Tamil Nadu doling out job reservation for minorities

POLL GIMMICK: Experts see this as a move to woo minorities in anticipation of polls.

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Chennai: After distributing free colour television and gas connections to the poor, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is now doling out job reservation for minorities. The state, which has the highest job reservation in the country at 69 per cent, will have one more calculation to make.

Three and half per cent reservation for backward Muslims and another three and half per cent reservation for backward Christians, within the existing 30 per cent quota for backward classes.

The government will issue the ordinance on this on September 15. Political experts see this as a move to woo minorities in anticipation of possible mid-term polls.

Political Analyst Krishna Ananth said, “Getting some advantage out of it is to state the obvious. The DMK government would've had Muslim support even without it.”

A similar step was taken by the Andhra Pradesh government two years ago. A Bill was passed by the state legislature to reserve 5 per cent of seats in educational institutions for Muslims.

This was struck down by the Andhra High Court, as the constitution doesn't encourage reservation on the basis of religion. So will the ordinance suffer the same fate?

Lawyer Sudha Ramalingam said, “It is been referred by the backward class commission so it won't go the Andhra Pradesh way as it refers to backward Christians and Muslims. Constitution already has a list of these people.”

This may be a gift from the DMK for Muslims on Anna's birthday, but one will have to wait for the mid-term polls to see if the people gift them the votes when the time comes to collect.