The Command Centre of the loot-and-scoot Congress-led UPA regime of our hapless country has no compunctions about shouting from the rooftops as to how they are subverting the Indian constitution and the country’s basic laws.
See for instance the huge advertisements in the national press on 16 February 2014 released by the Government of India (GOI) with our money, harrumphing about Rs.1,96,000 crores of bank credit and thousands of crores of other aid given to “Minorities” from the general exchequer.
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Now, it doesn’t require a quantum physicist to understand that this is money given basically to Muslims to solicit their their votes in the forthcoming national elections. Even more important is the undisputed fact that this money is from the bank deposits and taxes contributed by the general citizens of the country who are overwhelmingly (so far) non-Muslims.
Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and their merry gang of scam artistes are clearly not bothered about the minor technical hurdles that debar such pilfering of public funds. The first is Article 27 of the Indian Constitution that clearly stipulates the following :
“FREEDOM AS TO PAYMENT OF TAXES FOR PROMOTION OF ANY PARTICULAR RELIGION : No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.”
The other critical issue is that reservations for jobs and posts in the government are restricted to Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The CONSTITUTION (SCHEDULED CASTES) ORDER, 1950, para 3, states categorically :
Notwithstanding anything contained in paragraph 2, no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu, the Sikh or the Buddhist religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.
Clandestine attempts by the Congress-led UPA Government to make Muslims eligible for job reservations were struck down by the High Courts. On 22 December 2011, the Union Government announced the establishment of a sub-quota of 4.5% for minorities within the existing 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes. The reason given was that Muslim communities that have been granted OBC status are unable to compete with Hindu OBC communities. On 28 May 2012, the Andhra Pradesh High Court quashed the sub-quota. The court said that the sub-quota has been carved out only on religious lines and not on any other intelligible basis. The court criticised the decision in the following words : “In fact, we must express our anguish at the rather casual manner in which the entire issue has been taken up by the Central Government.“
The matter is now pending before the Supreme Court and the GOI can be trusted to put up a dishonest and venal plea before the apex court to get the latter’s benediction.
As far as the substantial funds (mentioned in the advertisement of the GOI) that have been given for the protection and development of Waqf properties and infrastructure in minority-dominated areas etc. are concerned, the Calcutta High Court in a landmark judgment in September 2013 declared that funding of exclusively Muslim causes is blatantly unconstitutional (W.P. No. 358 of 2012 and others, versus the State of West Bengal, which was using taxpayers’ funds to pay for activities meant only for Muslims).
The entire affair is utterly shabby and deceitful.
At this rate, the PM of the country should be re-designated as the Personal Assistant of Sonia Gandhi.
Vinashs kaaley viparit buddhi said our ancient sages, the rishis, many thousands of years ago. A few thousand years after this, the Bible came up with a much less evocative version–Those whom the Gods destroy, they first strike them mad.
In Delhi’s Lutyens zone these days, it is more fashionable, of course, to spout forth from the Bible.
Jay Bhattacharjee is an advisor in corporate laws and finance, based in Delhi. His other areas of interest include socio-political issues and military history. He has been a commentator and columnist from the mid-1990s