New Delhi, June 08: In contrast to predecessor A R Antulay who maintained a studied silence on the the issue of reservation, newly-appointed Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has called quota for Muslims a “double-edged sword” which could create “envy, hostility and resistance”.
He has instead advocated affirmative action as a tool to “inject an ability to compete” rather than make them “constant beneficiaries of additional help”.
In an interview to The Indian Express, Khurshid said it was time to explore “angles” other than reservation.
He said it was his intention to roll out some “quick impact” schemes and fine-tune delivery of recommendations made by the Justice Rajinder Sachar committee.
“You don’t want to try and please somebody and not get them the comfort of actually getting any relief. I think it is much better to get substantive relief, substantive opportunity rather than stick your mind only on one particular way of doing it.”
“If you can get them what they want by another method… what they want is opportunity, why should we just follow a standard line of reservation. There may be a better way. If there isn’t then, we will come back to discussing reservation.
Let us look at other angles,” Khurshid said when asked about implementation of the Ranganath Mishra committee report which he maintained he had not read.
“I don’t think we have clarity on reservation. There are expectations and demands for reservation of all kinds… I think what we need to do is look at affirmative action a little more seriously.
Reservation is a double-edged sword for Muslims. Must not do anything that creates envy, hostility and resistance,” he said.
–Agencies