DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI analyses the Justice Ranganath Commission Report and underlines the need for the implementation of its recommendations.
Sitting pretty over it for two-and-a-half years, the 188-page Ranganath Misra Commission Report, recommending quota for Muslims and Dalits, was ultimately tabled in Parliament on December 18.
The reason behind “indecent hate”, according to the observers was the fear “lest it should be leaked by the media before its formal presentation in Parliament”.
THE QUESTION
The hackneyed question “Shall the 4-member Commission’s recommendations be implemented” has, once again, started agitating the public mind, particularly that of the sufferers.
Before discussing the issue threadbare, let us have a look at the findings of the Commission set up in October 2004. In the light of the press reports, the Commission makes free recommendations:
1) Article 16 (4), which is the Constitutional basis for providing job quota to OBCs should be the basis for providing reservation benefits to the minority groups, which are socially and economically backward. The minorities should not only include those described as minorities by the 1992 National Commission for Minorities Act, “but all religious minorities, including Hindus in the Union Territories”.
2) At least 15 per cent seats in all non-minority educational institutions should be earmarked for minorities. According to the Report, as “73 per cent of minorities are Muslims”, the break-up should be 10 per cent for Muslims and 5 per cent for the other minorities. The panel also calls for a sub-quota in the OBC quota, marked out for those minority communities which come under the head of OBCs.
3) Delink Scheduled Caste status from religion and make the SC net fully religion-neutral, like the Scheduled Tribes.
CASTE SYSTEM
In addition to its original Terms of Reference, the Commission had been asked to determine whether reservation, as provided to Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh SCs, should be extended to Muslim and Christian Dalits. Calling the caste system “all pervading” the Constitution says while describing and defining SC/STs did not perceive a dimension of religion in it – India Express, December 19.
To quote the relevant para of the Report, “All those groups and classes among the Muslims and Christians etc. whose counterparts among the Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists are included in the Central or State Scheduled Castes’ list should be covered by the Scheduled Caste net.”
The Commission suggests an alternative also: in case of insurmountable difficulty, the panel recommends the Government can earmark an 8.4 per cent sub-quota for the minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota as the former constitute the percentage in the total OBC population.
The Muslim leadership should see to it that the government does not use this alternative as an excuse to minimise the importance of the Commission’s recommendations.
It seems appropriate to recall here that after a few years of independence, some downtrodden sections of Muslims and Christians too qualified for the categories of Dalits. Then the Late Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru came out with the Scheduled Caste order of 1950. It said that other than Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists, those belonging to other religions would not be considered to be belonging to the Scheduled Castes. Importantly, the Ranganath Misra Commission has suggested that the order be made “revision neutral” as referred to above.
As backwardness of socio-economic nature emanates from backwardness in education, the Commission therefore suggests that at least 15 per cent of the seats in non-minority educational institutions, as referred to above, should be earmarked for minorities.
SALUBRIOUS MOVE
The recommendations of the Ranganath Misra Commission are by and large salubrious. Except the BJP, no party has found fault with them. But, for that matter, the Saffron parties’ case has always been a pathological case. Not only the Saffron outfit has its nuisance value but it has mischief potential also. The core of the BJP criticism is the Ranganath Misra panel would encourage conversions. What this ‘party-with-a-difference’ ignores here is that conversions did not change and have not changed the castes and the socio-economic status of the converts. Caste is such a gigantic reality of plural Bharat. It goes without saying that the RJD, the LJP and the NCP have publicly supported the panel recommendations. Obviously the Left parties would not oppose it.
MERIT OR SAFFRON REACTION?
But the uncomfortable question – Shall the implementation of the recommendations take place – still remains valid. The reason behind the said validity is: the powers-that-be, as a rule, do not deal with the minority problem on the basis of merit of the case. They give more importance to the Saffron reaction. That causes injustice and undoing.