A separate planning council or board for Muslims can help improve the lot of the community that has been largely backward on various socio-economic parameters. K Rahman Khan, a Rajya Sabha member and a Congress leader, has mooted this idea.

“A separate planning council/board is urgently needed to fix priorities for the community,” he said on Monday at the launch of an approach paper titled ‘Muslim vision of secular India’, prepared by an NGO called Programme for Ethical, Academic and Cultural Enterprises – Peace.

The MP from Karnataka, a former deputy chairman of the upper house, rued the fact that the country had not fixed priorities of the community during the last six decades. He added, “There are only a few Muslims in the corporate world of the country. Why doesn’t the largest minority community have separate Muslim chambers of commerce to protect its interest?”

The approach paper authored by Dr Javed Jamil, director of Peace, suggests developing a comprehensive national plan for socioeconomic empowerment of Muslim in India. “The Muslim community in India is about 18 crore. This number demand a big planning followed by a big effort,” says the paper.

Minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid emphasised the need for the Muslim community to learn from other minority communities of the country and elsewhere too. “Look at how the Jewish community progressed in America. Even in India, other minority communities have progressed so well. We need to learn from them.”

On the issue of the Sachar committee recommendation, he said the government had started the process but admitted that the implementation so far was in small doses. “It will take time to implement the recommendations,” he added.

Khurshid had courted controversy in the run-up to the UP assembly elections when he promised nine percent reservations to Muslims in government jobs. The Samajwadi Party too then had promised 18 percent reservations. Khurshid on Monday reminded the party of its election promise and asked, “Where is the 18 percent quota for Muslims in Uttar Pradesh?”   

Rahman Khan, meanwhile, welcomed the supreme court’s direction to phase out the Haj subsidy over a period of ten years. Praising the Malaysian model for facilitating a better Haj experience for Muslims, the four-time MP said, “I suggest that we adopt the Malaysian model and have an independent financial institution to make arrangements for Haj.”