In an article in RSS mouthpiece The Organiser, former Union HRD Minister and BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi has attacked the findings of the Sachar Committee, citing a Centre for Policy Research (CPR) paper to strengthen his arguments.

However, the CPR, an independent think-tank based in Delhi, has denied the existence of such a report and has written to Joshi, asking for a clarification. Joshi now says the paper he was referring to was by the Centre for Policy Studies, a Chennai-based think-tank with distinct saffron tilt.

The Sachar Committee report had made a case for gross under-representation of the country’s Muslim community in government jobs, and much lower standards of living in general than those indicated by all-India averages. But in the article titled “Don’t plan on fake assumptions. Learn from history and work for national growth with unity” published on January 27, Joshi argues that the Hindu poor are more numerous than Muslim poor (in absolute numbers), the school enrollment ratios for Muslims are on the rise, and that Muslim Waqf properties are massive enough to take care of their lot.

According to “some estimates”, contests Joshi, “waqf properties if properly managed should give a return of at least Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 12,000 crore on a conservative estimate: Are these funds insufficient to take care of the educational, health and entrepreneurial needs of the Muslims?”

Joshi backs his arguments with a report, ostensibly put together by the CPR, establishing that according to “data compiled by the Sachar committee, the picture that emerges is hardly of a community under distress or seize (sic) but a resurgent group trying to catch up with others... also to surpass them in certain respects.”

... contd.