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State of UPA Government : More concessions for minorities

	January 22, 2007

After speaking of more bank loans for Muslims, the Manmohan Singh Government has now asked Central Police organizations, banks, public sector undertakings, railways and other departments to step up recruitment from the minority community. Personnel Secretary L.K. Joshi reportedly wrote to Secretaries of various departments on Jan. 2 asking for reconstitution of selection committees for group C and D employees to give adequate representation to members from the minority communities. His letter also makes it clear that the Department of Personnel and Training is to take up soon with the state governments the issue of hiring more people from the minority communities for the police forces.



Observers see the latest move as part of the Sachar Committee-driven political agenda ahead of Assembly elections this year.



Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahmed said in Kannur, on Saturday, Jan. 20 that the Sachar Committee report should be considered a guideline for the uplift of Muslims. He said reservation was inevitable for ensuring adequate representation to the minority communities in Government services and education. He saw nothing wrong if reservation aimed at eradicating social backwardness crossed the 50 per cent ceiling set by a court judgement.



In the meantime, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has clarified his earlier statement about increasing bank credit for the minorities. He said the Government had written to the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks Association to seek their views on how to increase the flow of credit to the minorities. Finance Ministry officials said the Government was not asking for extra funds for the minorities but only wanted them to get a share of loans under the banks’ priority sector lending.



In a related move, the Minority Affairs Ministry has undertaken initial mapping of districts with more than 25 per cent minority population to ensure flow of funds to those areas on priority.



Minister of State for Human Resource Development M.A. Fatimi has said that a plan of action for the implementation of the Sachar Committee Report will be submitted to the Government by the month end.



The BJP has described the Government move on increasing the flow of credit to the Muslims as minority appeasement and a discriminatory practice.



In an embarrassing statement for the Congress, Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay has said that the party among others is responsible for the present plight of Muslims in the country. Speaking in Aligarh on Jan. 20, he said the Muslims who constitute nearly 15 per cent of the country’s population will become a drag on economic progress if they continue to languish in social and economic backwardness. Addressing a Minorities’ Conference, Antulay said, “We are all to be equally blamed for this sad state of neglect, and I have no hesitation in owning up the responsibility of my own party and I apologise to the Muslims for the present state of affairs.”



Observers say that Antulay’s statement is likely to come in handy for the Samajwadi Party and others to point out that the Congress claim of protecting the minorities, especially the Muslims, does not go very far.





Clearances for SEZs put on hold



Taken aback by spreading protests against special economic zones, the Centre has put on hold clearances for all proposals from developers which would have enabled them to start work. A Government announcement on Wednesday, Jan. 17, said that the meeting of the Board of Approvals, the single window clearing agency for SEZs, is being postponed indefinitely following a directive from the Prime Minister’s Office.



The empowered Group of Ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is meeting today, Jan. 22, to settle the contentious issue of acquisition of land for special economic zones.



Observers say that the move has put a question mark on the 163 SEZs that were given clearance, but have not been notified yet. Only the 63 notified SEZs can go ahead with their projects. Among the SEZs which may be affected are Reliance Industries’ Maha Mumbai and Tata’s Gopalpur projects.



Meanwhile, the Congress, the Trinamul Congress and the BJP have demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged behind-the-scenes deal between the West Bengal Government and the Tatas for the Singur small car plant. A leading newspaper, the Statesman, had said in a report that the state government had given concessions amounting to nearly Rs. 160 crore to the Tatas in the project.



West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in the meantime, said in Kolkata, on Jan. 14 that while there is no question of stepping back from industrialisation, the transformation from agricultural to industrial economy would have to be gradual.



There are reports of differences in the West Bengal Unit of the CPI(M) and also within the Left front constituents in the state on the question of acquisition of land for industrial projects and SEZs.





Left to oppose raising FDI in insurance



The Left parties have come out in opposition to the Government’s move to increase the cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the insurance sector from 26 to 49 per cent. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had told British Chancellor of Exchequer Gordon Brown in New Delhi on Jan. 18 that a Bill for this will be introduced in the coming budget session of Parliament. The CPI(M) said on Jan. 19 that the Left parties were not consulted regarding the proposal and that the party continues to oppose the move.



Finance Minister Chidambaram has convened a meeting of State Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers this week to take up another controversial issue - Pension Reforms. The Government wants the states to agree to the contributory pension model and investment of a part of the pension funds in the stock markets so that they get a better return. But no Left ruled state has agreed to the proposal.



Another point of conflict between the Government and the Left parties is set to be triggered by increase in the inflation rate to 6.12 per cent announced last week. The Left parties want the government to take effective steps to check inflation including reduction in petroleum prices following fall in crude prices in the international market. The Government says that it will consider reduction in petroleum prices only when international crude oil prices stabilise below 50 dollars a barrel.