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...

Its eye on the UP Assembly elections, the Centre is going to package the reservation for backward Muslims being planned out of the 27 per cent OBC quota as part of a series of reservation measures, covering a large bracket of beneficiaries. Apart from designating the quota for Muslims as part of a larger reservation for “minorities”, the UPA government is planning to promise a quota for “the most backward”...

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...

-PTI   The government is considering giving reservation to backward Muslims within the 27 per cent quota fixed for Other Backward Classes and a decision in this regard will be taken soon, law minister Salman Khurshid said on Thursday.  "Of the 27% OBC quota in jobs, the government is examining to fix a quota for backward Muslims," Salman Khurshid told reporters outside Parliament.  Khurshid said the decision on fixing a quota for backward Muslims...

Reservation for Muslims in jobs and education — feverishly anticipated over the past two years and expected to be announced ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections — might turn out to be a headache the Congress unthinkingly bought itself. As Muslim groups have been arguing, the route under the United Progressive Alliance government's consideration — a 6 per cent Muslim sub-quota within the 27 per cent OBC quota — would...