RESERVATION
Masood Ali Khan on Reservation of Muslims
Status of Reservation in States:
Every state is attempting to enlarge the canvas of reservation to be extended to almost all backward classes of Indian society. Recently the All-India Anna DMK Government in Tamil Nadu enhanced the quota of reservation and announced 69% to BCs. (In this enhancement of reservation, the Tamil Nadu Government has ignored the Muslims of the State). Bihar has raised the quota to 83 per cent, UP 80% and AP 27% Similarly the Karnataka Government recently announced an increase in quota of reservation of the OBCs. (The) Karnataka Government assured 6% quota of reservation to Muslims also in this 75% enhancement). The (AP) Government announced reservations for Kapus, Muslims and 12 other castes in the Backward Classes List.
In fact, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are competing with one another to appease some powerful communities with an eye on the elections. Otherwise, what is the justification for including the Vokkaligas and Kapus in Andhra Pradesh in the Backward Classes List? If Karnataka's proposals are implemented there will be 80% reservation covering almost 96% population. This is nothing but the politics of recommendation. By increasing the number of BCs under reservation, politicians are trying to capture vote banks. Ultimately the whole purpose of reservation for the depressed classes would be lost. The percentage would increase to a ridiculous level, resulting in a mockery of protective discrimination.
More and more people become Backward Classes in order to enjoy the benefits of reservation of government jobs-Fine, but where are the jobs? The government departments are already overstaffed and sick public sector units are either closed down or handed over to the private sector. Will there be any jobs left for the 80 per cent people in the reserved list? Even now thousands of government posts are lying vacant because the Treasury has no money to pay the staff.
In fact, there should be some yardstick in including a community in the BC list. State Governments decision to increase the number of castes under the reservation umbrella seems to be more a political gimmick than an expression of commitment for the uplift of these Communities.
Reservation for Muslims:
Muslims who had 35 per cent government jobs before independence, were reduced to a paltry 3.5 per cent in 1982, further dwindling to one per cent in 1990. The condition of Muslims is now more precarious than it was in 1947. If we take a look at the general condition of Muslims in India, the National Sample Survey of 1988 reveals the following glaring facts: -
1) A total of 52.3 per cent Muslims are below poverty line (13PL).
2) The monthly income of Muslims is only Rs. 150 per month;
3) 50.5 per cent Muslims are illiterate:
4) Muslims educated up to high school are four per cent,
5) In Indian colleges 1.6 per cent Muslims are graduates;
6) In government services their share is 4.4 per cent,
7) For starting any business enterprise 3.7 per cent Muslims got financial loan;
8) 5 per cent of Muslims got bank loan from the scheduled banks;
9) Among Indian entrepreneurs who get industrial loans, only 2 per cent are Muslims.
The movement of reservation for Muslims was first started in West Bengal. During the Emergency a Muslim delegation met the Prime Minister at Raj Bhavan in Calcutta and demanded reservation for Muslims.
This delegation was headed by Zainul Abedin, who was then a Minister in the Siddhartha Shankar Ray Cabinet. (Now Zainul Abedin is in the Opposition). Siddhartha Shankar Ray was also present at that time.
In the beginning Muslims did not show much concern (for) reservation. Moreover, some sections of Muslims hold the view that begging for reservation will make the community dependent and allergic to face competition, which in turn will create an inferiority complex. The community will lose self-confidence and fail to develop talent and competency.
Keeping in view this situation, steps have been taken to improve their talent and competency through remedial measures. In spite of all these efforts the proportion of Muslims recruited through Civil Services examination has not increased beyond two per cent whereas Muslims. constitute 12 per cent of the total population of India.
With enhancement of reservation quota for other BCs, the chances of even two per cent recruitment of Muslims in Civil Services are further blocked because of stiff competition. There is no way out, except through extension of reservation to Muslims for a specified period, say 25 years, in order to improve their economic and educational conditions. This reservation for Muslims. should be based on the criteria of income and not the profession. Quota system to ensure proportionate representation in all areas and at all levels is the only solution to the problems of the minorities. Whether it is in the government or public sector or even in private sector, there should be adequate reservation for the minorities.
State of Reservation in Andhra Pradesh
When Muslims in the neighboring States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala are included in the backward list, why not the Muslims in Andhra Pradesh? Why only the Muslims of one or a few States?
Since 1985, attitudes have emerged in several spheres of life and worked towards discrimination against Muslims in respect of government jobs especially at State levels in many parts of the country.
Muslims bring down the overall percentage of literacy of the State and the nation too. In today's world of fierce competition for educational and economic opportunities, Muslims can find for themselves a place only at the end of a long queue and most of the time they miss the bus. If the Government of India and the State. Governments do not immediately reverse the trend of denial of opportunity to Muslims; a massive wave of Muslim fundamentalism will create chaos. This is the context in which creating safeguards for Muslim by way of reservations has become a compelling necessarily Muslims need these safeguards to come on a par with other citizens... Unlike other reserved categories. Muslims can respond better to such incentive and improve their arts and skills, efficiency and output, thus raising the GNP of India. Will this not contribute to the country's development? Owing to the above scenario the question of inclusion of all Muslims (because by giving reservation to certain classes among Muslims, the government will be creating casteism among Muslims, the government will be creating casteism among Muslims to divide their strength) in the list of Backward Classes has arisen and needs urgent attention.
The Andhra Pradesh Government took the decision to include the Kapus and the Qureshi’s (Butcher) Muslims in the backward classes in August 1994. A writ petition was filed against this announcement. The Court struck down the writ and gave a verdict in favor of the government.
The announcement created apprehension that the government may not be sincere in implementing the decision. The State Government wants to please the minorities by announcing some sop on the eve of elections. But once the elections are over, things will be back to square one. The other Opposition political parties are strongly opposing the extension of reservation to Muslims as a decision to woo the minorities on the eve of elections.
Opinion Poll on Reservation:
The large-circulation Urdu daily (42.000) Siyasat (1949), published from Hyderabad, conducted an opinion poll on reservation for Muslims during June July, 1994. In all 1086 respondents were covered of which 102 elites belonged to other States and 460 elites hailed from Hyderabad city, belonging to different strata of society, and 524 were students.
From the above table it appears almost all respondents favored reservations for Muslims. But the student category favored it more strongly (93.9) compared to the elite (88.3).
The bulk of respondents favored reservations on the basis economic backwardness of Muslims and 20 per cent of them were of the view that as voluntary efforts for improving economic conditions of Muslims have failed, reservation is the only remedy.
A large number of students favored more than 10 per cent share or percentages of Muslims particularly with regard to seats in educational institutions.
A total of 71.9% respondents favored reservation on the basis of income and 28.1% respondents pleaded for profession as criteria of reservation.
On the whole 91% respondents favored reservation for Muslims in general and nine per cent were against charity. However reservation is not a solution for all their problems. Secondly, whatever may be the share of Muslims, this measure should not affect the share of the Other Backward Communities.
(Source: The News from India)
Quagmire of Quotas
Editorial, The Hindustan Times, 9 March, 1996
A disastrous consequence of Mandal has not only been the hike in the reservation quotas, to the detriment of those who have only merit to plead their case, but the scramble to get the backward label even among communities that are far from socially disadvantaged the backward march of the nation has put a premium even on the tribal tag, completing the marginalization of the primitive forest-dwellers originally put in the Scheduled Tribe list. Thus, in Karnataka, while the 35 five per cent reservation set apart from them, the "tribal lakh original tribes have hardly got any benefits from the population has gone up more than ten-fold in two decades to stand at 38 lakhs in the 1991 census... making light followed by the Anthropological Society of India. While official notifications to the contrary and the guidelines the original tribes, cheated of their due, stand as mute witnesses to the charade enacted in the name of social justice.
This aspect of reservation, in which the benefits are cornered by a more assertive community and the resourceful even among deserving castes, is something that is conveniently overlooked by those engaged in the dividends it yields. The result is that with more and more competitive espousal of Mandal purely for the electoral clamoring to be categorized as backward or put in the schedule of castes and tribes needing special protection the quota system has come to acquire a self-perpetuating character a complete negation of what was envisaged in the Constitution, a short-term measure to enable the socially backward and exploited sections of people to stand on their own feet.
While the rationale for extending reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes every ten years may not be questioned because of the poor progress made in their upliftment, widening the scope to cover communities that hardly need such props is nothing but the height of inequity, which will only aggravate social tension by deepening caste division... The sensible recommendations made to put reservation on a rational footing two-generation limit, income ceiling. periodic revision of the list and exclusion of ... promotion - have all been brushed aside by political parties whose vision does not extend beyond the next election. Reservation has become the biggest drag on the country's tryst with the next millennium.
Divide, Sub-Divide, Rule
Editorial, The Pioneer, 9 March, 1996.
After a brief respite, the reservation juggernaut appears to have resumed its deathly yatra. And this time, there is not even a veneer of political philosophy; no attempt to drape its divisive purpose with the shroud of social justice". The move to grant reservations to Dalit Christians is brazenly electoral (as) quid pro quo (for) delivery of Christian votes to the Congress on a platter.
Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity would appear to have a logical point though. If Neo-Buddhists, who similarly converted to another religion to overcome alleged Brahminical tyranny, are entitled to reservations, why not they? However, the fact is that the Christians. can in no way be regarded as a socially and educationally backward class (SEBCs). If anything, those who converted to Christianity both under the influence of India's erstwhile colonial masters and the efforts of missionaries, have benefited from their conversion.
The largesse extended to Dalit Christians... is certain to spur more sections to demand similar privileges. Some populists are bound to ask, if Dalit Christians can get it, why not Dalit Muslims? The overzealous may even revive the claim for reservations for the entire Muslim community.
Shahabuddin's Reply to The Pioneer, New Delhi
Please refer to the editorial Divide, sub-divide, rule" of 9th March, 1996. The editor is perhaps not aware of the unanimous demand of the Muslim community since for reservation in public employment and higher education after the High-Power Panel on Minorities presented its final report on Minorities to the then Prime Minister in June, 1983. This report took note of the educational, economic and therefore, social backwardness of the Muslim community and its poor level of presentation in public employment and higher education and recommended preferential measures.
Perhaps, he is also not aware of the fact that already Muslim communities in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Karnataka have been recognised as backward classes as a community and assigned a quota in public employment at the state level. The demand for reservation for the Muslim community has gained momentum after the Andhra Pradesh government decided to include the Muslims as a community although the entire reservation scheme has been stayed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court on other grounds. Unfortunately, in other states, like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, where together 50 per cent of the Muslims of the country live, while some Muslim sub-communities have been notified as Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the Muslim community as a whole has not been, ironically, in the states where they are much more backward compared not only to the other communities in those states but also the Muslim communities in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh.
Since 1992, the demand for recognition of the Muslim community as a whole as a backward class has picked up following the National Convention in New Delhi in October, 1994. The demand has been widely supported by the leaders of many political parties. In the next election, it is a major demand of the Muslim community. I wonder why your paper has been sleeping through these momentous development
In the case of members of STs. they are entitled to reservation whatever be their religion. In the case of the members of SCs originally only if they were Hindus and Sikhs, but now Buddhists have been added and one must ask this question as to why and how Islam and Christianity stand on a different footing. Surely, no SC family on conversion to Christianity u Islam immediately shirks off its social disabilities or its economic or educational backwardness Social justice demands that it should continue to receive protection at least for the life time of the convert and his immediate descendants. It is possible to argue that the Christian or Muslim dalits may not deserve the same degree of protection as their level of backwardness as social groups may not be the same as that of the Hindu SCs. The remedy then lies in having sub classification so that a quota proportion to their population and the degree of backwardness could be determined.
As for the Muslim community as a whole also a similar approach should be adopted one it is recognized as a Backward Class on the basis of same set of uniformly applicable educational, economic and social parameters. Once this is done, its quota based on population and level of backwardness can be determined separately for the country as a whole and for each state/U.T.
Social justice translated into participation and power sharing will promote national integration. Persistent injustice will only breed alienation.
