The murmurs of concern about ‘Muslim votes’ around the issue of the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy deal may not be a subject of open debate yet but the UPA government is silently pushing ahead with its “minority welfare” plank to address concerns raised by the Sachar Committee Report submitted to the Prime Minister last year.
Indications are that the Government hopes to make this a key theme if the Left’s resistance to the deal eventually leads to mid-term polls. In fact, sources said that, in Parliament, the UPA is planning to discuss the Sachar Report — which highlighted the glaring gap between Muslims and other communities when it came to representation in education and jobs — before the nuclear deal discussion.
If this can be pulled off, UPA leaders say, it will also help cement the frayed bond between the Left and the Congress as it was on the basis of a fundamental anti-BJP plank that the UPA was formed.
Apart from isolating the BJP, the government hopes this will also serve to gently remind the Left, which takes very strident positions against communalism, of the state of Muslims in the Left-ruled state of West Bengal, which, after Assam has the highest percentage of Muslims, and less than national averages on most indicators, like school enrollment and jobs in government.
The Minority Affairs Ministry, with six other Ministries, has set targets under all heads earmarked in the PM’s 15-point programme on Minorities (including Muslims) announced last June. A key one was credit for minorities.
... contd.
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