After two years,Ranganath report tabled

The report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by former chief justice of India Justice Ranganath Misra,in cold storage for the past two years,was tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Friday....

The report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by former chief justice of India Justice Ranganath Misra,in cold storage for the past two years,was tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Friday.

Tasked in October 2004 to suggest criteria for identification of socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities and to recommend measures for their welfare,the 188-page report had provoked controversy when it was initially circulated in May 2007. Several of its copies had been withdrawn and the report has since been effectively missing from public view.

The report makes three main suggestions:

a) Article 16 (4),which is the constitutional basis for providing job quotas to OBCs,should be the basis for providing reservation benefits to minority groups who are socially and economically backward. It also said that minorities should not only include those dubbed minorities by the 1992 National Commission for Minorities Act,but all religious minorities large or small including Hindus in the UT of Lakshadweep and the states of Jammu and Kashmir,Meghalaya,Mizoram,Nagaland and Punjab;

b) At least 15 per cent seats in all non-minority educational institutions should be earmarked for minorities. According to the panel,as 73 per cent of minorities are Muslims,the break-up should be 10 per cent for Muslims and 5 per cent for the other minorities. The commission seeks the same 15 per cent quota for minorities in government jobs,central and state services and even in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

The report also calls for a sub-quota in OBC quota clearly marked out for those minority communities which come under the broad head of OBCs;

c) De-link Scheduled Caste status from religion and make the SC net fully religion-neutral,like that of Scheduled Tribes. In addition to its original terms of reference in 2005,the commission had been asked to determine whether reservation,as provided to Hindu,Buddhist and Sikh SCs,should be extended to Muslim and Christian Dalits (as outlined by a government order issued in 1950). Calling the caste system all-pervading,the commission says the Constitution while describing and defining SC/STs did not perceive a dimension of religion in it.

Arguing that religious freedom is a fundamental right,the panel also recommends continuation of SC reservation benefits to those Dalits who convert to other religions by choice.

Story continues below this ad

The report makes a case for the BPL list,which uses social/educational and economic criteria which are more scientific for identifying Backwards.

The panel proposes a time-cap on the reservation policy,and strict monitoring to ensure that the well-off dont walk away with the benefits.

The four-member commission included Chairman Justice Ranganath Misra,members Tahir Mahmood,Late Anil Wilson and Mohinder Singh,and Member-Secretary Asha Das. Das appended a note of dissent saying she did not agree with the recommendation of treating Christian/Muslim Dalits at par with Hindu/Sikh/Buddhist Dalits.