The Sachar Committee report, submitted recently to Parliament, is pregnant with disastrous consequences. It may result in balkanisation of the nation on communal lines. It also contains the seeds of the two-nation theory propounded in the early decades of the 20th century.

Before proceeding it would be appropriate to recall that Rajindra Sachar's father Bhimsen Sachar was a member of Pakistan's Constituent Assembly. He was compelled to flee Pakistan as the heat of Islamic fundamentalist forces became unbearable. When the family left Pakistan, Rajindra Sachar was in his late teens. Bhimsen Sachar, later on, became the Chief Minister of Punjab. Rajindra Sachar retired as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. Reverting to the committee's report, it may be pertinent to recall why it was appointed at all.

The notification said that it had to look into the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community. This suggests that the social, economic and educational problems of other communities do not merit attention. The apparent motive of the Government was to fortify the Muslim votebank for the UPA and the Left.

Also, the political status of the Muslims was precluded but the committee deliberately trespassed the limits under the garb of "political participation" and made several political recommendations. It would be important to note that most of the report has been penned by Marxist historian Irfan Habib and other Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) alumnae. In fact, the recommendations of the Sachar Committee bear a prominent AMU stamp.

The history of Muslim separatism, as well as its contribution to building intellectual muscle of the two-nation theory, was immense. The arguments of pre-partition of Muslim League find mention at scores of places in this report. I am dealing with only one aspect of the report, that is, "political participation." Here are some extracts:

Political Participation, Governance and Equity: "In their view, political participation and representation in Government structure are essential to achieve equity. It was alleged by many that participation is denied to Muslims through a variety of mechanism. Two instances were cited:

? Non-Inclusion of Muslims in the voter lists: It was pointed out that many names of Muslims were missing in the voter lists of a number of States. Not only does this dis-empower them, it also makes them ineligible as beneficiaries of any Government scheme.

? Notification of Reserved Constituencies: Attention of the Committee was drawn to the issue of Muslim concentration assembly being declared as 'reserved' constituencies where only SC candidates can contest election. By this move, it was argued that the Muslim is being systematically denied political participation.

The Committee then suggests the method for the greater participation of the Muslims in the political process in the following manner:

"Establishing a More rational Procedure for Delimitation of Constituencies." The Committee also recommends the elimination of the anomalies with respect to reserved constituencies under the delimitation schemes discussed in Chapter 2. (Sachar Committee, p. 241)

It is the common experience of the Indian electorate that during elections names of hundreds, sometimes thousands of people are missing from the voter list, irrespective of religion and status. Once, even the Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan's name was found missing. Therefore, the allegation of Muslims in this regard is biased. The other allegation of Muslims in respect of declaration of Muslim majority area as a reserved seat for SC, ST also appears jaundiced.

The Constituent Assembly, while dealing with the question of reservations for minorities (Muslims) unanimously rejected the idea of religion based reservations. It would be interesting to look into some member's arguments:

Nizamudin Ahmad (WB): "Then, again Muslim reservation is psychologically linked up with separate electorates, which led to so many disasters.

Therefore, I should submit that to carry on reservation would only serve to perpetuate the unpleasant memory and all the embitterment that accompanied them. I submit that it will be bad even for 10 years."

Begum Aizaz Rasul(United Provinces): "To my mind, reservation is a self-destructive weapon which separates the minorities from the majority. It gives no chance to the minorities to win the goodwill of the majority. It keeps up the spirit of separatism and communalism alive which should be done away."

One can find over a dozen such speeches of Muslim leaders in support of Sardar Patel's amendment. Only one gentleman from Tamil Nadu opposed it. The report needs to be thrown out lock, stock and barrel.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, December 10, 2006