Govt to try options if backward Muslim quota inadequate

Instruments of affirmative action would be explored by the government if reservation for backward Muslims is found to be inadequate, Minister of State for Minority Affairs Salman Khursheed today said     

"The Constitution provides for reservation for backwards, including backwards who are Muslims, under the 27 per cent (OBC) quota. If this is found inadequate then other instruments will have to be examined," he told reporters.     

He said the model available, and which was used in Kerala and Karnataka, was of linking reservation with backwardness of the community.     

Khursheed said the government was exploring various instruments available to empower the Muslims, including affirmative action. However, affirmative action did not mean reservations alone, he maintained.     

"Reservations also in a sense can be seen as a part of affirmative action. But affirmative action goes much further ... To believe that empowerment is only possible through reservation, I think is not correct...Neither factually correct nor politically correct," he said.

Khursheed said as part of the manifesto committee for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, he had suggested reservations for Muslims but since the Congress did not come to power there was no question of implementing it.     

He said all options of giving reservations to Muslims would have to be explored within the norms of the Constitution and what was acceptable to the Supreme Court.     

"Even today the Constitution does not permit what people loosely call reservation for Muslims," he said.     

Khursheed said the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh had tried to give reservations to Muslims but the matter was challenged in the Supreme Court.     

Though there was now a need for going further than the recommendations of the Sachar Committee on empowering the Muslims, excellence should also be promoted, Khursheed added.     

The Minority Affairs Minister felt there was a need for improving the diversity index.     

"I am responsible for ensuring that there is greater diversity in all public institutions and indeed even in private endeavour," he said.