Dividing To Rule

Muslims are livid with the Reddy Government for providing quotas to the backward minorities, saying the move is aimed at dividing them

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BONANZA: Reddy hands over computer systems to madrasa heads

Only this time, he is not leaving anything to chance. Going by the courts’ advice, he is now following the recommendations of the Andhra Pradesh Backward Classes Commission headed by retired judge Dalva Subrahmanyam as well as a report by retired IAS officer P.S. Krishnan. He has decided to include 15 select groups of Muslims to make up an exclusive group E on the basis of their traditional occupations in the state’s Backward Classes (BC) list. This will take the quota for BCs to 29 per cent from the current 25 per cent, taking the total reservations to 50 per cent, in line with the guidelines issued by the apex court.

The Ordinance, now promulgated, has kept the reservation at 4 per cent instead of 5 per cent, as per the original plan, in a fond hope that it won’t spell any legal trouble. “We have excluded 10 groups of Muslims, which formed the creamy layer of the community on the experts’ recommendations and included 15 groups which are treated as backward, not as religious groups,” explains Reddy. However, the Muslim United Action Committee (MUAC), an organisation comprising religious and political leaders, has voiced its unhappiness over this move. “Islam has no caste system and the Government’s move is nothing but an attempt to divide the Muslims,” says MUAC convenor Maulana Hameeduddin Auqil Hussami. They argue that Muslims the world over are equal and the Shariat does not allow such distinctions.

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The BJP has been vociferously demanding the rollback of the quotas, accusing Reddy of minority appeasement.

MUAC leaders warn that the move would have serious repercussions for the Reddy-Government. “The Muslims are being offered a drink in a poisonous chalice. The decision will not stand the test of law and will be exploited by those who oppose reservations for Muslims,” warns Asaduddin Owaisi, MP of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, an ally of the ruling Congress. BJP has got yet another stone to beat the Congress with and is planning to take the matter to the court.

Political troubles notwithstanding, the Congress Government is going to find it tough to implement the decision in this academic year. To get a reserved seat, a Muslim candidate has to furnish caste certificates, currently difficult to procure, which is likely to delay admissions to several courses including engineering, medicine and management. However, the Congress looks unperturbed, due to which an impression is gaining ground that this is nothing but a gimmick to attract minority votes. And with Reddy offering a number of sops like gifting computers to students studying in madrasas and declaring November 11, the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, as the Minorities Welfare Day, the allegations of the party playing vote bank politics will only get louder.

-By Amarnath K. Menon

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