‘Reservation is not the only answer’

NEW DELHI: The findings of the PM’s high-level committee headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar to collect data on the representation of Muslims in jobs, access to education and other fields has already evoked a sharp interest.

Manmohan Singh's call for enlarging the access to professional education and greater representation to the community in both private as well as public sector jobs has set off a debate on how to tackle the problem of under representation of minorities.  The Sachar committee's findings have come as no surprise to the Muslims.

"It has confirmed our worst fears," says Syed Hamid, the Chancellor of Jamia Hamdard and member of the Sachar Committee. Though the Sangh Parivar has dubbed the exercise as a prelude to reservations, very few in the community have actually called for reservations. "That is not the way forward. Even without reservations lots can be done," says Asghar Ali Engineer, Islamic scholar and Bohra reformist.

This sense of realism is not confined to just the reformists alone. Even hard-liners like Zafaryab Jilani of the All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board echo the same sentiments. "Reservations are not the only way out, if the government is really sincere it can do a lot without reservations," he says.

Jilani believes that the Prime Minister can begin to address the imbalance by ensuring that Muslims are appointed as Bank Directors, Corporation chiefs, while imbalance in the judiciary can be corrected by appointing them as Standing Councils and other such posts.

The Muslim response appears to have been conditioned to a large extent by the realisation that the move will not stand up to judicial scrutiny and out of fear of hostile reaction that it will evoke from the Sangh Parivar.

The less than enthusiastic response to the idea of reservations not withstanding, there is a near unanimity over the need to address the grave situation faced by the community with regard to representation in jobs and greater access to education.