Yechury justifies quota for Muslims in Bengal

The CPI(M) has justified the reservation for backward Muslims announced by the Left Front government in West Bengal. In an editorial in party mouthpiece People’s Democracy, politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the state was well within its rights to make the provision.

“The Ranganath Mishra Commission, among others, recommended that the criteria for identifying backward classes should be uniform without any discrimination between the majority community and the religious and linguistic minorities,” he said.  

“It [the commission], therefore, suggested that the criteria now applied to determine the OBC status among the majority community must be unreservedly applied to all minorities. It is in this light that the commission has recommended reservations to the religious minorities on the lines of the OBC reservation,” Yechury said.

“It is on the basis of this recommendation that the West Bengal government has announced its decision,” he said.
Yechury said the Congress too, instead of criticising Bengal government, should show haste in implementing the recommendations.