Will Sachar report get Muslims a fair share?

The much-awaited Justice Rajinder Sachar committee declares its findings from a national survey that have long been known to the informed: that the abysmal economic status of Muslims in India needs a fillip through job rendition. But the big question is: will the Congress-led UPA government act on the latest report on Muslims?

By Shahid Faridi

The findings of the Justice Rajinder Sachar-led high-level committee set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to conduct a national survey of the social, educational and economic status of Muslims in India has triggered a national debate on the need for affirmative action to ensure that Muslims get their fair share in jobs.

While it has been known that Muslims are vastly under-represented in government jobs, the findings of the Sachar committee have put on the defensive political parties that have been the major recipient of Muslim votes. Strikingly, the Left parties, the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, and the parties of the self-acclaimed champions of minority issues such as Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav, have the worst records in providing jobs to Muslims in the government sector. According to data collected by the Sachar committee, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are at the bottom of the ladder in terms of Muslim share in employment.

Although the Sachar committee is still finalising its recommendations and is likely to present the report in the third week of November, the debate on the issue gained seriousness with the prime minister announcing, while he was addressing the annual conference of state minorities commissions, that "it is essential that communal peace and harmony should be maintained and the minorities get a fair share in central and state government, and private sector jobs".

Manmohan Singh said that the new 15-point programme launched by his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for the welfare of the minorities needed monitoring. "This nation does not belong to any single race, least of all any group of religious extremists," he said. "It belongs to a mosaic of religiously, linguistically and culturally varied communities." He also said that the lack of access to the common school system is the primary reason for the socioeconomic backwardness of Muslims, and added that his government would bring forward a bill in the Winter Session of Parliament to give Constitutional status to the National Commission for Minorities.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) showed their usual alacrity in accusing the prime minister of playing vote-bank politics and advocating religion-based reservations. Said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar, The prime minister is actually advocating religion-based reservations on the pretext of favouring a fair share for minorities in jobs. We oppose this as it was religion which became the cause for the country's partition."

RSS leader Ram Madhav said, "We believe a fair share has to be based on merit and not religion. We are also against the grant of Constitutional status to the National Minorities Commission."

The Congress, however, disdainfully dismissed the RSS-BJP contention. "Is there something wrong to demand fair share of jobs for minorities in a pluralistic society like India?" asked Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, who clarified that the Congress had not taken any stand on the issue of granting reservation on the basis of religion.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh went a step ahead and proposed a Constitutional amendment to provide reservations to economically weaker sections, including minorities, which are under-represented in government jobs. But other Congress leaders and Union ministers feel that the attempt to amend the Constitution may prolong the debate and might actually delay actual intervention.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) suggested that 15 per cent of the budgetary allocations of every ministry should be spent on the welfare of minorities. CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said that his party would take up the matter in the next meeting of the UPA's coordination committee. "We want [that] Muslims should at least be empowered so that they reach a stage where they can compete with the rest," Yechury said, adding that the Left parties' similar demand during the United Front government had resulted in the allocation of 10 per cent from the Budget for the Northeastern states.

Meanwhile, the ministry for minority affairs has sent a proposal to the finance ministry to earmark a certain percentage of the priority sector funds for minorities. Currently, 40 per cent of bank investment is allocated to the priority sector: this includes 18 per cent for the agriculture sector, while the rest goes to small and medium enterprises and the export sector. The minority affairs ministry wants the ministry of finance and the RBI to expand the priority sector to include minorities.

The minority affairs ministry's proposal stems from the UPA government's new 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities. Point number 9, section (b), of the programme says, "Bank credit is essential for creation and sustenance of self-employment initiatives. A target of 40 per cent of net bank credit for priority sector lending has been fixed for domestic banks. The priority sector includes, inter alia, agricultural loans, loans to small-scale industries and small businesses, loans to retail trade, professional and self-employed persons, education loans, housing loans and micro-credit. It will be ensured that an appropriate percentage of the priority sector lending in all categories is targeted for the minority communities."

The ministry of finance, however, does not share the ministry of minority's enthusiasm for earmarking funds for the minorities: it is reluctant to fix a percentage of funds to be allocated to minority welfare. All it wants to do is to instruct banks to take what it calls a more "proactive" approach in clearing applications from members of the minority communities.

Officials in the ministry of minority affairs crib that this clearly cannot be the solution. They feel that unless a fixed percentage of the priority sector fund is earmarked for minorities, credit flow to this segment cannot increase and the credit availability clause in the prime minister's spanking new 15-point programme will remain only on paper. And that's where minority affairs has stagnated for a long, long time.