The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Sachar Committee report has to be looked at with critical eye: Khurshid

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Sachar Committee report has to be looked at with critical eye: Khurshid

Special Correspondent

— Photo: R. Ravindran

Lucid analysis:Union Minister of Water Resources and Minorities Affairs Salman Khurshid, speaking at a function organised by the Southern India Education Trust and Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women in Chennai on Saturday. Moosa Raza, Chairman SIET Trust, and Faizur Rahman Sayeed, College Correspondent, are in the picture.

Chennai: The Rajinder Sachar Committee report is not The Koran. It could be wrong and has to be looked at with a critical eye, said Union Minister of Water Resources and Minorities Affairs Salman Khurshid.

He was delivering a talk on ‘Minorities of India: Issues and Challenges,' at the Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women here on Saturday.

“As far as we are concerned, there is only one book that can't be wrong. Every other book can be wrong, including the Sachar Committee report. Therefore, we must examine the committee's report with a critical eye and see what benefits it will give to the Muslims by bringing Muslims and Hindus closer together,” he said, indicating that the Sachar Committee could isolate Muslims in a ghetto and give them something but detain them in the ghetto permanently.

Muslims are capable of competing with everybody and need support in fields such as banking and civil services, he said.

The Rajinder Sachar Committee was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for preparing a report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims and was tabled in Parliament on November 30, 2006.

Mr. Khurshid said that the Centre planned to give 60 lakh scholarships to minority students this year. Last year, 44 lakh scholarships were given to minority students in pre-matric and five lakh in post-matric.

The Centre was looking at universalisation and every child qualifying for a scholarship must get that and there should be no turning back stating that the quota limit has been reached. “That is the aspiration and commitment.”

Answering questions, Mr. Khurshid said that the Equal Opportunities Commission had to come soon.

“Once the contours are finalised by the Cabinet and Parliament, we may have to think of a structure. May be, we will have to combine the two structures or have a new structure.”

In his talk, Mr. Khurshid asked Muslims to also approach the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), which had a budget 10 times bigger than that of his ministry.

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