NEW DELHI, July 25, 2013
Prashant Jha
41 per cent of respondents, including Hindus, either ‘fully’ or ‘somewhat’ agreed with the assertion
In a stinging rebuke to Indian’s security establishment, a dominant section of Indian voters feel that Muslims are ‘falsely implicated’ and framed in terror cases.
This is a key finding of CNN-IBN- The Hindu Election Tracker Survey, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), across 18 States.
Asked whether Muslim youths were being ‘falsely implicated in terror cases,’ 41 per cent of voters either ‘fully’ or ‘somewhat’ agreed with the assertion. Among them, 40 per cent of Hindus and 56 per cent of Muslims believed that this was happening. When the Muslim demographics were broken down further, 53 per cent rural Muslims and 62 per cent urban Muslims said the young of their community were being wrongly framed.
One-fourth of the respondents, however, disagreed with the statement. Twenty-five per cent of Hindus and 24 per cent of the Muslim respondents did not think Muslim youths were being implicated wrongly.
Twenty-six per cent rural Muslims and 21 per cent urban Muslims disagreed, confirming a pattern in which more urban Muslims appeared to feel that individuals from the community were framed wrongly.
Over one-third of the total respondents, 34 per cent, did not offer an opinion.
The findings add credibility to allegations of human rights organisations that in an increasing number of cases, young Muslims are picked up right after an incident of terrorism, arrested without sufficient evidence and charged. They suffer long years of imprisonment as under-trials before they are acquitted. Analysts have often said this contributed to alienation among a section of the community.
Responding to the findings, National Commission for Minorities chairperson Wajahat Habibullah said: “The commission has been very concerned about this and has taken up the matter on several occasions. It is good to have the figures in black and white, and this will make our work of getting justice for those who have not got justice easier.” As proof of this trend, he cited the Mecca-Masjid bombing case, in which 22 persons were jailed on fabricated confessions, and the Malegaon case, in which nine persons were imprisoned for six years before being acquitted.
New Delhi, July 25, 2013
CNN IBN-The Hindu Election Tracker Survey
High support for reservation for poor of minority communities
48 per cent Hindus back it
Prashant Jha
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Some state governments have allotted a percentage of seats to Muslims and Christians from within the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
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At a time when the debate over affirmative action for religious minorities has created a gulf between political parties, and led to tensions between the judiciary and executive, there is a high degree of support among India’s voters for reservations to the economically backward among minority groups. This support spans across the religious divide.
When asked if there should be ‘reservations for the economically backward sections among religious minorities in government jobs’, 50 percent of the respondents – interviewed by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies for the CNN IBN-The Hindu Election Tracker Survey – agreed. Only 17 per cent disagreed with the proposition, and 33 per cent did not have an opinion.
The demographic break-down of the respondents throws up interesting results.
48 per cent Hindus support reservation for the poor of minority groups, and only 18 per cent disagree. The support is higher among upper-class Hindus, with 60 per cent of them in favour of the affirmative action policy. 63 per cent Muslims support the idea, but a substantial section of Muslims – 27 per cent – did not have an opinion on the matter.
Some state governments have allotted a percentage of seats to Muslims and Christians from within the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. In December 2011, on the eve of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the government announced 4.5 percent reservation to backward minorities, from within the OBC quota, in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down the sub-quota in 2012, saying there was no evidence to justify the classification of these groups as homogeneous or as backward classes deserving special treatment. It also said exclusive religious-based reservations were not permissible under the constitution. The government claimed the reservation was not only on the basis of religion, which is prohibited, but backwardness. The then Law Minister, Salman Khurshid, said, the ‘4.5 percent reservation is only among those castes included in the OBC list from minorities’. The matter is now pending before a five-judge Constitutional Bench in the Supreme Court.
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