Why does this Indian Express “report” read more like a Congress party leaflet than an actual news report?

Discriminated against and pushed to the sidelines, the Muslim community in India is at the bottom of the heap when it comes to benefits from Government-run welfare schemes, access to education, employment, even the system of credit, including bank loans.

This is the disturbing conclusion emerging from the initial findings of the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee, headed by Justice (retd) Rajinder Sachar, looking into the social, economic and education status of the Muslim community in the country.

The answer: because the Indian Express (of the Shekar Gupta era) has a reputation to live up to. The Muslims-discriminated-against is an old refrain; it is only packaged anew. This blog like the Indian Express too has a reputation to live up to so I’ll go ahead and say it: the Muslims have only themselves to blame for their sorry condition. The sight of a burkha-clad woman trying to ferry a group of six-seven children across a choked-to-the-neck-with-traffic street is a common but sorry scene one is used to. Its genesis dates back to the 19th century when a certain Muslim luminary issued a call to all Indian Muslim brothers not to join hands with the Hindus to fight against the British.

Things haven’t altered drastically since then: in fact, it’s probably worse today with the hapless average Muslim’s very identity as a person is tugged at, controlled by, and held hostage to the dictates of a wide array of “leaders” and Mullahs. Yet, Muslims in India enjoy the kind of clout that they’d perhaps not in a “pure” Islamic country: Haj subsidy, their own courts, no government control in Muslim/Islamic institutions, Articles 30,& 370, freedom to issue fatwas, right to ban books, right to pressurize a Prime Minister to alter the Constitution, no pilgrimage taxes and freedom to slap journalists in the Prime Minister’s house.

In a bizarre incident, supporters of Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari on Tuesday manhandled a journalist and abused him after he insisted that the Imam answered a question on Muslim reservations. What’s worse, the incident took place at the official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at 7 Race Course Road, where the Imam had gone to submit a set of recommendations to the Prime Minister.

(The Pioneer)

All these in “Justice” Sachar’s findings and the Indian Express’ “report” constitute discrimination. Let’s dwell more on His (retired) Honor’s findings:

Unfortunately, Justice Sachar and his political principals have demonstrated little of the desirable while throwing up one controversy after another.

First, it was the issue of the communal composition of the armed forces. And now, it is the release of some sensational interim results. The Indian Express has published these under the headline ‘Muslims at the bottom of the social heap’. While the report contains several figures that suggests the socio-economic indicators of India’s Muslims are dismal, the manner in which the Sachar committee compiled, and is now presenting, the data is questionable. And questionable is the last thing it should have been. [.] Surely, compiling a report of this seriousness would require more than simple hearsay from ‘people and organisations’ who, implicitly, have a vested interest in the matter. Will such numbers stand up to scientific scrutiny? Moreover, if these numbers are yet to be analysed why release them in the first place?

It is indefensible for the Sachar committee to have released such half-baked statistics prematurely. If, on the other hand, this is a result of investigative journalism, then the editorial board of the Indian Express has revealed poor judgement. That however, does not absolve the Sachar committee of failing to prevent sensitive and potentially misleading information from leaking out to the media. Numbers, like words, cannot be taken back. For someone tasked with helping improve the lot of India’s Muslim citizens, Justice Sachar has already done them a disservice by setting the stage for the politicisation of his findings. In doing so, he has delivered exactly what his political principals wanted him to. The UPA government’s singular domestic agenda is one of driving nails of entitlement onto the coffin of India’ still-alive society and economy. And it may yet prove to be its legacy.

Not surprising since the Justice’s measure of objectivity and fairness are pretty elastic.