Mishra report tabled in Lok Sabha; demands deliking SC status from religion

The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities report pertaining the inclusion of Dalit Christians and Muslims in the SC list was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Prepared by former Chief Justice of India Rangnath Mishra, the NCLRM report was tabled by Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid amid protest by opposition BJP.

The Mishra Commission has defined religious and linguistic minorities as backward classes and recommended 15 percent reservation for all minorities in jobs, education and welfare schemes.

It urges the delinking of Scheduled Caste status from religion and recommends extending it to all Dalits irrespective of caste or faith.

"We recommend that all those social and vocational groups among minorities who but for their religious identity would have been covered by the present net of Scheduled Castes should be unquestionably treated as socially backward, irrespective of whether the religion of those other communities recognise the caste system or not," the Commission said.

Also noting that socio-economic backwardness emanates from educational backwardness, the Commission has recommended that at least 15 per cent of the seats in all non-minority educational institutions be earmarked by law for minorities.

"Within the recommended 15 percent earmarked seats in institutions shall be 10 percent for the Muslims and the remaining 5 percent for the other minorities," the 449-page document says.

Meanwhile, the recommendations were welcomed by RJD and LJP but came under attack from VHP and BJP.

In a statement, the LJP said "since minorities, especially Muslims are very much under-represented and sometimes wholly unrepresented in government employment, we recommend that 15 per cent of posts in all cadres and grades under Central and state governments should be earmarked for them..."

Media also reported that RJD chief Lalu Prasad threatened an agitation if government fails to implement them.

"We were the ones, who had got the recommendations of Mandal Commission implemented. Minorities have negligible presence in government jobs since Independence. Hence, the recommendations must be implemented," Prasad said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, according to the Press Trust of India, rubbished the Mishra report saying it would promote religious conversions and affect the status of SC and ST as enshrined in the Constitution.

"Congress party has fallen in its own trap by proposing reservations for Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians. It vindicates BJP's stand that this action (of giving reservation to minorities) would promote conversions and is anti-national," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.