Author: Editorial
Publication: The Indian Express
Dated: February 14, 2006
Introduction: What's the next national institution
up for community classification? The budget?
That the army chief publicly indicated what
his force had told the government in private - soldiers and identity politics
don't mix and ignoring that means stirring trouble - should hopefully somewhat
lighten the onerous burden of the Rajinder Sachar committee. If the government
does not instruct the committee to withdraw the Muslims in armed forces questionnaire
even after this, we will know that this variant of "minority welfare"
policy can be dangerous. And then the Sachar committee will join a list currently
headed by attempts to link the Iran/nuclear proliferation issue to Muslim
identity. Politics and policy of these kinds are united by their chilling
indifference to consequences that can follow from deliberately fracturing
certain institutions' national identity.
Foreign policy was never really a matter of
sub-national angst till Tehran found out recently that Indian politics has
produced some of its finest spokespersons. The result is that we are looking
at an unnecessary, immature and potentially divisive ruckus that will be glorified
in the name of debate. The "debate's" sponsors are not asking whether
a nuclear-armed Iran will be in India's interest. Similarly, when the Sachar
committee started badgering the army, it didn't ask whether community classified
soldiers were in India's interest. The army is frequently required to put
out communal fires - that fact alone should have forewarned the government
and the Sachar committee.
Both should be glad, in fact, no one's really
asking the bigger question: what is the direction of government policy? Assuming
the Sachar report tells a comprehensive story about Muslim social and economic
indices, would the government then have community-specific social expenditure
plans? This newspaper had earlier reported a Central project on similar lines;
proportion of welfare spending going to Muslims should match their demographic
ratio. This is silly economics. It's not smart politics either. Demands for
other community-based welfare programmes could be only a few irresponsible
political speeches away. What's next? Separate Union budgets for every community?
