Cabinet committee for minorities: Ibrahim incensed with prime minister

George Iype in New Delhi

Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's move to set up a Cabinet committee for the welfare of the minorities and backward classes has annoyed Civil Aviation Minister Chand Mahal Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, widely considered to be the prime minister's troubleshooter, is unhappy with Deve Gowda for not including his name in the recently-constituted nine-member Cabinet committee for monitoring countrywide programmes for minority communities and the dalits.

Chaired by the prime minister, the committee is one of the major pro-minority initiatives that the coalition regime has taken to consolidate the UF government's vote bank among India's scheduled castes, tribes and minorities.

The government has announced that the Cabinet panel will supervise all welfare schemes for the minorities and backward classes aimed at improving their socio-economic conditions.

The panel will ask the National Human Rights Commission to monitor the violations of life, property and liberty of dalits and minority communities across the country.

Ibrahim's grouse is that he has been ignored by the prime minister despite the fact that he is the only Muslim member of Deve Gowda's Cabinet.

Among the committee's members are Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, Human Resources Development Minister S R Bommai, Ministers M Arunachalam, Yerran Naidu, Jai Narayan Nishad and U Venkateshwarlu.

Sources said an incensed Ibrahim has asked the prime minister to include his name on the panel on the ground that it would give credibility to the Janata Dal party's plans to win over the minorities.

Ibrahim also wants Deve Gowda to include Buddhist, Christian and Sikh leaders on the panel as special invitees. Sources said the list he has submitted to the prime minister includes Delhi Archbishop Alan De' lastic, who is a member of the government's National Integration Council.

The Cabinet secretary is currently preparing a note outlining the committee's functions. Sources said the prime minister is likely to reconstitute the committee to honour Ibrahim's wishes.

Related Link:
No more reservations?