Quota shadow over State Minorities Commissions meet

New Delhi: For Muslim organisations raising the demand for reservation in education and jobs, Home Minister P. Chidambaram's inaugural address at Wednesday's meeting of the State Minorities Commissions will be an event to watch out for.

On the agenda of the day-long conference are a host of issues including reservation, the communal violence Bill and minority welfare schemes. The guest of honour will be Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed.

While the State Commissions meet annually, this year the meeting is being held in the backdrop of the growing Muslim demand for an exclusive 10 per cent quota in education and jobs, as recommended by the Ranganath Misra Commission. Indeed, almost as a prequel to the conference, an umbrella group of Muslim organisations held a press meet here on Tuesday, underscoring the urgency of implementing reservation. The organisations said they were prepared to discuss the modalities of implementation, including whether or not to bar the creamy layer, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and political parties, warning at the same time that their patience was running out and they would no longer tolerate being placated by false promises.