KOLKATA: Even after welcoming the Ranganath Mishra Committee report over reservation for minorities as "backward", the Left Front is keeping a cautious eye on reactions from the Hindu community.
The Front thus wants to leave it to the Congress-led UPA government to suggest ways of implementing the report. In a way for the Left it is a case of history repeating itself, as had happened during the Mandal Commission controversy nearly two decades ago. Like then, the Left wants the creamy layer' to be kept out. Left Front chairman Biman Bose also wants the benefits extended to linguistic minorities as well.
The Ranganath Mishra Commission report came up for discussion in the Left Front meeting held on Monday. Last week, Forward Bloc state secretary and the senior Front leader Asok Ghosh had written to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asking the state government to implement the recommendations. Bhattacharjee had replied to Ghosh that the matter would be discussed among the Front partners.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that the Front partners have been asked to study the report and give a detailed note to the Left Front and also the chief minister. "Chief minister will consult the Front partners," Bose said.
Bose blamed the Centre for delaying the report. "This report was not for academic studies but for benefit of people and society. We are completely in the dark about how the Centre is planning to implement the recommendations. It is for the Centre to decide on the implementation process and then direct the state governments. They could have sought the opinion of national parties," said Bose.
The Ranganath Misra Commission report states that the Centre had categorically stated that there was no legal compulsion to draw up an All-India list of socially and educationally backward classes.
The report states that instead the Centre had asked the state governments had the discretion to "choose their own criteria for defining backwardness, it would be better to apply economic tests than to go by caste." The BP Mandal Commission which submitted its report in 1980 had drawn 11 social, educational and economic indicators to identify backwardness.
Bose said that the creamy layer has to be excluded. "Benefits have to reach the socially and economically backward people. Linguistic minorities can also be covered. Instead of religious minorities, socio-economically backward communities can be included. BPL lists available with the state governments or whatever data is in hand should be used to implement the recommendations," Bose said.
CPI state secretary Manju Majumdar welcomed the report but pointed out that the implementation has to be considered with due emphasis on the economic and social parameters for backwardness among minorities both religious and linguistic.
RSP leader and state minister Kshiti Goswami said that the report has to be studied in detail. "It has to be seen which section of the society will benefit from this," Goswami said.
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