New Delhi, Mar 31: Apparently unhappy over non fulfilment of the demand for constitutional status to his panel, National Commission for Minorities Chairman Muhammad Shafi Qureshi Wednesday said the government should either make these bodies more effective or wind them up.
 “As long as you don’t make commissions effective, going on constituting new commissions won’t do. Either you make them effective so that they can work or wind them up,” Qureshi said giving his concluding remarks at the conference of state minority commissions in the national capital.
 He said that the most important thing is that the government should fulfil the promises it makes if it wants to win the trust of minorities adding that mere submission of reports on the issue is useless.
 “Why the Commissions should be kept just for the sake of a show,” he argued.
 Earlier, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said reservation was perhaps the most effective instrument of affirmative action but his colleague Salman Khurshid felt the need to go beyond with the country moving into a different development paradigm.
 “If there is a better instrument we should certainly debate that instrument but I believe that reservation is perhaps the most effective instrument for affirmative action that we have today,” said Chidambaram. Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, however, struck a different note.
 “Now that India is moving into a different development paradigm and a different economic paradigm, we need to go beyond reservation. The affirmative action that has been considered at the PM’s initiative for the SCs and STs can also be used for the benefit of backwards among minorities and minorities generally,” Khurshid said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST