NEW DELHI, 4 September 2006 — V.P. Singh, the former prime minister of India, has said that the backward classes are being discriminated against in education as well as employment in the name of merit by those people who have the least concern for merit.
V.P. Singh was inaugurating the National Convention on Reservation in Education jointly organized by the All India Milli Council, (AIMC), and South India Council, (SIC), at the FICCI Auditorium here. Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam, general secretary AIMC, presided over the function. V.P. Singh stressed that in order to remove the imbalance in development and ensure adequate representation, the remaining recommendations of the Mandal Commission have to be implemented. The move to pass a bill providing reservation in higher education is a welcome step which is long overdue, he added.
He demanded that Muslims, who have become backward due to historical reasons, must be given the right for reservation. It is high time that reservation also includes Muslims, he said.
Ex-MP Syed Shahabuddin, president, Muslim Majilis-e-Mushawarat, demanded that Article 341 of the Constitution of India must be amended for the third time to include Muslims also under its provision.
