PM’s priority: Muslim development

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• PM not sorry for statement
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Keywords: Comments, Minority

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh courted controversy in his address at the National Development Council on Saturday by saying that Muslims should have the first claim on the country's resources.

There's a split down the middle over the Sachar panel's report. Muslims are in such a miserable state that the Prime Minister wants top priority for minority development schemes. At the National Development Council meeting attended by most chief ministers, Manmohan Singh was emphatic.

“We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources,” Singh said.

The BJP is insisting that some of the Sachar panel's recommendations are divisive. The party is opposed to quotas and benefits on religious grounds.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said, “Poor is poor. Hunger and sickness don't discriminate by caste or creed.”

While Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said, “The most deprived in society should benefit. It isn't advisable that people benefit based on their community.”

“Saying only Muslims have the right is dangerous for the unity of India. The country expects better from its Prime Minister,” Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said.

The Government has already drawn up a plan to spend Rs 1800 crore on minority development in the eleventh five-year plan. But the BJP is not convinced. They are lashing out at what they insist is politics of appeasement.

What should have been a number-crunching exercise on the road map to development sounded like a debate on minority appeasement.

And while the PM managed to get his approach right where Muslims are concerned, what he didn't remember is that his road map is not viable as far as the constitution is concerned.