-The Hindu   The government's decision on a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities within the overall 27 per cent reservation for the backward classes promises to be the new trigger for a heated political discourse just ahead of several Assembly elections, including the all-important poll in Uttar Pradesh just a few months away. More than a decade ago, the V.P. Singh government ushered in the ‘Mandal revolution' in North India. It...

The setting aside of 50% of seats in the proposed Lokpal for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, women and minorities, triggered a sharp debate within parties today around a central, normative question: should social diversity, especially inclusion of minorities, weigh in an empowered body to “fight corruption?”   While the BJP has opposed it and Team Anna, caught off-guard on a sensitive political issue, has declined to comment, legal experts...

Notwithstanding Rahul Gandhi's reported assurances to the AIMPLB to keep madrassasoutside the purview of the RTE Act, there is an urgent need to formalise madrassa education. Almost 90% of underprivileged Muslim children attend madrassas. However, devoid of a modern curriculum, madrassas are unable to equip these students for the contemporary job market. This in turn limits their economic opportunities. By bringing madrassas under the provisions of the RTE Act, the Islamic seminaries...

A major sticking point between the Centre and All India Muslim Personal Law Board seemed set for a resolution with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi leaning towards keeping madrassas out of the Right to Education following a meeting with the board president,Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadvi, here on Sunday. Maulana Nadvi is also the rector of Nadwatul Ulema, a leading Islamic seminary. This is Congress's second major outreach to Muslims in recent...

Harvard University has dumped former union minister and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy from its 2012 summer school faculty after protests from teachers and students over an allegedly anti-Muslim opinion article Swamy wrote for an Indian newspaper earlier this year.  "Harvard has established a principal that the person teaching there is accountable to whatever he writes elsewhere is a not good for them," Swamy said reacting to the university's action. Only dangerous...