Wednesday, February 10, 2010

N.Ram passes the litmus test of secularism

The Hindu : National : Muslims want 10 per cent quota on backward criterion
‘It has become the litmus test of secularism’
The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Moving forward cautiously
Large sections of Muslims are no doubt socially and educationally backward, and need the constitutionally-enabled special provision for reservation in education and employment.
...the Centre and the States must formulate a comprehensive reservation scheme for the socially and educationally backward classes belonging to all religions including Islam, taking into consideration the recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission.
N.Ram has come out openly in support of reservations for Muslims. He is asking for the formulation of a reservation scheme that can pass legal scrutiny.
There are so many factors like: history, caste in hinduism and islam, social factors contributing to muslim backwardness, effectiveness of reservations, etc. I will be surprised if we see a scrutiny of reservations, on any one of the several parameters, in the pages of chindu in the coming days. The theme has already been composed by N.Ram; the foot soldiers will blindly follow the beat.

6 comments:

Xinhua Ram said...

..just as reservation benefits cannot be granted on grounds only of religion, they cannot also be held back on grounds of religion.

Huh? Where is the sanction for castes in Islam? Even some Muslim leaders have been arguing against reservations. Either dismantle caste based reservations entirely (LiC doesn't want this) or stick to it entirely and deny it to non-Hindus.

Xinhua Ram said...

Quoting a reader in today's edition:

Under the Constitution, the linguistic and religious minorities are guaranteed the right “to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.” Even reservation for the SCs and the STs are not provided in many unaided, private minority institutions. In many Muslim minority professional colleges in Andhra Pradesh, Muslim students have the privilege of 100 per cent exclusive opportunities. There is, therefore, no need to provide Muslims BC reservation in general.

Anonymous said...

Jai Moulana Ram!

Anonymous said...

How about reservation for minorities in Kashmir (and in the near future, in Kerala also)? I am sure editor-in-chief will support this very secular idea.

eyesfeet said...

humanity is the biggest religion.Why to bind it by national boundaries?We shud grant a govt job to Kasab,he became a terrorist coz of lack of opportunities.Give reservations to bangladeshi migrants,pakistan & Taliban too,may be they wont become terrorist then and all will give vote to our THE SECULAR PARTIES,India will become temple of secularism and secular Teerthyatris from all over the world will come for a Darshan, this will enhance our national income and generate new jobs.Then we can consider granting jobs to Congo,Iraq....all countries which will add on our secular credentials,more teerthyatris and income.India will become PARADISE like Kashmir today is.

Venkat Ramanan said...

This is a non-related post but not sure where to post hence here!!

The Hindu group's bigotry is well revealed in the way they operate the different newspapers under them. While The Hindu appeals to socialists, pseudo-secularists and communist morons in our country by indulging in bleeding heart liberalism and upholding the socialist characters of our country, its si(ni)ster publication "The Hindu businessline" is fiercely rightist when it comes to economics and business. Businessline advocates free markets wherever possible, shuns socialism, embraces realpolitiks and indulges in articles on opulences which please the business barons.

While The Hindu carries reader page articles written by VR Krishna Iyer, Fidel Castro, Xinhua, Sitaram Yechury, M K Bhadrakumar etc The Hindu Business line never lets these men take centre stage. Only rightists like S Parthasarathy, P V Indiresan, B S Raghavan etc get to pen down articles in businessline.

So, why this hypocrisy? A publication should carry same tone across all its si(ni)ster publications. Or is this a well planned game of targeting the right audience, pleasing them and milking them appropriately? Majority Indians are pseudo-secular morons and hence leftist Hindu would please them, where as the business elite is majority rightist and would be pleased by a rightist Business line. Isn't this what would be called bigotry?