When Gandhi appeared on the political horizon of India in 1915, Muslim League was already an established political party and a decade old. Gandhi declared : Rama and Rahim were one and the same; and, therefore, Hindus and Muslims were Bhai - Bhai. Only the English were the enemies of India; whereas Rana Pratap, Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh who had laid down their lives fighting the Muslim invaders were misguided patriots. Gandhi initiated the policy of Muslim appeasement. According to V.P. Menon, Constitutional Adviser to Lord Mountbatten, Gandhi lived for Muslims and eventually died for them.

Jawaharlal Nehru went one step further. Having agreed to the division of India on religious basis, he did not follow up the logical corollaries of Partition. He betrayed the Hindus : One, he did not ask the Muslims to leave for Pakistan even though they had forced the vivisection of India. Two, by making special provisions for Muslims (Articles 25 - 30) in the Constitution of India, he reduced the Hindus to second class citizens in their own country. Little wonder, people say that Nehru was a Muslim at heart and a Hindu in name only.

The Congress led UPA came to power in 2004. In order to reward the Muslims for their support in the elections, it set up a number of Commissions/Committees to meet the demands of the Muslims. For the first time, in the history of India, a Ministry for Minority Affairs, an euphemism for Muslims, was also set up. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh gave the call that Muslims had the first right on the resources of the nation. The establishment of Committees/Commissions and various announcements made through newspapers were intended to convince the Muslims that the Congress Party stands for Muslims only - Muslims first, Muslims second and Muslims last. To appease the Muslims, Congress had agreed to the division of India in 1947; it was now prepared to disintegrate the country if Muslims so demanded. Earlier, Gandhi had initiated the policy of Muslim appeasement. With Dr. Manmohan Singh began the era of surrender to Muslims. Simultaneously, these measures were intended to impress upon the Hindus that there was no change in their status. Hindus were treated as dhimmis during the Muslim rule of 600 years and paid jizya to survive in their own land. Hindus continue to pay jizya in other forms - subsidies, concessions, reservations, first right on resources etc. Hindus were slaves of the Muslim rulers and leaders of Independent India find no justification to treat them differently.

Recommendations made by Ranganath Misra Commission

Of the various Commissions/Committees set up by UPA on the demand of the Muslims, one related to the Commission on Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Its report was laid on the table of the Lok Sabha in December 2009. In short, the Commission has recommended reservation in jobs, seats in educational institutions and allocation of resources for Muslims. Further, the Commission has suggested that Para 3 of the Constitutional (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 be amended to also include Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians. The recommendations, inbrief, excerpts from the Note of Dissent by the Member Secretary and copy of article on the same subject by Dr. Tahir Mahmood (IE, 29th Dec.) appear on the following pages.

Critique of the Recommendations

The recommendations of the Commission are flawed on more than one count : 
(a) It was unwise on the part of the Government to set up these Commissions/Committees and a separate Ministry for a community which had forced the division of the country. In any other country, the members of the community would have been declared as aliens/foreigners.
(b) All measures and policy decisions taken for the welfare of Muslims involve transfer of resources and opportunities from the Hindus. Why should Hindus be made to pay for the well being of others?
(c) Theologically, Islam divides humanity into momins and kafirs. Islamic tenets ordain Muslims to wage jihad for conversion of non-Muslims. Through persuasion, if possible or kill them, if necessary.
(d) Conferring Scheduled Caste status on some sections of Muslims would go against the two-fold division of humanity envisaged in Islam.
(e) Muslim scholars have always claimed that Hindus belonging to lower castes voluntarily converted to Islam. Now they claim that in practice there is discrimination against those who embraced Islam. Does it not go against the assertion that all followers are equal in the eyes of Allah?
(f) Historically, when Muslim invaders killed/sold Hindus, did they accord differential treatment to Hindus belonging to different castes? In the eyes of Muslim rulers all Hindus were kafirs and deserved to be killed.
(g) In the elections held in 1945-46 Muslims of India overwhelmingly voted for the creation of Pakistan. If some sections of Muslims now feel unhappy to live in India, they are free to migrate to Pakistan or any other country of their choice.
(h) There is no substance in the Commission's recommendation that Para 3 of the Constitutional (SC) Order 1950 be amended to include Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians. The question of providing special provisions for Dalits was thoroughly gone into at the time of drafting of the Constitution of India. IN this context, B. Shiva Rao, in his well known work The Framing of India's Constitution : A Study has written: The Constituent Assembly had always recognized that the Scheduled Castes were a backward section of the Hindu community who were handicapped by the practice of untouchability. This evil practice of untouchability was not recognized by any other religion and the question of any Scheduled Castes belonging to a religion other than Hinduism did not therefore arise. But, as has already been noticed, the Sikhs had made a demand that some of their backward sections - the Mazhabis, Ramdasias, Kabir Panthis and Sikligars - should be included in the list of Scheduled Castes. This was accepted by the Advisory Committee. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel gave a characteristically candid explanation of the position of these communities : These people were originally Scheduled Caste Hindus, recently converted to the Sikh faith, and had the same disabilities as the Hindu Scheduled Castes. He was emphatic that these converts were not Scheduled Castes and ought not to be so labelled because in the Sikh religion there was no such thing as untouchability or any classification or difference of classes.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel went on to add : In the long run it would be in the interest of all to forget that there is anything like a majority or a minority in this country and that in India there is only one community. The majority of the speakers and those included members from all communities - Muslims, Christians, Anglo-Indians, Scheduled Castes as well as Hindus - offered full support to the proposal to abolish reservations on communal grounds. 

Jawaharlal Nehru described the proposal as a Historic Turn in Our Destiny. The proposal of the Advisory Committee was adopted by the Constituent Assembly. 

The Hon'ble Supreme Court in Soosai etc. V. Union of India, 1985 gave the same reasoning while dismissing the petitioners' petitions for inclusion of Dalit Christians in the list of Scheduled Castes.