Hoping to hold on to the 12 percent vote-share of minorities, who are also being wooed by the BJP this time, the Congress in its manifesto for Elections 2004 is considering to bring a new package: ‘‘Bhagidari (partnership) for minorities.’’ The thrust of this policy would be to earmark a share of the 27% reservation set aside for Other Backward Classes to ‘‘backward minorities’’ in proportion to their population in a state. In other words, if backward minorities are 10% of a state’s population, then this policy would ensure that 10% of the OBC quota is kept for them. The Congress plan, as part of this ‘‘affirmative action,’’ hopes to set aside opportunities for backward minorities in jobs, educational institutions, loans for entrepreuners, for housing, government contracts etc. The Congress is also considering promising 10% reservation for the ‘‘economically backward among the upper castes.’’ This is a policy that the party has been stressing on for a while and it was part of the manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. When contacted, senior party leader Ahmed Patel said: ‘‘We are considering this policy based on the models being implemented in Kerala and Karnataka. The manifesto is still being discussed.’’ Explaining the rationale, Congress leader Salmaan Khursheed said: ‘‘We are working on how to make minorities the beneficiaries. This would be the affirmative action that the Congress is formulating.In most democracies, it is the minorities who get the benefit of such an action. But here it is a section of the majority that gets the advantage of this,’’ he added. ‘‘This scheme, in that sense, not a reservation but would be just giving the lowest section of the society a share, a Bhagidhari for the minorities,’’ he said.
