Know this, and be concerned, very concerned, about its long-term implications for India.
The politics of competitive minorityism, currently on display in the context of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, is certain to define the main thrust of the Congress party’s politics in the years to come.
If unchecked, its consequences for the Idea of India, which underpins our secular Constitution, will be fatal.
In danger of being undermined is the very basic structure and spirit of the Constitution.
First, the Congress-led UPA government decides, just days before the UP polls are announced, to introduce a religion-based sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota. Within days, Law Minister Salman Khurshid promises that the sub-quota would be hiked to 9 per cent.
Although a spokesman unconvincingly states that this isn’t the official Congress line, the party’s disingenuous double-speak is evident to one and all.
After all, the party has employed the same trickery in the case of the Batla House encounter. Not to be outdone, the Samajwadi Party promises 18 per cent reservation for Muslims.
It premises the promise on the principle of demographically proportionate reservation that several Muslim organisations have been demanding not only in government jobs and educational institutions but also in seats in Parliament and state assemblies.
Furthermore, SP also demands a Constitutional amendment to nullify the Supreme Court’s ruling on the 50 per cent cap for overall reservations.
Don’t be fooled by the Congress party’s conspiratorial silence on this demand. After all, the main recommendation of the Ranganath Mishra Commission, not rejected by the UPA government, is to introduce a separate 15 per cent religion-based quota for minorities—10 per cent for Muslims and 5 per cent for others.
Please note that the Commission wants this quota for all Muslims, and not only for backward Muslims. In other words, even the children of Khurshid, Azim Premji and the like would be eligible to benefit from this quota.
Many Muslim groups have already accused the Congress of “stabbing the community in the back” for its decision to introduce only a 4.5 percent minority sub-quota within the 27 per cent OBC quota. Their grudge: “OBC Muslims would now have to compete with Christians, Sikhs and Parsis for the 4.5 per cent quota, whereas the remaining 22.5 per cent would be for Hindu OBCs.”
These Muslim groups are bound to intensify their agitation for the implementation of Mishra Commission’s recommendations.
And mark my words: the Congress party—beleaguered by the UPA government’s scams and non-performance and hence desperate to consolidate its Muslim vote bank in the run-up to the next parliamentary elections—is bound to play its minority quota card aggressively.
————————-indianexpress————-