Friday, 11 December 2015

FACTS ABOUT RESERVATION WHICH ARE IGNORED - P. S. KRISHNAN

FACTS ABOUT RESERVATION WHICH ARE IGNORED - P. S. KRISHNAN


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In the midst of the confusion created by the largely uninformed discussion in the TV Channels and the print media, following the agitation of the Patidars or Patels of Gujarat, it is necessary to make all people in the country, intellectuals like Surjit Bhalla and Indira Hirway, as well as people in general, aware of a few essential basic facts and correct certain common errors.
COMMON ERRORS OFT-REPEATED BY EMINENT KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSONS
(a) Reservation in this country was started by vote-hungry politicians;
(b) Reservation was, as stated by K. N. Bhat, former Additional Solicitor General of India, in his article titled “Divide and Serve” in Asian Age dated 4. 9. 2015, “invented by the divide and rule policy of the British”;
(c) Reservation was started after the Constitution of India 1950;
(d) Reservation was, as asserted by Joginder Singh in his article Pandora’s Open Box of Caste-Based Reservation in Pioneer dated 7.9.2015 with confidence matched by ignorance, provided in the Constitution only for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), and subsequently extended to “the rest”, i.e., the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEdBCs) / Other Backward Classes (OBCs) / Backward Classes (BCs) (hereafter referred to as BCs), by politicians like V.P. Singh and Arjun Singh in the 1990s;
(e) The root of Reservation, as again asserted by Joginder Singh in the same article as mentioned above, is traced back only to the Mandal Commission, established in 1979;
(f) The Constitution recognizes only SCs and STs and does not recognize BCs.
(g) The Constitution does not provide for Reservation for BCs.
(h) The Constitution provides Reservation only for 10 years as misunderstood latest by Indira Hirway (“Rethinking Reservation and Development”, The Hindu, 31.8.2015) and by many other scholars before her and by many learned anchors and commentators on the TV channels.
None of the above is factually true.
The confusion in the minds of eminent persons is illustrated by K.N. Bhat attributing Reservation to the “divide and rule policy of the British”, while Joginder Singh asserts with equal self-assurance that “the programme of divide and conquer was taught to the Britishers by the Indians”.
There are also certain other basic errors pertaining to BCs such as the nature of the BC lists and the place of religious minorities vis-à-vis the BC lists. These will be discussed and clarified lower down.
CORRECT BASIC FACTS
(i) Reservation was first started in Kolhapur by the initiative of the Maharaja of Kolhapur in 1902.
Next it was introduced by the Maharaja of Mysore in his Princely State in May 1921.
The third in the line was the Madras Presidency (which included the present Tamil Nadu, the present Andhra Pradesh, the northern part of Kerala and certain parts of the present Karnataka) where it was introduced in September 1921 by the Justice Party which came to power in the Province on the plank of curbing the then existing Brahmin monopoly.
Next was the Bombay Presidency in 1931.
Next came Travancore where the Maharaja introduced Reservation in 1935, followed by the Maharaja of Cochin.
Thus, before Independence the whole of the peninsula was covered by Reservation.
This Reservation was for Backward Classes defined to include not only those who subsequently came to be known as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but also many of those who are now included in the list of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes.
Reservation was introduced, largely by the initiatives of socially sensitive rulers of Princely States in response to local social reform movements directed against caste-based monopolies and to secure a reasonable share in governance and administration for those who had been kept out.
Elementary Constitutional literacy will inform that there are specific Articles which recognize the BCs such as Article 340(1), Article 15(4), Article 16(4) (along with SCs and STs), etc. and provide Reservation for them.
A time-limit of 10 years was prescribed by the Constitution only for Reservation of seats in elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
A common error of opinion is that Reservation is at the cost of the merit. This biased opinion is disproved by experience.
The peninsular States are ahead of the States in the rest of India in all parameters of development and welfare. This is not accidental. An important contributory causatory factor is the bringing in of a larger part of the population into governance, administration and education through Reservation in response to social reform movements in the peninsular States – a process that suffered considerable delay in the rest of India.
(ii) At the national level, Reservation was introduced for the SCs through the initiative of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in 1943. With his wisdom, he foresaw that those in whose hands power would effectively reside in post-colonial India would be averse to providing Reservation and other measures required for the SCs and, therefore, he joined the Viceroy’s Executive Council as Member (a fact that Arun Shourie’s misses in his book Worshipping False Gods), convinced the Viceroy against counter-advice by certain other members and secured Reservation, Post-Matric Scholarship (PMS) scheme and Overseas Scholarship Scheme for SCs, which could then be automatically extended to the STs on attainment of Independence.
Dr Ambedkar knew that the BCs too had a case and was prepared to help them. But, for certain reasons of tactical error (details later), the then BC leaders could not take his help, missed the pre-Independence bus, and consequently had to wait till 1990.
(iii) Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s initiative of 1943 ensured continuation of Reservation after Independence under the Constitution.
THREE CATEGORIES OF RESERVATION
There are three categories of Reservation –
(a) Reservation in the posts and services of the State (including Public Sector Undertakings, Public Sector Banks, Universities and other entities which come under the rubric of “State” under Article 12 as interpreted by the Supreme Court)
(b) Reservation in admission to seats in educational institutions, and
(c) Reservation of seats in elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, usually referred to as “Political Reservation”.
It is only the Reservation at (c) which initially had a 10 year time-limit.
Reservation at (a) and (b) had and have no time-limit. Many scholars and anchors confuse Reservation at (c) with Reservation at (a) and (b), for which there is no time limit. It means that Reservation in the services and educational seats can and should continue as long as necessary for fulfilling the purpose for which the regime of Reservation was established in this county well before pre-independence days continuing after Independence and under the Constitution.
PURPOSE OF RESERVATION
Reservation was never intended as a measure for poverty elimination or poverty alleviation.
Reservation was never intended as a measure to solve unemployment.
Reservation was intended to correct an imbalance in the structure of governance and administration and the supporting structures of education and electoral seats, that had come into existence on account of the gross imbalances and distortions created by the Indian Caste System, i.e., Caste System-with-“Untouchability” over the centuries continuing to the present day (without change in essence though with some quantitative attenuation and marginal modification).
Consequent to the imbalance and distortion created by the caste system, including denial by various means – including physical violence against Dalit children, who were waylaid on way to school, beaten up and driven back home, as recorded in the Report of the Hunter Commission 1882, there was nil or negligible presence of what are now categorized as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes and in some regions even from upper caste non-Brahmins in the services of the State. The State services were thus nearly monopolized by Brahmins in some regions or by Brahmins in combination with certain non-Brahmin upper castes like Kayasthas, Karans, CKPs, Khatris, Vaishyas/Banias, Rajputs/Thakurs, Kammas and Reddys, Nairs, Nattukkottai Chettiars, Vellalas. It is this distortion that the vast majority of the people peacefully agitated against and the Maharajas of Kolhapur, Mysore, Travancore and Cochin and the elected Indian rulers of the Justice Party in Madras responded.
FOR WHOM CONSITUTITON PROVIDES RESERVATION
The Constitution provides Reservation for only three social classes –
(a) Scheduled Castes (SCs), now popularly known as Dalits
(b) Scheduled Tribes (STs), now popularly known as Adivasis
(c) Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (not Socially and Economically Backward Classes as trotted out by many scholars and learned TV anchors and commentators) – referred to in different States as Socially and Educationally Backward Classes or as the Other Backward Classes or as the Backward Classes (BCs).
Reservation cannot be provided under the Constitution for any other social class. Apart from social classes, Reservation can be provided for categories which can be rationally classified, e.g., the women, the physically handicapped. These categories cut across the social classes. Reservation for them is characterized by the Supreme Court as “Horizontal Reservation” while the Reservation for the three social classes is characterized as “Vertical Reservation” in the Mandal case judgment.
The Constitution does not provide and does not permit Reservation for the “Poor” or the so-called spurious “Economically Backward Classes” (no such class is recognized by the Constitution. Some Governments have coined this term to make it look like a Constitutional category). Poverty not preceded by and not consequential to social backwardness (or “Untouchability” or isolation under vulnerable conditions) is no ground for allowing Reservation as seen from a reading of the Constitution and as amply clarified by the Supreme Court’s landmark Mandal case judgment.
HOW HAVE THE THREE SOCIAL CLASSES BEEN IDENTIFIED AND HOW ANY CHANGE IS MADE
(a) Scheduled Castes
SCs have been identified and specified on the basis of “Untouchability”, i.e., castes, on which has been imposed “Untouchability”, have been listed as Scheduled Castes by a series of Presidential Orders.
Any addition, deletion, modification in any of the entries in the Schedules can be made only by the Parliament by law. “SC status” is not a largesse to be handed over by any Government or leader or Party to any community at will.
If any community, which is not in the existing lists of SCs, wants to be included in the Schedule of SCs, it must show that it is the victim of “Untouchability”. This factum must be established with evidence by the concerned State Government and then will be enquired into by the anthropological wing of the Registrar General of India.
Only when both of them record with evidence the factum of “Untouchability” of a community and the concerned Ministry (now the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment) is also convinced, can the matter be taken forward to the Parliament through legislation.
No State Government can declare by Executive Order or by law any community to be a Scheduled Caste.
(b) Scheduled Tribes
STs have been identified and specified on the basis of a group of characteristics which can be collectively described as isolation under vulnerable conditions.
The procedure for adding a community to the list of STs is the same as for SCs.
While an SC can be a caste or a tribe or a sub-caste or part of a caste or tribe, a Scheduled Tribe cannot be a caste. A community seeking inclusion in the Schedule of Scheduled Tribes for any State should first show that it is a tribe, and then show that it fulfills the criteria for a tribe to be included as a Scheduled Tribe.
Demands are sometimes being made and recommended by certain State Governments in certain cases for inclusion in the list of SCs and STs even when they know that the criteria are not fulfilled, and even with the full knowledge that the recommendation cannot be and will not be accepted and acted on. This is less than honest.
(c) Socially and Educationally Backward Classes
BCs have been identified on the basis of social backwardness as well as educational backwardness. It is not social backwardness or educational backwardness, but both.
The BCs include Socially and Educationally Backward Classes not only of Hindus, but also of Muslims and Christians. Eminent persons like Manish Tewari assert that the “Indian template of affirmative action……… leaves out of its ambit religious minorities” (Manish Tewari, “Regression for Progression”, Asian Age, 5.9.2015). This is based on ignorance. Castes / communities of Muslims accounting for about 75 to 85 percent of the population of Muslims of India have been included in the list of BCs, and castes and communities accounting for the bulk of the population of non-ST Christians have also been included in the list of BCs. A relatively small proportion of Sikhs have also been included in the List of BCs. Though SC converts to Buddhism were included in the list of BCs recommended by the Mandal Commission, they were not recommended for inclusion by the Expert Committee on Backward Classes of 1992 and consequently were not included by the Govt. of India in the Central BC because they were recognized as SCs in 1990. Jains are not included because, as everyone knows, they belong to one Socially Advanced Caste (SAC). Zorastrians or Parsis are not included because they are the one small fortunate religious community of India which is free from the caste system.
A caste or community, which is not in the existing lists of BCs, and seeks recognition as a BC and inclusion in a BC list, must establish its eligibility in three steps:-
First step
First the applicant community must establish, that it is “socially backward”.
The term social backwardness is not correctly understood. It is not a factor that is measurable arithmetically or statistically. Social backwardness describes the low position of a caste in the traditional hierarchy of the traditional social system of India, known as the Indian Caste System, existing over the centuries to this day.
Usually, socially backward communities are linked to a traditional occupation, which is considered to be inferior or “lowly” and sometimes even stigmatized. Dr. Ambedkar speaks of a hierarchy of occupations in the Indian system paralleling the hierarchy of castes.
If a caste or community is not established to be socially backward, the next two steps would not arise. If a caste is found to be socially backward, the examination proceeds to the second step.

Second Step
After a caste is shown to be socially backward, in order to be recognized as a socially and Educationally Backward Class and to be included in the list of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes, it should next be show that it is also educationally backward. This is not a matter only of literacy and differential literacy levels. The educational level of comparison has been steadily going up. In the Central Educational Institutions Reservation case judgment (Ashoka Kumar Thakur vs Union of India) of 2008, the Supreme Court has observed that the appropriate level for comparison under present conditions is graduation. In other words, at the level of graduation and above, including professional education, it must be shown that a caste or community seeking recognition as BC ranks significantly lower than the Socially Advanced Castes (SACs) of the State/country.
It is virtually impossible to find a caste which genuinely is socially backward, but is also not educationally backward. In other words, a genuinely socially backward caste will also be educationally backward. If caste is not educationally backward, its claim of social backwardness must be scrutinized very carefully as a caste not educationally backward is extremely unlikely to be socially backward. The converse is not true. Every caste that is educationally backward, is not necessarily socially backward. There are sub-castes of certain well-known Socially Advanced Castes which are relatively backward educationally. That is why the Constitution has wisely insisted that, for the purpose of the Constitution, backwardness has to be both social as well as educational.
On passing these two steps, the third step arises in the case of Reservation of appointments and posts in the services under the State.
Third Step
A caste which is socially and educationally backward, must also be established to be not adequately represented in the appointments and posts in the services under the State for it to be eligible for Reservation in the posts and services of the State under Article 16(4).
It is virtually impossible to find a caste which genuinely is socially and educationally backward but which is adequately represented in the appointments and posts in the services under the State. But the converse is not true. Every caste or community which is not adequately represented in the posts and services of the State is not necessarily socially and educationally backward.
CENTRAL LIST OF BCs AND STATE LIST OF BCs
In the case of SCs and STs, there is a single list or Schedule of SCs for each State. That list or Schedule of SCs for each State and Schedule of STs for each State was first issued by the President of India. Thereafter, any change in the Schedule could be and can be made only by Parliament through legislation. State Governments cannot issue Schedules or Lists of SCs or STs for the respective States or make any change including additions or deletions in the Schedules of SCs and STs as issued by the President of India with any modifications made by Parliament through legislation.
Unlike this position relating to SCs and STs, in the case of BCs there is a Central List of BCs for each State; and there is also a State List of BCs issued by each State listing the BCs of that State. The cause of the dichotomy will be discussed in detail in one of my forthcoming books, but briefly is rooted in a historic evasion of its Constitutional duty to BCs by the Central Government in 1955.
It is not correct to say that there are only State lists of BCs and there is no Central list of BCs as asserted by Zakka Jacob, the anchor of the CNN-IBN channel on 2. 9. 2015 with self-assurance matched only by his ignorance, in a panel discussion where other panelists except one were also ignorant of this basic fact. The two lists, the purposes of each and the procedure for inclusion in each are outlined below. It is also to be clarified that the two lists are mostly the same for most of the States. Only in the case of very few States, particularly, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, for historical reasons (which will be explained in one of my forthcoming books), there are a few differences – certain castes in the State list are not included in the Central list for valid reasons (which will also be elucidated in a forthcoming book). In the case of other States divergence between the State list of BCs and the Central list of BCs for each of those States is absent or marginal.
PURPOSE OF CENTRAL LIST OF BCs AND STATE LIST OF BCs
The Central List of BCs is applicable for
Reservation of appointments and posts in the services of the State under the Central
Government and Central institutions;

Reservation in admission to seats in educational institutions of the Central Government
and Centrally-aided educational institutions;

and for other Central programmes/schemes/policies of Social Justice for BCs;

The State list of each State is applicable for

Reservation of appointments and posts in the services of the State under that State
Government and institutions of that State;

Reservation in admission to seats in educational institutions of that State Government
and educational institutions aided by that State Government;

and for other Social Justice programmes/schemes/policies of that State Government.

CENTRAL LIST — ITS PREPARATION
The first-phase Central List was issued in 1993, by listing State-wise those castes which were included in the State list of Backward Classes of each State as in 1992 (at that time there were State Lists in 14 States which States accounted for about 85% of the population of the country) and also in the Mandal List for that Sate. This is also known as the “common list” as it was prepared by listing castes common to the State List and the Mandal List. The common-listing provided a double check. Castes or communities which were in one of the lists, but not in the other were not included in the Common List or the first-phase Central list. This painstaking exercise was done by the Expert Committee on Backward Classes of which I was the crucial member in terms of knowledge and background.
This was the procedure laid down in the Government of India’s Memorandum of 13.8. 1990, on my advice, to preclude certain anomalies. This procedure was upheld by the Supreme Court in its landmark Mandal case judgment of 1992.
Thereafter, following the procedure laid down in the OM of 1990 and the Supreme Court’s direction of 1992, the NCBC took up applications for inclusion in the Central List of BCs, of various castes and communities which did not find place in the First-phase Central List / Common List.
The procedure for inclusion of a caste or community in the list of BCs is different for the State and for the Centre though the criteria are the same for inclusion in the State list as well as the Central list.
PROCEDURE FOR INCLUSION OF A CASTE/COMMUNITY IN STATE LISTS OF BCs
For inclusion in the State List of a State of a caste/community which is not in the State List of that State, an application must be made by or on behalf of a caste or community to the State Commission for Backward Classes of the relevant State. A State Commission has been established in every State pursuant to a direction of the Supreme Court in the landmark Mandal case (Indra Sawhney v Union of India) judgment of 1992 which upheld the Government of India’s Order of 1990 under the late Shri V.P. Singh (I was the Secretary of the concerned Ministry of Welfare then and that Order was issued as per my guidance) recognizing the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and providing 27% Reservation for them in direct recruitment (not promotion) to the appointments and posts in the services of the State under the Central Government and Central PSUs and other Central institutions.
Evidence must be provided to the Commission of the social and educational backwardness and inadequate representation of the applying caste/community in the services of the State.
After examination and enquiry, if the State Commission is convinced and arrives at the finding that the applicant caste is socially and educationally backward and inadequately represented in the services of the State, it advises the concerned State Government for the inclusion of that caste in the State List of BCs. Otherwise, it tenders Advice the State Government to reject the application. Otherwise it tenders Advice to the State Government to reject the application. The Advice of the State Commission is ordinarily binding on the State Government. In cases of disagreements with the Commission the Government has to record reasons.
PROCEDURE FOR INCLUSION OF A CASTE/COMMUNITY IN THE CENTRAL LIST OF BCs
For inclusion in the Central List of BCs of a caste or community not already included in the Central List, an application must be made to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), also established pursuant to the Supreme Court’s direction in the Mandal case judgment. The NCBC as also some of the State Commissions for Backward Classes have been established by statute, in the case of the Centre, by the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1992. The NCBC, after examination and enquiry tenders Advice to the Central Government for inclusion of an applicant caste/community in the Central list of BCs if the NCBC is convinced that it is socially and educationally backward and inadequately represented in the services of the State; and otherwise to reject the application. The NCBC’s Advice is ordinarily binding on the Central Government. In cases of disagreements with the Commission the Government has to record reasons.
The Central Government has almost never disagreed with the NCBC’s Advice. A rare instance of disagreement was the decision of the Central Government just before the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 to include Jats in the Central List of BCs for a number of States, over-ruling the NCBC’s Advice; and this decision of the Central Government was set aside by the Supreme Court shortly thereafter. In 1997, there was a split Advice of the NCBC to Central Government where the Central Government referred it back to the NCBC (this case will be dealt with in my forthcoming book referred to above).
After the issue of the Common Lists, following the procedure laid down in the OM of 1990 and the Supreme Court’s direction of 1992, explained under the head “Central List — Its Preparation”, the NCBC took up applications of various castes and communities for inclusion in the Central List, which did not find place in the Common Lists.
Before examining individual applications, the NCBC laid down well-thought-out Guidelines for Consideration of applications, carefully prepared a Questionnaire to be filled by the applicants and issued clear Guidelines for Filling up the Questionnaire and a transparent procedure for speedy examination of applications. This transparent procedure included one or more Public Hearings in each case, preceded by wide publicity through media through locally popular media.
So far, the applications of about 350 castes / communities for inclusion have been advised by the NCBC for inclusion (apart from applications of sub-castes, synonyms of castes/communities already included in the Central List) and the applications of about 470 castes have been advised to be rejected. Among the castes whose applications were rejected, are “powerful castes”, some of whose members had mounted agitations against Reservation for Backward Classes in 1990 all over North India and again, less intensely but equally virulently, in 2006-2007. Among the prominent faces in the electronic media and in Delhi’s politics, I can recognize some of the active agitationists of 1990 and 2006-2007. When Reservation for BCs was introduced in a State in 1981, one of these powerful castes agitated against it by attacking the Scheduled Castes, and again in 1995, when in that State the percentage of Reservation for BCs was increased to 28% post-Mandal. All these agitations were against Reservation for Backward Classes with snide attacks on Reservation for SCs and STs also. Their applications were rejected for the simple reason that they are not socially backward. Nor are they educationally backward. Nor, further, are they inadequately represented in the services of the State. On the contrary, their representation in the services is multiples of their population proportion.
It is one of these castes that has now changed its tactics and is agitating for its inclusion in the list of Backward Classes or scrapping of all Reservation altogether, giving another opportunity for the media to provide publicity with a slant against Reservation, as they have been doing in the past too whenever anything was done for the SCs or STs or BCs or whenever any section mounted agitation against whatever limited was done for the SCs, or STs or BCs as mandated by the Constitution.
One of the allegations of the Writ Petitioners of 2006-2007 against the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 (the Writ Petitions started even before the Act was passed or even moved in the Parliament) was that the inclusion of castes in the BC lists was arbitrary and powerful castes had been included. The Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) had sought my help as Advisor to guide the Government’s defence, aware of my knowledge, background, objectivity and loyalty to the Constitution. I agreed to be Advisor on the condition that no remuneration would be paid to me, which is my usual condition for undertaking any work connected with the legitimate rights of SCs, STs and BCs. Since I was in the know of the entire matter, I could provide necessary information to the Government’s Counsels and they, on that basis, showed to the Supreme Court how it was powerful castes which were not socially backward whose applications had been rejected, and submitted the Findings and Advices of NCBC in a number of illustrative cases. These include the cases of some of today’s agitationists. This seems to have impressed the Supreme Court of the principled way, based on the Constitutional mandate and socio-historical facts, in which applications for inclusion had been considered. The Supreme Court upheld the Constitutional validity of the impugned legislation which provided Reservation for SCs, STs and BCs in the Central and Centrally Aided educational institutions. This credibility should be maintained. For maintaining this credibility, the Central and State Governments and the National and State Commissions should be absolutely scrupulous about unequivocally repudiating and rejecting the pressures of powerful non-Backward castes to infiltrate into the list of BCs and also any other wrong attempts to include in the Schedule of SCs, castes which did not and do not suffer from “Untouchability” and to include in the Schedule of STs non-tribal communities and communities which though tribal do not fulfil the criteria of STs. Unfortunately, Governments often falter knowingly and deliberately especially on the eve of general elections. This will not only harm the genuine SCs, STs and BCs, but also make it all the more difficult for India for optimally progress.
AGITATIONS AND THE ABILITY TO MOUNT AGITATIONS, IS NOT A CRITERION FOR INCLUSION IN THE LIST OF BCs
Of the castes which have been rejected on the objective Advices of the NCBC, two or three of those which have numerical social, economic and political power are the ones which are now agitating for inclusion. Gujjars and Yadavs are not among the agitationists as confidently stated by Shri K. N. Bhat in his article referred to above. Gujjars have already been included in the Central lists for all States where they exist. What the Gujjars in Rajasthan agitated for was for recognition as a Scheduled Tribe and inclusion in the Schedule of STs. Realizing the impossibility of this effort, they have settled for recognition as a category of BCs with a separate sub-quota. The complications still existing in this case will be explained separately. Yadavs have been included in the Central List for all States where they exist. Therefore, the question of their agitation for inclusion in the list of BCs does not arise.
At present, the agitating castes are the Patidar/Patels of Gujarat, the Marathas of Maharashtra and the Jats of a number of north-western States. Marathas have been rejected by the State Commission for inclusion in the State List of Maharashtra and by the NCBC for inclusion in the Central List for Maharashtra on the ground that they are not socially backward. Jats, with the exception of part of Rajasthan, have also been rejected. I am not sure whether the Patels or Patils have ever gone before the State Commission. To my knowledge, they have not applied to the NCBC.
If the application of a caste for inclusion is rejected by the State Government or Central Government, following the above procedure detailed above, the remedy laid down by the Supreme Court in the Mandal case judgment is that in such cases appeal lies to the Supreme Court and only to the Supreme Court.
The agitation of Patels or Patidars of Gujarat is not new. The renowned social scientist Shri Viswanathan said in a TV programme recently that this is something new. It is not factually correct. As I mentioned earlier, they agitated in 1981 by attacking the SCs when Reservation was introduced for BCs in Gujarat and again in 1995 when the State Government increased the percentage of Reservation of BCs in that State to 28% after the Supreme Court’s Mandal case judgment. On both occasions, they were against all Reservations. Now also their demand is scrapping of all Reservations or the inclusion of Patels / Patidars also in the list of BCs — the latter is just impossible for the simple reason mentioned earlier. Therefore, effectively their real demand is the old demand to scrap all Reservations, which is nothing new.
Agitations and the ability to mount agitations do not constitute a criterion for inclusion in the list of BCs or in any list. It is in fact evidence that the agitating communities do not have justification to get included in the list of BCs or any other List that they seek to be included in.
WHAT NEXT?
— For SCs, STs and BCs
The monstrosity and utter impossibility of the demand for inclusion of any Socially Advanced Caste in the list of Backward Classes (or for that matter the demand of any non-tribe for inclusion in the list or Schedule of STs or the demand of any caste which is not a victim of “Untouchabilty” to be included in the list or Schedule of SCs) does not invalidate the socio-historical realities and Constitutional mandate on which Reservation for SCs, STs and BCs is based.
But, Reservation is only one item in a holistic and comprehensive package of Social Justice measures required to be undertaken, and sincerely and thoroughly implemented in order to achieve the Constitutionally mandated goal of Social Equality, i.e., Equality of SCs, STs and BCs with SACs in all parameters of development and welfare in all fields, such as economic; educational at all levels; health, nutrition and infant and child survival-related; housing and residential areas facilities-related, etc.
I have given to successive Governments, different Prime Ministers, different important Ministers, different political parties and different leaders a complete Road-Map listing out each of these Social Justice measures of which Reservation is one part – legislative measures as well as programmatic/schematic measures (I can e-mail a copy of this Road-Map to anyone of you who ask for it). No Government in India, either at the Central level or at the State level, irrespective of political parties, has applied itself to this vital national task. These measures are based on the Constitutional mandates, Presidential commitments to Joint Sessions of the Parliament, specific Constitutional amendments, Recommendations of authoritative bodies with which I have been associated in one way or the other – as Chairman or as Member or as Advisor or as informal Advisor — such as Committee of Ministers on Dalit Affairs (2005-2008) under the Chairmanship of Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the then Finance Minister, who is the present President; the National Commission for Review of the Working of the Constitution of India under the Chairmanship of Justice (Retd) M.N. Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice of India; many Plan Working Groups and Planning Commission’s Steering Committees, and also public documents formulated by me and adopted, partly or wholly, by successive Governments (but not implemented) like the Dalit Manifesto of 1996, etc. They also figure in my published articles and papers and a book of mine titled Empowering Dalits for Empowering India: A Road-Map (Manak Publications, Delhi, 2009).
Unless this vital task is fulfilled and Social Equality established and the capability is created through sincere implementation of the legislative and programmatic / schematic measures communicated through my Road-Map, India cannot achieve optimal progress. The caste system, the inhuman “Untouchabilty”, which is an important part of the caste system, and all-pervasive discriminations and inequalities of the centuries of our history and the decades of our Independence created by the caste system and “Untouchability” are a dead weight on the nation, a heavy stone round our national neck.
Only after the adoption and consistent and thorough implementation of these measures over a reasonable time, and only after, thereby, the capability is created in every deprived and disadvantaged caste / community of India to secure its due share of employment under the State, employment outside the State, self-employment, seats in educational institutions and of every other life opportunity on its own “merit” in open competition can the question of gradually giving up Reservation arise — this has to be done very carefully making sure that there is no danger of relapse. This cannot be dictated by any scholar or academician or leader or Party or any SAC unilaterally. This will have to be arrived at by mutual consultation, at the appropriate stage and time, fully involving the SCs, STs and BCs and SACs.
In other words, the question of gradually giving up Reservation for SCs, STs and BCs can be thought of, only when
(a) their representation, at all levels of the services in each cadre, reaches the proportion equivalent to their proportion in the population of the country, in the case of the services under the Union of India and reaches the proportion equivalent to their proportion in the population of the respective States in the case of the services under the States; and
(b) the State, through the holistic measures mentioned above, enables them to become capable, through open competition, of maintaining the level of representation mentioned at (a); and
(c) “Untouchability” and vulnerable tribal isolation and all their consequences completely disappear, and the SCs, STs and BCs reach the level of Equality with the SACs in all parameters of development, welfare and life.
These tasks can be fulfilled by the Socially Advanced Castes (SACs) who occupy the commanding heights of most of the Central and State governments, who occupy the commanding heights of most crucial institutions including academic institutions, financial institutions, and by relatively stronger communities of BCs, i.e., relatively more populous land-owning communities of BCs. It is they who can, if they are serious, abolish “Untouchability” and desist from its practice by deed, by word and by thought and ensure that all other measures mentioned above are taken without any mental reservation or implementational deficit.
— For SACs
It is true that in the Socially Advanced Castes (SACs), there are persons who are poor and unemployed. But that alone is not the cause of the agitation against Reservation. Psychologically, for many persons of the SACs it is galling to see that persons from communities which they used to looked down upon and whom they still consider inferior have begun to register progress through Reservation and the other limited Social Justice measures that have been taken so far. There is resentment towards persons of the SC, ST and BC communities who have moved forward and upward.
There is adequate information (I can share such information with doubting Thomases, if any) to show that even now in all indicators including poverty, levels of income, educational achievement at each level, living conditions etc, the SACs are best placed while the SCs and STs are at the bottom, with the BCs coming in between, usually closer to the SCs and STs than to the SACs.
All the same the problem of poverty and unemployment does exist among SACs also.
The remedy for this is not the abolition of Reservation. The following figures show that the number of persons who are getting employment in the services under the State through Reservation is only a miniscule part of the number of those who are unemployed.
EMPLOYMENT IN PUBLIC SECTOR (2009)*
Central Government 2628125
State Governments 6996456
Central Government Quasi 3388111
State Govt. Quasi 2407492
Local bodies 2054519
TOTAL 17474703
ANNUAL RETIREMENT AND, THEREFORE, ANNUAL RECRUITMENT
Approx. 3% of total employment in Public Sector 524241
RESERVED SEATS IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT
50% of the Annual Recruitment (actually a little less than 50%) 262120
NUMBER OF EDUCATED UNEMPLOYED AS REGISTERED WITH EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES ALL INDIA (2009)* 38152000
* Source: Selected Socio-economic Statistics, India, 2011, Govt. of India, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
It can be seen from the above Table that the seats reserved for SCs, STs and BCs in public employment is only a miniscule proportion (0.69%) of the total number of educated unemployed in India. Therefore, to say that Reservation is the cause for unemployment of youth of SACs is Barking up the wrong tree.
So far as those who are poor among the SACs are concerned, the proper remedy is to provide them scholarships and educational loans so that no child or youth has to drop out of education at any stage only on account of financial incapacity of the family. This can be done and should be done without abridging the scholarships and other measures required for the SCs, STs and BCs.
Care must be taken that the poor of the SAC, who are to be helped in this manner, are identified carefully. There are States where such help is provided for the poor among the SACs. The method of identification, namely, certificate of poverty is often availed of by children of well-to-do landowning families because there is no record of their income as is available in the case of salary earners, and poverty certificates from the appropriate authorities can be bought from the prescribed authorities. There are instances of such purchasability of poverty certificate.
So far as unemployment is concerned, various other measures, unconnected with Reservation, are necessary pertaining to the economy. That is matter for a separate discussion. But, what I want to make clear at this stage is that the unemployment that prevails among SAC youth (which is also there among SC, ST and BC youth) has nothing to do with Reservation.
Solution is possible if all sections of the population, but particularly the powerful sections approach issues objectively and not on the basis of birth-based biases of ancient origin and present currency, and if the SACs (subject to honorable exceptions), give up the dream of bringing back a pre-Mandal, pre-Ambedkar situation — in a sort of “Reverse Dandi March”.

(P. S. KRISHNAN)
Former Secretary to Government of India,
Ministry of Welfare;
Advisor (with Cabinet Minister status), Government of Telangana (BC Welfare)
Member, National Monitoring Committee for
Education of SCs, STs and Persons with Disabilities,
Government of India.
Formerly,
Member, National Commission for SCs and STs
Special Commissioner for SCs and STs
Member-Secretary, National Commission for Backward Classes
Member, Expert Committee on Backward Classes
Chairman, Dr. Ambedkar Foundation Research Cell
Member, Working Group for Sanitation and Leather Workers
Advisor, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India
Chairman, Sub-Group on “Perspective Planning for Development of SCs” of the
Planning Commission’s Working Group on SCs in the XII Plan;
Member, Planning Comm’s Working Group on Empowerment of Scheduled Castes in XII Plan;
Member, Planning Comm’s Steering Committee on Empowerment of SCs, BCs,
Nomadic & Semi-Nomadic Tribes and VJs in XII Plan.


Reservations for Muslims in India
A Step for Inclusive Development

Vol - XLVII No. 33, August 18, 2012 | P S Krishnan Special Articles
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Elucidating the process by which the large majority of backward classes among Muslims in India have been brought under the umbrella of reservations, this paper points out the importance of extending social justice in a constitutionally valid and judicially sustainable manner. Pointing to the fallacy of the Ranganath Misra Commission's initial recommendation of 15% reservation for minorities, it highlights the relevance of its real recommendation of a sub-quota for the minorities within the Mandal Commission-based backward class quota of 27%.



Understanding the Backward Classes of Muslim Society
Vol - XLV No. 34, August 21, 2010 | P S Krishnan Insight


The identifi cation of and reservation for the backward classes among Muslims has been a contentious issue, most recently in Andhra Pradesh. However there is a clear case, on constitutional grounds, for such reservation. A detailed discussion of the national situation and reservation measures in some states.





AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Reservation for Muslims
A Staff Writer
Hyderabad
“Caste is not Exclusive to Hindus Alone”

“Islam is uncompromisingly egalitarian, but social structure of the Muslim society betrays caste-like stratification, linkages with occupation and inequalities:” - P. S. Krishnan

A two-day seminar on ‘Reservation for Muslims in India – A step towards Inclusive Development’ held at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) urged the need for enhancement of reservation for Muslims in order to ensure inclusive growth and rejected the plea that reservation on the basis of religion ran counter to the spirit of the Constitution.
The seminar held under the aegis of Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP) on March 19 and 20, is likely to release the Hyderabad Declaration shortly, highlighting the basis and modalities for reservation discussed at the Seminar by participants drawn from across the country.
The seminar was inaugurated by Mr. P. S. Krishnan, Advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh and presided by Prof. Mohammad Miyan, vice chancellor, MANUU. 
Presented below are excerpts from speeches made, and papers presented by participants:
Dr. Faizan Mustafa, Keynote Address, Vice Chancellor, National Law University, Cuttack
The whole idea of the Constitution is to have rule of the law. The various institutions of the State are supposed to have separate jurisdiction and one should not dominate the other. In a democracy, majority may abuse the power and therefore checks and balances have been provided in order that it does not take advantage of the numbers.
Muslims did not demand reservation under the broader policy of affirmative action in the decades immediately after the Partition and Independence as they were undergoing depression and carried the guilt feeling. In the subsequent two decades, identity issues such as character of Aligarh Muslim University, Muslim Personal Law and Urdu preoccupied them. They did not demand social justice, equality and reservation. It is only after a host of Government appointed committees, commissions and panels highlighted their plight, that their backwardness came to be quantified. Gopal Singh Committee recommended three to four percent reservation for Muslims in class three and four category employees. High Power Committee headed by Justice Sachar though did not recommend reservation, but highlighted the fact that the Muslims had become neo-Dalits of India. Subsequently, Ranganath Mishra Commission recommended that Muslims should be given 10 per cent reservation and another five per cent may be given for other minorities.
My reading of the Constitution reveals that if religion is proscribed, even caste is an equally forbidden territory. Article 15 and 16 of the Constitution state that the State shall not discriminate on the basis of religion, caste, gender, race or place of residence. Let us bear in mind that Indian secularism is all about managing of religious and cultural diversity and is not a negation of religion. It is only after 40 years that Muslims are asking their share in the national cake. What Muslims are asking is that how do we manage the diversity and ensure quality. Cultural equality is integral to the concept of inclusion.
It will be fallacious to look at Muslims as a monolithic community. Muslims do have caste. If scheduled castes and tribes are religion-specific, then the reservation should not be denied to Muslims on the basis of religion. A better strategy would to include more and more Muslim caste in the OBC category. Let us not allow communalists to destroy the cause altogether. Since Hindu counterparts of certain caste are getting reservation, then the Muslim caste pursuing the same occupation also deserve to be included in the reservation category. We also need to look at the word ‘fraternity’ in the preamble of the constitution. It is where we need to be concerned about how denial of equality would destroy the social harmony.
P. S. Krishnan, IAS Retd
Advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh
It is a misconception that caste system is exclusive to Hindus. Even before Independence, certain castes or communities of Muslims have always been included in the BC lists along with Hindu and Christian backward castes. This continued after 1947 too when National level Kalelkar (1953-54) and Mandal (1979-80) Commissions identified the BCs of Sikhs and Buddhists. They were only recognizing the social reality.
It is basically wrong to say that reservation for BCs of Muslims is not justifiable because Islam does not recognize caste. It stems from the inability to distinguish between the ideology of a religion and the social structure, social system, social stratification and social inequalities prevailing among people. Islam may be uncompromisingly egalitarian, but the social system within Muslim society is based on various social and economic factors. J. H. Hutton, the scholarly Census Commissioner of 1931 had observed: Caste was in the air and neither the followers of Islam nor of Christianity could escape the infection caste. Even the change of religion could not destroy the caste system, for Muslims who no longer recognise it as valid are found to observe it in practice and there are many Muslim castes as well as Hindus. The dichotomy between the egalitarian social ideology of Islam and the existence of a caste-like stratification with hierarchy, linkages with a traditional occupation and endogamy in Muslims society in India has been noticed by numerous scholars. It is also erroneous to think that carving out a quote for Muslims mean snatching out something from the Hindus. Let us be reminded that it has been given to all Backward Classes irrespective of religion. The identified BCs of Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are as much entitled to their share of the 27% as the identified Hindu BCs.
Prof. Zoya Hasan
Dean, School of Social Sciences, JNU, Delhi
It will be better for us to demand reservation for minorities as a category. I favour broad based affirmative action, not merely reservation. Backwardness and under representation are two different aspects. Majority of Muslims are suffering from deprivation, are extremely poor. It goes beyond caste. There is no agreement among Muslims on what could be the basis for reservation for them. It involves more substantive issues. There is a shift among Muslims in discourse from identity to development.
Prof. P. L. Vishweshwer Rao
Head, Dept of Mass communication and Journalism, MANUU
Study after scientific study has shown that a majority of Muslims are backward in terms of education, income and so on because they continue to be victimized by the caste system although their forefathers changed their religion. Discrimination brought about and perpetuated by the deeply entrenched caste system continues to haunt them. Therefore it is fair that in the interest of social justice, reservation is accorded to them both at the state and the central level. Caste is a social disease whose roots have gone so deep that religion has not been a strong enough remedy to destroy them. Not only Government jobs, I will plead for reservation for all underprivileged section even in the private sector jobs because 90 per cent of the utilized land, finance and other resources belong to the people and the government.
Prof. Muzaffar Assadi
Dept of Political Science, Mysore University
The Constituent Assembly too debated reservation for Muslims. The Mandal Commission identified OBCs among Muslims. The Sachar committee’s finding too are on the same lines. In Karnataka, the debate on the issue has become a part of socio-economic backwardness rather than historical injustice to the categories. Muslims have also become part of these two issues. This is the reason why Muslims have become part of the larger social coalition. They are categorized under two different categories. Under Category I, some of the backward castes among Muslims are identified and secondly they are categorized in IIB category which is largely socio-economic category. 
P. Ramajayem
Asst. Professor, CSSEIP, Bharathidasan University, Trichy
The TMMK has risen as a new force representing the Muslims in Tamil Nadu. Started in 1995, it redefined the Muslim agenda and by shifting the Muslim votes from one alliance to another in the successive elections, it has shown that it represents their aspirations. It was only because of them that the DMK government accorded the community 3.5 per cent reservations in educational institutions and jobs. This has resulted in at least 70 poor Muslims students becoming doctors and another 3,000 getting engineering degrees every year in the state.
Maqbool Ahmed Siraj
Journalist, Bangalore
Karnataka (or Old Mysore State ) had introduced reservation for BCs as early as 1886. It was enhanced in 1916 on the recommendation of the Miller Commission. This enraged the Brahmin Dewan, M. Vishveshwariah so much that he resigned from the post. Karnataka had as much as 69% reservation prior to Supreme court fixing a cap of 50%. Muslims were given exclusive 4% in 1994 under the chief ministership of Veerappa Moily. Before this, several Muslim caste groups had been included in the Group I category too. Karnataka took several other initiatives like liberally sanctioning professional colleges from 1983 onwards and making it mandatory to have a woman, a Dalit and a member of the Minority community in all the selection/recruiting committees. But simultaneously, Muslims were also proactive in the state. Today, Muslims own hundreds of professional educational institutions. Bangalore has nearly 400 Muslim run high schools.
We need to urge the Government of India that an overall cap of 50% on the reservations should be removed. The reservations should now be to the tune of 70% with 9% being reserved exclusively for Muslims. Data shows that Christian and Sikhs are already overrepresented in the jobs. So let us not shy away from making reservation for Muslims alone, not all minorities. The power elite in the country takes the 50% cap as something sacrosanct. It is not. The country is ruled by the Parliament, not by the Supreme Court. So Parliament can always upturn what the Supreme Court says. Let that 9% be divided into two categories equally between General Muslims and caste groupings among Muslims. The current 4.5 % is all likely to be taken away by South Indian Christians, mainly from Tamil Nadu and Kerala who are better educated than even Brahmins. Besides, some Muslim groups such as Siddis in Karnataka, Meos in Haryana and Bakarwals in Kashmir could be grouped under the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
Dr. Abdul Waheed
Dept. of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University
The policy of reservation draws its legitimacy from the constitutional principle of social justice and aims at inclusion of excluded groups. The Constitution lays down provision for positive discrimination for historically marginalized communities SCs, STs and OBCs, but the Constitution does not define any of the category, identified for the benefit of reservation. One of the most important base for reservation is the interpretation of the word ‘class’. The expression, Backward Classes in Article 16 is caste and religion neutral. According to the Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, while Article 15 and 16 states that “while articles 15 and 16 empower the state to make special provision for backward classes, they prohibit discrimination only on the ground of caste or religion”. Therefore, any caste or religious group or ‘minorities’, if socially and educationally backward, may come under the ambit of ‘backward’ classes and are thus entitled for reservation benefit.
Others who participated in the seminar included Dr. K. M. Sajad Ibrahim from Dept. of Political Science, University of Kerala; Karimullah, associate fellow, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, Delhi; Dr. Islamuddin, Reader, Urdu Arts College, Hyderabad; Shafeeq Rehman Mahajir, advocate, Hyderabad; Dr. Suneetha, Directory, Anveshi, Hyderabad: Kancha Iliah, Director, CSSEIP, MANUU; Dr. Syed Najiullah, Assistant professor, MANUU, P. H. Mohamad, CSSEIP, MANUU; Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed Patel, Associate Professor in Education; Prof. S. N. Tripathy, professor of economics, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune.

http://www.islamicvoice.com/April2012/AFFIRMATIVEACTION/

KCR Consulting for IAS PS Krishnan for Muslim Reservations

http://www.andhrajyothy.com/Artical?SID=183154


Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Aamir Khan comes under fire from BJP for 'intolerance' remarks; Congress slams Modi government

Aamir Khan comes under fire from BJP for 'intolerance' remarks; Congress slams Modi government

By ECONOMICTIMES.COM | 24 Nov, 2015, 11.23AM IST


Aamir on intolerance: I am alarmed, my wife suggested moving out of India

Sambit Patra said," You can't be alarmist over stray incidents.. Incredible India is a tolerant nation and one view does not change that."

ET SPECIAL:Love visual aspect of news? Enjoy this exclusive slideshows treat!

NEW DELHI: Bollywood star Aamir Khan's view of being "afraid" over rising incidents of "intolerance" across India drew sharp criticism from BJP leaders and actor Anupam Kher who termed his comments as alarmist and unfair.

Speaking at an awards function on Monday, Khan said: "When I chat with Kiran at home, she asks, should we move out of India? That's a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be...That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm."

The government reacted strongly to actor Aamir Khan's statement, saying such comments "tarnish the image" of India. 

"All this debate is misplaced. There are issues which society as a whole needs to come together and address. But to just make a blatant statement that during the NDA rule, the country has become intolerant unnecessarily tarnishes the image of the nation," Union minister Kiren Rijiju said, adding that records show the number of communal violence incidents have come down since NDA came to power. 

The comment was also panned by the BJP. Party spokesperson Sambit Patra said," You can't be alarmist over stray incidents, let's not define India based on a view... Incredible India is a tolerant nation and one view does not change that."

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari lashed out at the actor, saying he was 'saddened and shocked' by the Bollywood actor's statement. "Aamir has said such a big thing and disgraced the nation. He has done a wrong thing," Tiwari said.

Khan's comments evoked the strongest reaction from fellow actor Anupam Kher. Kher posed a number of questions to Khan on Twitter, and asked him to remember that "this country has made him".

Aamir Khan on intolerance: I am alarmed, my wife suggested moving out of India

Aamir Khan on intolerance: I am alarmed, my wife suggested moving out of India
TNN | Nov 23, 2015, 09.46 PM IST



Aamir on intolerance: I am ala...SRK says there's ‘extreme into...Salman requests media not to p...Nobody has right to call India...Director slams SRK for his rem...'Intolerance' hurting country'...Intolerance row: Manoj Tiwari ...Religious intolerance in India...More writers return literary h...Now, filmmakers protest 'risin...BJP indulging in contradicting...
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NEW DELHI: Actor Aamir Khan on Monday joined the debate over "rising intolerance" in India, saying his wife Kiran Rao had asked if they should move out of the country, as she feared for the safety of their children in a climate of insecurity.

He was speaking at the Ramnath Goenka Awards function of The Indian Express Group. Khan said there was an increased sense of despondency over the past 6-8 months and that he was alarmed by it. "Important that those in power strongly condemn what's wrong," Khan said, backing writers and intellectuals who have returned their awards following the Dadri lynching and the murder of rationalists.

READ: No place for intolerance in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says in UK

"Historians, scientists have had a view to express. Returning awards is one way of getting your point across," said the 50-year -old actor, who has been awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. "Everyone has the right to protest," he said, adding that he supported any protest that was non-violent.

Last year, Khan's film 'PK', which took an irreverent look at organized religion, was a box-office blockbuster. It remains Bollywood's biggest grosser worldwide.

ALSO READ: Anupam Kher questions Aamir Khan's statement on 'intolerance'

Speaking on the Paris attacks and its aftermath, Khan sought to delink acts of terror from religion. "I don't think any religion teaches killing of people," he said, pointing out that a number of Islamic organizations had started speaking up against ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the multiple attacks that killed 127 people.

On the censorship row over the recent Bond flick, the actor maintained that the censor board was just for certification but was behaving in an alarming way. "I hope that changes," he said, stressing that as an adult, one should be able to decide what one wanted to see.

Making light of the "almost interminable" kiss in box-office super hit Raja Hindustani (1996), he said the scene was not censored. "I feel lucky," he said.

(Aamir's comments in this report have been put together from a series of tweets and retweets posted from the official handle of the Indian Express, @IndianExpress.)

Read this story in Marathi
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'Aamir Khan Safe in India, His Comments Insult to Fans,' Says Government

'Aamir Khan Safe in India, His Comments Insult to Fans,' Says Government

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'Aamir Khan Safe in India, His Comments Insult to Fans,' Says Government
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Aamir Khan also said that those who kill innocent people, cannot be called Muslims. (Press Trust of India photo)
NEW DELHI:  Actor Aamir Khan, joining the debate on a perceived "rise in intolerance", has shared his 'growing disquiet" and says that his wife Kiran Rao even suggested that they should leave the country. The government calls the comments "alarmist" and an attempt to tarnish India's image.

"We won't let Aamir leave the country, he is safe. This kind of comment influenced by a politically motivated campaign insults those who have given so much honour to Aamir in India," said Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Kiren Rijiju, Junior Home Minister, said the number of deaths in communal incidents had come down since the BJP came to power last year. "This is unnecessarily tarnishing the image of the nation," he said.
 
Actor Aamir Khan with his wife Kiran Rao and son

Speaking at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards on Monday, Aamir Khan said: "When I chat with Kiran at home, she says, 'should we move out of India?' That's a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm."

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, coming out in Aamir Khan's support, said in tweets: "Instead of branding all those who question the Govt & Modiji - as unpatriotic, anti-national or 'motivated'. The Govt would do better to reach out to people to understand what's disturbing them. That's the way to solve problems in India - not by bullying, threatening & abusing!"

Incidents like attacks on rationalists, a mob killing over beef-eating rumours and controversial statements by central ministers have been held up by opposition parties like the Congress as examples of intolerance under the current regime.
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, facing questions during his recent trip to Britain, said: "India is committed to protecting every citizen's freedom, and the law will deal severely with those who are intolerant."

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier tweeted in support of Aamir Khan, saying: "BJP should stop silencing voices through abuses and threats. It's high time that Central government took concrete steps to instil sense of security amongst people."
Story First Published: November 24, 2015 09:09 IST

Saturday, 21 November 2015

‘I apologize:’ Tony Blair admits Iraq war mistakes

‘I apologize:’ Tony Blair admits Iraq war mistakes

His remarks have prompted allegations of an attempted 'spin' ahead of the release of Britain’s Iraq war probe – the Chilcot Inquiry. (File photo: AP)

 

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By Dina al-Shibeeb Al Arabiya NewsSunday, 25 October 2015

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has apologized for aspects of the Iraq war in an interview with CNN on Sunday, although analysts suggest that the gesture is too little, too late.


“I can say that I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong because, even though he [late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein] had used chemical weapons extensively against his own people, against others, the program in the form that we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought,” Blair told CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria


Blair unleashed his apology on the American news network ahead of the release of Britain’s Iraq war probe, known as the Chilcot Inquiry.


However, his long-awaited apology was long due for some observers while for others, it was “hardly an apology,” George Joffe, a research fellow and lecturer at the center of international studies, University of Cambridge, told Al Arabiya News.


“It was an acknowledgement,” Joffe explained, adding “all he said basically that he made mistakes but getting rid of Saddam was not.”


Blair fell short of a whole-encompassing apology for the war when he said: “I find it hard to apologize for removing Saddam. I think, even from today in 2015, it is better that he’s not there than that he is there.”


But in the same time, Blair conceded that the Iraq war was partly to blame for the rise of the ISIS, which is currently occupying large swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria.


Responsibility

“Of course, you can’t say that those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015,” he said.


The former British prime minister said Iraq with or without Saddam would have been affected with the Arab Spring which began in 2011, and to his defense, he said “ISIS actually came to prominence from a base in Syria and not in Iraq.”


He also said Western countries have tried different myriad of options in the region, keeping the debate over Western intervention as inconclusive.


“We have tried intervention and putting down troops in Iraq; we’ve tried intervention without putting in troops in Libya; and we’ve tried no intervention at all but demanding regime change in Syria,” Blair said. “It’s not clear to me that, even if our policy did not work, subsequent policies have worked better.”


Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), also said intervening in conflict zones is still a continuous debate in the UK and the West.


But he said in 2003, both the Conservative and the Labour Party “did not have enough debate” on a leadership level.


Blair, who served as prime minister between 1997 and 2007, has repeatedly denied rushing to war. Under his leadership, Britain made the second biggest troop contribution to the Iraq invasion, and British forces were stationed in the country until 2011.


Doyle also criticized Blair for choosing an American news network to unleash his apology and not in Britain nor did he acknowledge his mistakes to the Iraqi people.


“He was given ample of opportunities. So many opportunities, invited to say sorry, to apologize, and he avoided at every single turn,” Doyle said, mulling Blair’s continuous media exposure and his concern for the future of the Labor party might have pushed him to acknowledge the past mistakes in 2003.


The interview could also serve him and could possibly make him more likeable, Doyle said. “I think most people prefer to be liked and loved rather than hated.”


Regrets not planning after removing Saddam

In addition to Blair describing false intelligence suggesting Iraq had so-called weapons of mass destruction, which was then used to justify the invasion, he expressed regret over the failure to adequately plan for the aftermath of the war in 2003, which saw the toppling of Saddam.


In the interview, Blair told Zakaria that he apologized “for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.”


Saddam’s Baathist regime ruled Iraq for 24 years. Critics had always slammed U.S. official Paul Bremer, who ran Iraq for 14 months after Allied forces toppled Saddam’s regime, for disbanding the Iraqi army.


Iraq’s new army could not thwart ISIS attacks and its lighting offensive against its second largest city last year and other areas in the country.


'He's said this before'

The British media, meanwhile, reported about the upcoming television interview on Sunday.


Following the report on Blair's apology, a spokeswoman for the former PM was quoted by The Guardian as saying: “Tony Blair has always apologized for the intelligence being wrong and for mistakes in planning. He has always also said, and says again here, that he does not however think it was wrong to remove Saddam.


“He did not say the decision to remove Saddam in 2003 ‘caused ISIS’ and pointed out that ISIS was barely heard of at the end of 2008, when al-Qaeda was basically beaten.


“He went on to say in 2009, Iraq was relatively more stable. What then happened was a combination of two things: there was a sectarian policy pursued by the government of Iraq, which were mistaken policies.


“But also when the Arab Spring began, ISIS moved from Iraq into Syria, built themselves from Syria and then came back into Iraq.


“All of this he has said before,” the spokeswomen added.


According to the UK’s ITV News. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister for Scotland has accused Blair of participating in a "spin operation" to prepare the ground for criticisms that may surface from the Chilcot Inquiry.


Leaked email

Last week, a leaked White House memo allegedly proved that Blair backed military action a year before seeking a vote in parliament.


The revelations focused on a memo allegedly written by former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell on March 28, 2002 to then president George Bush a week before the U.S. leader’s meeting with Blair at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.


“On Iraq, Blair will be with us should military operations be necessary,” wrote Powell, in a document the Mail on Sunday published on its website.


“He is convinced on two points: the threat is real; and success against Saddam will yield more regional success,” Powell said, referring to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was eventually ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.


The Mail on Sunday said the memo and other sensitive documents were part of a batch of secret emails held on the private server of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton which U.S. courts have forced her to reveal.


A separate quote from Powell assured Bush “the UK will follow our lead in the Middle East”, while other statements suggest Blair’s willingness to present “strategic, tactical and public affairs lines” to strengthen public support for the Iraq war.

 


(With AFP)


Tony Blair is right: without the Iraq war there would be no Islamic State

Analysis: The former UK prime minister used to claim the 2003 invasion would undermine jihadis. The 12 years since have proved how wrong he was
 UK troops in Iraq during the 2003 invasion.
 UK troops in Iraq during the 2003 invasion. Photograph: Giles Penfound/EPA
Martin Chulov
Sunday 25 October 2015 14.50 GMT Last modified on Monday 26 October 2015 01.58 GMT
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Only one of Tony Blair’s mea culpas in his CNN interview stands out as truly significant: his partial acknowledgment that without the Iraq war there would be no Islamic State (Isis).

Until now, Blair had refused to link the two, insisting instead in the lead-up to the war that sending western troops would deny jihadis an arena and prevent Saddam Hussein from using them as proxies in his standoff with the west.


Tony Blair makes qualified apology for Iraq war ahead of Chilcot report
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The 12 years since have constantly disproved both claims. Within six months of British troops landing in Iraq, the SAS was sent to Baghdad’s western outskirts to attack jihadis who had taken up residence in Ramadi. Back then, they were a mob of foreigners and Iraqis who fed off a broad Sunni discontent fuelled by the invasion; a serendipitous vanguard that not long afterwards organised into al-Qaida in Iraq, then the Islamic State of Iraq and, since mid-2013, Isis.

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The moment Tony Blair apologises for Iraq war mistakes – video
Throughout all its incarnations, the group’s grievances have been largely consistent. Central to them is the belief that the invasion destroyed a regional order, ousting a stalwart of Sunni rule, and inviting the rival Shia sect to take over. The sense of loss was profound, with many Sunnis passionately believing that the US and Britain must have known exactly what they were doing.

These views, formed along contemporary faultlines of power and patronage, drove a widespread Sunni resistance, a mix of non-ideologues enraged by losing jobs, status and dignity, and others, like the jihadis, who believed the war had been preordained in Islamic prophecies. As Iraq unravelled, the latter began to hold sway – just as later happened in Syria.

 Detainees pray at Camp Bucca, the former US military prison in Iraq, in 2009. Facebook Twitter Pinterest
 Detainees pray at Camp Bucca, the former US military prison in Iraq, in 2009. Photograph: Dusan Vranic/AP
Rightly or wrongly, the Sunnis of the region have come to believe that Blair’s decision to join George Bush’s war was the start of a historical pivot towards Iran and the restoration of Persian hegemony. They hold up a litany of developments to support their claim, including de-Ba’athification, which was aimed at eliminating Saddam’s influence, but also became a tool of repression against Sunnis, as well as the installation of Iraqi leaders who hailed from Shia supremacist backgrounds.

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Perhaps even more directly relevant to Sunni grievances and the rise of Isis, was the US-run prison system, which started with rampant abuses at Abu Ghraib and evolved into mass detention, albeit of both major sects. Sunni jihadis said the prison system was their most effective organising tool.

A senior Isis commander has told the Guardian that without the Camp Bucca facility in southern Iraq, in which he and most of the senior leadership were at one point detained, there would be no Isis today. “It made it all, it built our ideology,” he told the Guardian last December, “We could never have all got together like this in Baghdad, or anywhere else,” he said. “It would have been impossibly dangerous. Here, we were not only safe, but we were only a few hundred metres away from the entire al-Qaida leadership.”

As Iraq sank into chaos from early 2005, sectarian positions steadily hardened. Sunni militants, though battered in 2006 when Iraqi tribal leaders joined US troops in fighting them, were tamed for a time but never defeated. In the years since 2011, when US troops left, and in the wake of the Arab spring, Isis was able to feed off grievances that had remained unresolved since the British and US armies rolled north from Basra eight years earlier. The jihadis’ rallying call that British and US-led aggression caused all of this still resonates broadly, far beyond their constituency.

A sense of loss, enduring indignity and injustice on one hand, and helping to restore lost glories on another are a potent double act for Isis, which openly hails 2003 as its raison d’etre. It remains just as much of a unifying principle now as it was back then. Events ever since in Syria and Lebanon, where Iran is ascendant militarily and politically have if anything given it even wider appeal. This would not have happened if the Iraq war had not been launched.

In Baghdad on Sunday, Jihad Mohanned, a Sunni resident from the west of the city, said Blair’s acknowledgment was “so obvious it’s surprising he bothered to speak”.

He added: “It really isn’t possible to come to any other conclusion. Without the invasion, we would not have Isis. It’s crystal clear



Tony Blair’s partial apology for Iraq isn’t enough


 Tony Blair talks with British troops during a final visit as Prime Minister to Iraq
 Tony Blair talks with British troops during a final visit as prime minister to Iraq, a country whose future may define the legacy of his decade in power. Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian
Letters
Tuesday 27 October 2015 19.44 GMT Last modified on Tuesday 27 October 2015 22.01 GMT
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Tony Blair’s partial apology for the Iraq war (Report, 26 October) shows how little he has learned from his adventures in international relations. Removing Saddam Hussein is the problem and is the cause of the rise of Isis. Saddam’s justification for his brutal regime was that he maintained control of an otherwise ungovernable state. His removal and the emergence of Isis is testimony to the accuracy of his judgment.

The removal of the equally brutal Gaddafi from Libya, and the subsequent disintegration of that state, is further testimony to the misjudgment of European politicians. The removal of a dictator, before a stable replacement is available, simply creates a vacuum which destructive elements quickly exploit.

Assad kept the lid on Syria, until overflow from the disintegration of Iraq fractured his regime. The influx of refugees into Europe, from both Syria and Libya, is the continuing consequence of democratic politicians failing to appreciate the inappropriateness of introducing democracy into states with no established record of the peaceful transfer of political authority.
Martin London
Henllan, Denbighshire

• Tony Blair apologises, among other things, for the inaccuracy of the intelligence information about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. But the fact is that by the time the war started, the highly regarded UN weapons inspector Hans Blix hadn’t found any such weapons and didn’t believe he was going to.

Twelve and a half years on from the march via which over a million of us tried to give Blair a get-out-of-jail card, it still troubles me that a prime minister who until that point had been among the most sure-footed this country had elected in generations either could not or would not see that it was entirely in Saddam’s interests both to have destroyed his weapons of mass destruction and to be maintaining some uncertainty as to whether he had done so.
Jeremy Waxman
Saltaire, West Yorkshire

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• Sadly, the rise of Isis was a relatively milder consequence of the Iraq war. The wider consequence was the creation of a religious war across the whole of the Middle East. Before Iraq, al-Qaida was not attacking Shia or Kurd. Its targets were the west. Sunni and Shia have always been on opposing sides but there were no conflicts in the Middle East based on this religious division.

As Martin Chulov (The crucial point: a partial acknowledgment that without the war there would have been no Isis, 26 October) quite rightly states, the Iraq war stoked these divisions, destroying the country, favouring Shia, oppressing Sunni and generating the chaos of a civil religious war. This division has now broadened into Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Lebanon, and the Middle East is on fire as Sunni and Shia fight a religious war that is every day becoming a single international conflict with the US on one side and Russia on the other.
Chris Owen
Holywood, County Down

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• Martin Chulov’s reference to Abu Ghraib resonates in Syria. I was in Damascus when events at Abu Ghraib surfaced and while meeting with Bouthaina Shaaban, media adviser to president Bashar al-Assad, I voiced my concern about the many young Syrian men who seemed keen to go to Iraq to fight. More young lives lost, I felt. “They have seen what happened in Abu Ghraib,” she said, “and they have to go.”
Mary Russell
Oxford

• The main outstanding issue about the Iraq war is how and why it came to be that when British forces landed in Iraq their stated purpose was to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction, but when they departed their stated achievement had been the overthrow of the Iraqi regime which, incidentally, posed no threat to the security of Britain or its military allies. That goes well beyond mere apologetics. When the Chilcot inquiry has shed some forensic light on this issue it should be easier to make a final judgment on the war and Britain’s role in it.
Robin Wendt
Chester

• Tony Blair’s pre-emptive strike against Chilcot and the publication of the Chilcot report, still, I believe, leave one key aspect of the affair unanswered. Let me recount an incident that took place in Italy in May 2003.

While eating out one evening, I was able to prevail on other diners to make space for an American family. Once all were seated I engaged in the sort of conversation one has in these situations; talk touched on the invasion of Iraq. The father, a notable US academic, stated quite firmly that it was Blair who persuaded the American intellectual elite that it was right to launch the war on Saddam Hussein.

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Ever since that moment I have watched for anything that focuses on this aspect of the affair, and I believe that Chilcot did not consider Blair’s role in influencing US public opinion; why should he, when accountability is restricted to the “line management” within a nation state? The publication of the dialogue between Blair and Bush may go some way towards addressing this, but is unlikely to reveal the ultimate spin.

It seems that it is this triangulation for which Bush was grateful, and for which the US right continues to show gratitude to Blair through channelling generous lecture fees to him. Blair will continue to prevaricate with qualified apologies and regret for things that are peripheral to the main point. Only an international inquiry, dare I say an international court, is able to properly consider Blair’s role in propping up the intellectually weak US argument for war.
Will Messenger
Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire

• There is one problem with Tony Blair’s qualified mea culpa: Britain did not overthrow Saddam. Neither did it to any significant degree slaughter the civilian population, bomb cities, destroy infrastructure or desecrate holy places. In fact the UK did virtually nothing in the Iraq war after the initial seizure of Basra except hand it over to pro-Iranian militias and retreat to the safety of its barracks at Basra airport, there to await relief from US forces. Blair’s comments are an arrogant repetition of the lie that the UK made any difference at all to either going to war or in determining the outcome. From the outset of hostilities Blair’s war aim was the avoidance of casualties. The best (or worst) that can be laid at Blair’s feet is that he gave moral cover to the US, which made it contemptuously clear that it would proceed with the war no matter what the UK did or didn’t do in support. Blair should admit it: the UK’s participation in the Iraq war was an irrelevance. He should then sleep sound in the knowledge that the only war crimes he was guilty of are hubris and cowardice.
Chris Forse
Snitterfield, Warwickshire

• It seems Tony Blair is still at it – twisting and turning as usual. He says he apologises for “the intelligence being wrong” but what he really should say is: “I apologise for the intelligence being correct but we ignored that and told the general public and parliament a totally different story to suit our intentions.” Why is there still a need to listen to him?
Henk Slagter

Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire