Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Quota for minorities

This refers to the report that the Tamil Nadu government has passed a law providing for 3.5 per cent reservation each for Backward Class Muslims and Backward Class Christians within the 30 per cent reservation quota for the Backward Classes in education and employment. Giving reservation to Muslims as a group runs the added risk of creating divisions within the community, among Sunnis, Shias, Mehdawis and others. Indian politicians should realise that ours is the only country using reservation as an instrument to divide the poor on the basis of religion and caste.

K. Saritha,

Reservation for the minorities is against the secular spirit of the Constitution. No reservation can be made for Muslims on religious basis unless the Constitution is amended to say the whole community is backward within the meaning of Article 16 (4) and Article 340.

The Andhra Pradesh government played a political gimmick by providing reservation for Muslims, knowing full well that it would be declared unconstitutional by the judiciary. Politicians should realise that poverty has no caste or religion. The new legislation will become another hurdle to the backward classes due to the emergence of rich people from among Christians and Muslims in the name of religious minorities as competitors for the SCs and the STs.

Banothu Valmiki S.,

The law will surely help the ruling DMK politically but it will also create a new question with respect to social justice. It will encourage conversions. The creation of more vote banks in the name of caste and religious groups will destroy social harmony. Poverty in India is not associated with any caste or religion; it is the result of lack of education, population growth and mindless policies.

G.L.N. Murthy,

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said that the passing of the law marked a revolutionary day in the history of social justice. But social justice seems to be blind to the plight of the microscopic Anglo-Indian economically backward Christian community which is casteless and therefore a forward community.

Former Anglo-Indian legislators including myself, D.V. D’Monte, ex-MLC, and Geoffrey Francis, ex-MLA, have tried unsuccessfully to have the community listed as economically backward. The aim of social justice will be realised only when the Anglo-Indian minority community benefits from this path-breaking legislation.

Beatrix D’Souza,

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