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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen questions relevance of Minority Affairs Ministry -Nistula Hebbar

Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen questions relevance of Minority Affairs Ministry -Nistula Hebbar

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published Published on Sep 18, 2013   modified Modified on Sep 18, 2013
-The Economic Times


NEW DELHI: The UPA government claims it to be one of its signature achievements, but noted academic and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen has all but questioned its relevance and, therefore, its existence.

Sen, a former economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the Ministry of Minority Affairs, a showpiece in the Congress-led UPA's list of minority friendly moves, had achieved very little. "I am not in favour of new ministries which basically go looking for budgets," Sen told ET. "Right now, what the minority affairs ministry does is handle scholarships and allocate money to minority dominant districts. How that money is spent in the districts is not in their hands," he said, adding that he favoured a minority subplan rather than a separate ministry.

At a function to release a report brought out by the Council for Social Development, entitled 'India Social Development Report 2012: Minorities in the Margins' on Monday, Sen, who was part of a panel to discuss the report, was more scathing.

"We have simply not got it right with regard to Muslims. Prof Zoya Hasan was part of a Working Group with the Planning Commission that had suggested a separate plan on the lines of the planning for SC/STs. But we all know what happened to it. Instead, we have a ministry for minority affairs and the time has come to question whether it served any purpose at all?" he asked. While its main achievement of setting up the ministry came under attack, so did its record on empowering Muslims.

The Social Development Report has been authored by eminent academics Zoya and Mushirul Hasan, who too didn't mince words either in the document or during a discussion on the state of the Muslims in the country.

Minorities Are Doomed: Mushirul Hasan

Mushirul Hasan said neither the civil society nor the government was interested in empowering the Muslims.

"The government is scared of doing anything for the Muslims for fear of being accused of 'appeasement'. Secularism starts coming under threat the moment we start talking about reservations or any kind of affirmative action for the Muslims. And now, with the resurgence of violence and increasing communalisation of the society and polity, I am afraid the dream of (Justice Rajinder) Sachar is not going to be realised. Minorities, especially Muslims, are doomed to struggle very hard even for accessing basic amenities," he said.

The report, nearly 300 pages long, goes into great detail about the state of minority welfare and criticises the government for failing to address the serious questions regarding deprivation of minorities, especially Muslims.


The Economic Times, 18 September, 2013, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/planning-commission-member-abhijit-sen-questions-relevance-of-minority-affairs-ministry/articleshow


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