November with 58 percent of the vote........<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Paswan refers to US for reservation, he should watch these votes.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Education quota Bill passed in LS </b> <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
BJP amendment to bring minority institutions under ambit rejected
A controversial bill that seeks 27 per cent of seats for students of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the Central higher education institutions in the country was passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha Thursday after the House rejected Opposition BJP's amendment to bring minority run institutions also under its ambit.
Union HRD Minister <b>Arjun Singh, however, tried to explain away the exclusion of the minority-run education institutions from its purview by saying that they had already been admitting dalits and weaker sections and there was no reason to believe they would not do so in future.</b>
The explanation evoked furious protests from the Opposition BJP Members led by BJP Deputy Leader VK Malhotra, who asked why minority-run educational institutions were being absolved of the onus of accommodating the Dalits and the OBCs.
The Bill, officially known as Central Education Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006, is considered to be a path-breaking one for the OBCs who comprise nearly 50 per cent of the country's population.
Although a parliamentary standing committee has recommended the creamy layer of the OBCs should be exempted from the quota, the Government decided to include them in the Bill. The committee was of the view that only if OBC seats remain vacant, should the creamy layer be allowed to take them.
However, major allies of the Congress in the ruling UPA were against that idea.
While the Bill extended reservation to all the OBCs listed by the Mandal Commission, it has exempted minority-run institutions from its purview.
The Congress-led Government's decision to bring the legislation had created major controversy as medical students vehemently opposed the Bill. They held prolonged demonstrations, severely affecting health services in government-run hospitals, including the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the national Capital, to protest the move.
The nation-wide protests that lasted more than two weeks forced the Government to work out a compromise that while seats in the general category would remain unaffected, the quota implementation would be done in a staggered manner and faculty and infrastructure enhanced accordingly.
The Oversight Committee headed by senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily has prepared a roadmap for quota implementation. According to the Oversight Committee, the cost of implementation of affirmative action in support of such disadvantaged sections of society is calculated to be over Rs 90 billion.
During the discussions in the Lok Sabha, all political parties cutting across party lines, supported the Bill. However, the main Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) brought an amendment to bring in the minority-run institutions also in the ambit of the bill. The amendment was rejected by the Government.
Another demand made by the BJP to exclude certain castes, which according to them have progressed after the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations, also was not considered.
The<b> ruling Congress party and some of its allies wanted reservation for Muslims also. </b>Quoting the recently published Rajinder Sachar committee report on socio-educational and educational status of the Muslims, they argued that the minority community's condition was worse than that of Scheduled Castes and Tribes and even OBCs.
<b>The bill was passed by voice vote. </b>It is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha before the Winter Session of Parliament ends on Dec 19.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>More docs join quota protest fast </b>
Staff Reporter | New Delhi
To ensure that the patients do not suffer because of the ongoing strike, a General Body Meeting of Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of AIIMS on Friday decided that only 20 doctors would continue the relay indefinite hunger strike while the rest will work.
The RDA of AIIMS went on an indefinite hunger strike from Thursday night to protest against the Government's move on the reservation policy. "We will dedicate ourselves for the people of the country and will continue to fight for this noble cause," said Dr Kumar Harsh, RDA president. Â
The move by the AIIMS RDA is being commended by other resident doctors in the country. Three resident doctors of SMS Medical College of Jaipur have also gone on strike to support the cause, said a doctor on strike.
The Central Education Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006, that was passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday by a voice vote, extends 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in central higher education institutions. The Bill has not excluded the creamy layer despite the Parliamentary Standing Committee's recommendations.
"The Government is adopting a divide and rule policy of the British and the common man is suffering. The Government has even ignored their own standing committee's recommendations", said a member of the RDA.
The condition of the 20 RDAs is stable till now. The resident doctors have received calls from Kanpur and Banaras supporting their cause. "Everyone is with us, even the faculty members though they have their own limitations and cannot come in open support of us", said a doctor on strike.
"This hunger strike is in sharp contrast to the agitation that took place last time. They have a right to protest. The Government should be ashamed of the tactics it is employing to exploit their vote bank", said a faculty member of AIIMS.
The Bill, which provides 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, 15 per cent for Scheduled Castes and 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Tribes, will come into effect from academic year 2007.Â
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To me it looks like the congress strategies for the election are:
1. Ensure minority votes for them
2. Split Hindu votes by grabbing OBC votes through quota.
BJP actions and campaign should ensure that quota program doesn't split Hindu votes, but anti-hindu policies of UPA are highlighted
<!--emo&:argue--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/argue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='argue.gif' /><!--endemo--> <span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'><b>If Cong does not retire Sonia, I don't think that it will ever come back to power.</b></span>
Equality is a basic feature of the constitution, and equality includes social equality. Any justifiable (affirmative) action to achieve social equality is a part of social justice. Indian constitution adopted reservation as an affirmative action for a specified period. But politicians extended this period again and again to indefinite period. These politically motivated extensions have changed the affirmative character of reservations and turned reservation in to a political tool to capture power and then to retain it. Reservation has become discrimination in the name of equality. Disregarding SC advice for excluding creamy layer is an indication that politicians are determined to use it as a vote capturing tool.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>5 MPs oppose OBC Bill </b>
Pioneer.com
New Delhi
Amidst stiff opposition from a ginger group of MPs, Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the quota Bill for admission of OBC students in centrally aided higher education institutions.
Rajya Sabha members Chandan Mitra, Sharad Joshi, PC Alexander, Rahul Bajaj and Sanjay Raut were totally against the passing of the Bill and suggested giving boost to the weaker sections from the school education onwards. Their demand for division was disallowed by Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Rajya Sabha members Chandan Mitra, Sharad Joshi, PC Alexander, Rahul Bajaj and Sanjay Raut were totally against the passing of the Bill and suggested giving boost to the weaker sections from the school education onwards. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>SHRI RAHUL BAJAJ</b>: I am very sincerely for all assistance to economically and socially backward people. My company, Bajaj Auto, employees, 36 per cent of SCs, STs and OBCs. But every one was selected on merits. I am against discrimination against any category of people in any form whatsoever.
The need, as has been mentioned, is for better education at all levels starting from the primary school for everyone. I know the Bill will be passed almost unanimously. But, today, we should, at least, take a pledge that every child in this country will get good primary education till the age of 14 years. Education and primary health should get the first preference. We will not be able to do that without infrastructure. I am completely against the capitation fees resulting in quotas for the rich and privileged. That is as bad as any other quota. They should come in on merit and not on the basis of quota. I am firmly against this Bill.
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