Minister of State Salman Khurshid is in charge of two ministries, the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. In this Idea Exchange moderated by Contributing Editor Coomi Kapoor, Khurshid speaks about the Equal Opportunities Commission, Satyam and the recent austerity row

COOMI KAPOOR: What is the agenda you have set for yourself at the Ministry of Minority Affairs?

This is an evolving ministry. When this ministry was formed some three years ago, people thought that whatever had to be done for the minorities should be done by the line ministries and we would coordinate the efforts of all ministries. So that’s what we do. Two areas where we operate directly, or partly directly, is the Maulana Azad Educational Foundation where we help educational NGOs with funding to develop their physical infrastructure. Then there is the funding through the National Minorities Development Finance Corporation. The next big step is when we introduce a legislation on the Equal Opportunities Commission in December. Then, we will move from being concerned about the minorities to providing a platform to any deprived group—it could be majority, it could be minority, it could be linguistic, it could be cultural. In effect, any group that could claim lack of equal opportunity in any area. This will be a major step, moving away from the majority/minority syndrome to the next level of maturity in providing greater emphasis on equality. The commission will have a huge data bank of its own and will be able to rely on that data to decide whether an institution is denying equal opportunities. It will give the institution a chance to improve its diversity profile, otherwise consequences would follow. This will turn what is today the ministry of minority affairs into the ministry of equality or the ministry of empowerment or the ministry of equal opportunity and that will be a great day in this country. This will be the most important ministry, other than the finance ministry, because everything we do in this country will be tested on the anvil of equal opportunity.

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