Author: Editorial
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: June 2, 2007
URL: http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/editorial/religion-and-quota.aspx
Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi has
promised exclusive reservation for Muslims and Christians in educational institutions
and employment if the same is available for them in neighbouring Kerala and
Karnataka. He announced this at an international Islamic Tamil conference
in Chennai on Sunday and repeated it during a media interaction in Delhi on
Monday. At the Islamic conference, the chief minister said he was ready to
issue an ordinance within a week, but his information was that there were
some legal hurdles for communal reservations in the neighbouring states. Mr
Rahman Khan, deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, also present at the conference,
recalled that when he was the chairman of the Minorities Commission in Karnataka,
the Veerappa Moily government had ordered 4% reservation for Muslims after
his Commission undertook a massive survey involving one million minority families
in 1993. The Karnataka high court had upheld the Muslim quota. Information
available shows that Muslims in Karnataka enjoy 4% reservation within the
32% quota for the backward classes, subject to the individual's annual income
not exceeding Rs 200,000. In Kerala, Muslims are a larger population and so
enjoy a bigger share of 12% reservation within the 40% set apart for the BCs.
And in Andhra Pradesh, the 5% reservation granted for Muslims by the Congress
government was struck down as "unconstitutional" by a five-member
bench and this was confirmed by the Supreme Court. Legal experts point out
that the Karnataka quota for Muslims passed through the court scrutiny because
it fell within an already existing reservation for BCs, whereas the Andhra
government lost its case creating an exclusive bloc based on religion. When
reservation is sanctioned per se on the basis of religion alone, that is not
permitted under Article 15(1) of the Indian Constitution. However, if a class
or a section or sub-sect is notified as backward and a quota is set apart
on that basis, there is nothing wrong with that, regardless of that group's
religion. The "Labbai" Muslims of south Tamil Nadu are a classic
case. They enjoy reservation classified among the backward classes. The problem
arises when an entire community, be it Muslims or Christians, is sought to
be labelled as backward for granting reservation quotas. This is not to brush
aside the genuine need for the uplift of the minorities, especially Muslims,
whose poor plight is clear to see even without the scary canvas unfolded by
the Sachar Committee. But then, even as politicians and courts grapple with
Constitutional roadblocks, it should still be possible for the "leaders"
within the community to stretch their sinews and lift the less fortunate ones
amid them.
