Press Release

Popular Front National campaign for Muslims Reservation: Inaugural Conference at Pune

Popular Front of India will launch a two months long “National Campaign for Muslim Reservation” during February and March 2010. The nationwide campaign will start with a Grand Public Meeting at Pune in Maharashtra on 31 January. A Parliament March will be held at New Delhi to mark the conclusion of the campaign.

The report submitted by the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee (Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee) in November 2006 has identified the entire Muslim community as more backward than any Other Backward Communities. The committee concluded in the light of official facts and figures that Muslim presence in the education and government service is far below their proportion of population. The gap between Muslims and other communities increases as the level of education increases. Unemployment rates among Muslims are highest.

The presence of Muslims is found to be only 3% in the IAS, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in the IPS. Muslim community has a representation of only 4.5% in Indian Railways. Share of Muslims in security agencies is only around 4%. The situation in different states is also not different. No state has Muslim representation in government jobs as equal to their population strength.

It is in this context that the recommendations of the recently submitted Justice Ranganath Misra Commission Report become significant. If Sachar report rightly diagnosed the issue, Misra report contains the right prescription.

The Misra Commission has earmarked 15% of government jobs and seats in educational institutions for minorities, out of which 10% exclusively for the Muslim Community. As an alternate suggestion, it has earmarked 8.4% out of existing OBC quota of 27% for minorities, of which 6% exclusively for Muslim OBCs.

The Report was tabled in the parliament without the accompanying action taken statement. Nor the Central Government has so far made any commitment regarding the implementation of recommendations contained in the report.

It was in this context that Popular Front of India has decided to hold a National Campaign for Muslim Reservation during February and March 2010. It is planned to have a series of public awareness programmes such as pamphlets, posters, exhibitions, street meetings, vehicle caravans, rallies, seminars, street plays and cultural shows in various states during the campaign period.

Present in the Press Conference:-

1. O.M.A.Salam, Secretary, Popular Front of India

2. Ya Mohideen, Member,National Ecexutive Council, Popular Front

3. Sadiq Qureshi, Convenor, Maharashtra State Popular Front.