Author: Ayoob Ali Khan
Publication: Times News Network
Date: April 6, 2007
Introduction: Reject dividing community on
caste lines for reservation
The Andhra-Pradesh government's move to grant
5% reservation to Muslims by categorising a majority of them into backward
classes seems to be running into rough weather with some powerful Muslim groups
opposing it.
The state's decision on reservation for Muslims
is pending before the supreme court with little hope of getting a favourable
verdict. To bypass the possible judicial hurdle, the state hired the services
of former bureaucrat P S Krishnan, an expert in social hierarchy in the country,
to find out the means of giving reservation to Muslims. Krishnan who started
his work about seven weeks back believes that since the courts are reluctant
to grant Muslims reservation on the basis of religion, the community could
be stratified into groups of backward classes and granted what the Congress
government had promised before the 2004 polls.
Krishnan, a former AP cadre IAS officer who
retired as secretary to the government of India, has discretely prepared a
list of two dozen backward classes in which the Muslims can be fitted.
The Muslims in the state believe that dividing
the Muslims on caste lines for the sake of reservation benefits would permanently
damage its identity as a casteless community.
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), an ally
of the Congress that has five MLAs and an MP, has made a representation to
the CM recently. According to sources, the MIM wishes to handle the issue
of reservation quietly. Though it is opposed to the Krishnan strategy, it
does not want it to be turned into a public debate.
