By TCN News
“The data shows that constituencies which have been declared reserved for SCs by the Delimitation Commission in these three states are by and large those constituencies where Muslims live in greater numbers often more than 50 per cent as well as their proportion in the population is higher than that of SCs. On the other hand, there are quite a large number of other constituencies within the respective states, where the share of SCs is large, often closer to or even more than one half but these are declared as ‘un-reserved’. Arguably, this can be seen as discriminatory and certainly reduces the opportunities that Muslims have to get elected to democratic institutions.” – Sachar Report.
File photo of Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood (TCN Archive)
Sachar Report documented number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats that are reserved for SCs even though population there is overwhelmingly Muslims. A number of Muslim leaders recently met Dr. Manmohan Singh on this issue urging him to appoint a Delimitation Commission. The Prime Minister wondered how it can be done so close to the Lok Sabha election, however, that didn’t prevent him from announcing the 7th Pay Commission. Dr. Zafar Mahmood, president of Zakat Foundation of India and a member of the delegation that met the Prime Minister takes him to task in the following letter.
Full text of the letter
Respected Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh Ji,
On 16 Sept when I met you in your house along with some other national level Muslim leaders, in the context of Muzaffarnagar riots, I had said that one of the long term reasons of violence against Muslims is their gross under-representation in the legislature. I reminded you that the Sachar Committee has pointed out (Foreword
and Chapters 2 & 12) a trend obtaining since 1950 that the parliamentary &
assembly constituencies with large Muslim presence but negligible SC visibility are reserved for Scheduled Castes. Thus it recommended the reference of this anomaly by the Govt to the Delimitation Commission which was very much in session then. Despite having accepted thus vital Sachar recommendation the Govt did not implement it for 7 years since Nov 2006 when the Sachar Committee presented its Report to you.
On 16 Sept, you had wondered that now that the elections are round the corner how Delimitation Commission can be appointed. But, one week later, you approved the appointment of the VII Pay Commission for central government employees with a two year tenure.
Muslims of India and their sympathizers are wondering why for seven years your Government did not move on Sachar Committee’s strong plea to refer the matter of erroneous reservation of constituencies to Delimitation Commission. And why in Sept 2013 you are taking the plea of elections being on the anvil while this factor is not a constraint for appointing the VII Pay Commission. Is it because the 7th upward revision of pay for 31 lakh central government employees is dearer to the Government than restoration of justice to 18 crore Muslims that has been denied to them for 63 years ?
We would earnestly urge you to kindly appoint the next Delimitation Commission immediately giving to it the clear mandate of looking into wrongful allocation of constituencies with large Muslim presence, for Scheduled Castes. We are aware that, like the 7th Pay Commission, it would take a couple of years or more to complete its
job. But, though late in the day, your Government would have fulfilled the strong Muslim
expectation. You would agree that, either way, the omission or commission would surely
influence the upcoming electoral outcomes.
Looking forward to your kind response and with warm regards
Yours sincerely,
Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood
President
Zakat Foundation of India
Related link