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Justice Sachar to visit Kolkata at Mamata's invitation

KOLKATA: Justice Rajinder Sachar will be coming to Kolkata at the invitation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in June to advise the State Government on issues related to development of Muslim minorities.

“Justice Sachar will be coming here. He will come in June,” Ms. Banerjee told journalists at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday.

“Who could refuse an invitation like this? The report and its recommendations are public. If she (Ms. Banerjee) wants to implement it in West Bengal, it is very heartening. If there are any clarifications about it, I shall be happy to oblige,” Justice Sachar told The Hindu over telephone from New Delhi on Wednesday.

Implementing the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report was one of the promises made in the election manifesto of the Trinamool Congress for the recent Assembly polls.

Poll promise

When launching her election campaign for these elections, Ms. Banerjee had told the crowds that if she came to power she would ask Justice Sachar to come to the State and assess the situation of the minorities. Hours after been sworn in as the Chief Minister on May 20, Ms. Banerjee told journalists that she will be meeting Justice Sachar and discuss how the recommendations of the report can be implemented in West Bengal.

The Sachar Committee report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim minorities in India was tabled in Parliament in 2006.

Its findings on the conditions of Muslims in West Bengal were a major political plank for Ms. Banerjee to rally the support of the Muslims, a traditional support base of the Left.

Particularly an observation on Page 370 of the report that the share of Muslims in employment in the State government was only 2.1 per cent, lower even than the 5.4 per cent in Gujarat, has been repeatedly cited in speeches, rallies and the election campaign of the Trinamool Congress.

Even though the Left has repeatedly pointed out that the observations have been made on the basis of insufficient data and many figures cited are not authentic, the report had a significant impact and was one of the key reasons for an erosion of the Muslim vote away from the Left since the Panchayat polls held in 2008.

Pointing out that the Sachar Committee had been appointed only after the Left had insisted that affirmative action be taken for the Muslim minorities in the country in the Common Minimum Programme of the first UPA government, Mohd. Salim, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that implementation of the recommendations of the report by the present State government would be welcomed.

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