The move to set aside 4.5% share for minorities, including Muslims, within an existing affirmative-action system for other backward classes (OBCs) is legally sound, Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson K Rahman Khan has said. Rahman Khan, whose “reservation” model for Muslims in Karnataka served as a model reference point for the government’s decision, however said declaring the entire community backward based on Sachar's findings alone, as demanded by many Muslims, was not...

-PTI The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board today strongly criticised the Centre's Right to Education (RTE) Act, alleging that Minority institutions including Madrasas will lose their identity on account of it. AIMPLB Secretary, Maulana Mohammad Wali Rahmani told PTI that on one hand, the Centre was talking of Minority education under Article 30 of the Constitution which clearly says that the minorities can choose education of their choice but contrary to it,...

-The Economic Times In what could come in the way of the Congress' Muslim outreach, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has come down heavily against the Right to Education Act. The Muslim body has alleged that Minority institutions, including Madrasas, will lose their identity on account of the Act. This is not the first time that AIMPLB has come out against the central elementary education law. Over the last...

At the peak of Anna Hazare’s fast in Delhi last year, some of his former aides in Maharashtra had cautioned that he should not get carried away by the hype. Last week, at Mumbai’s thinly populated MMRDA Grounds where his latest agitation flopped, there were a few lessons for Hazare and his team. One being: never take people for granted. Some of Hazare’s former associates suggest that the craze that the Lokpal...

-EPW Graft is a major issue in people’s lives, but it is unlikely to figure in voter choice in the assembly elections. A mini-general election will be upon us in February as fivestates go to the polls. Given the high-pitched outpouringson the electronic media around the anti-corruption campaign and the live coverage of the proceedings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the Lokpal Bill, we have been led to...