“The Rangnath Commission report is not different from the Sachhar Committee report. It is also on the lines of Pirpur Report, Sharif Report, Fazal Haq Report and Kamlayar Jung Report prepared by Muslim League before partition. It will lead to communal polarisation of the country,” said Rakesh Sinha, director at India Policy Foundation, New Delhi. “It has completely sidelined the linguistic minorities and only focused on religious minorities. It has tried to rewind the clock to the period before 1947,” Sinha added.
It is important to mention that the National Commission for Religious and linguistic Minorities was constituted on October 29 by the Centre with the clear cut terms of reference not only to suggest criteria for identification of socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities but also to recommend measures of welfare for them including reservation in education and government employment and to suggest the necessary constitutional, legal and administrative modalities required for implementation of its recommendations.
Justice Rangnath Mishra, the former chief justice of India, was appointed its chairman with Tahir Mahmod, Anil Wilson and Mohinder Singh as its members. The commission was asked to present its report within six months but it finally submitted it on May 10, 2007. It is pertinent to note that Asha Das, a former secretary to the government of India who was appointed as the member secretary of the commission, had a difference of opinion to the extent that she put in a note of dissent on conferment of scheduled caste status to SC converts to Christianity and Islam. While dissenting to the recommendations of commission in her 12-page note, Das has not uttered a single word about linguistic minorities but has criticised the concept of identifying a caste or community as backward caste or scheduled caste by saying that “It has now become archaic and has created a vested interest in backwardness.” She further adds, “After nearly 60 years of planning and affirmative action in favour of backwardness and scheduled castes, there does not possibly exist a single caste or class in which every constituent is backward.”
Das has also pointed out that, “There is enough evidence to establish that ‘untouchability’ is on the decline…According to a government report, on the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, during 2003, only 651 cases were registered in the country in 12 states as against 4,000 cases registered annually under the Act during the first half of the 1980s.”
It is important to mention that the National Commission for Religious and linguistic Minorities was constituted on October 29 by the Centre with the clear cut terms of reference not only to suggest criteria for identification of socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities but also to recommend measures of welfare for them including reservation in education and government employment and to suggest the necessary constitutional, legal and administrative modalities required for implementation of its recommendations.
Justice Rangnath Mishra, the former chief justice of India, was appointed its chairman with Tahir Mahmod, Anil Wilson and Mohinder Singh as its members. The commission was asked to present its report within six months but it finally submitted it on May 10, 2007. It is pertinent to note that Asha Das, a former secretary to the government of India who was appointed as the member secretary of the commission, had a difference of opinion to the extent that she put in a note of dissent on conferment of scheduled caste status to SC converts to Christianity and Islam. While dissenting to the recommendations of commission in her 12-page note, Das has not uttered a single word about linguistic minorities but has criticised the concept of identifying a caste or community as backward caste or scheduled caste by saying that “It has now become archaic and has created a vested interest in backwardness.” She further adds, “After nearly 60 years of planning and affirmative action in favour of backwardness and scheduled castes, there does not possibly exist a single caste or class in which every constituent is backward.”
Das has also pointed out that, “There is enough evidence to establish that ‘untouchability’ is on the decline…According to a government report, on the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, during 2003, only 651 cases were registered in the country in 12 states as against 4,000 cases registered annually under the Act during the first half of the 1980s.”
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