Sonia upset over plight of Muslims

New Delhi: The "under-representation" of Muslims in public employment and public life was "unacceptable", Congress President Sonia Gandhi said on Monday.

The poor representation of Muslims "retards" the country's overall progress.

"The Constitution protects and upholds their religious, cultural and educational rights. At the same time and as an open and mature society, we need to accept that there is a gap between rights in law and their realisation in practice," she said after inaugurating the India Islamic Cultural Cente in Delhi.

She said that the poor development of a majority of Muslims was a matter of concern in terms of equity and social justice, and "so is its under-representation in a modern society".

"Differentiations of this kind are unacceptable in a modern society. They retard the overall progress of India itself," she said.

Two committees are currently studying the status of Muslims in the country. A committee set up by the Prime Minister will report on their social, economic and educational status and suggest policy interventions.

The Planning Commission Plan will identify areas of special inputs in its 11th Plan.

Sonia Gandhi said the challenge was to generate awareness of the problems that exist, discuss issues rather than brush them under the carpet, explore equitable and cooperative solutions, reduce levels of deprivation and solve the problems of women and children.

The IICC has listed one of its objectives was "to remove misunderstanding about Islam", but this signals a somewhat defensive and limited approach because it puts Islam in the category of the 'other'.

"The country, despite demographic percentages, was neither Hindu, nor Sikh nor Christian nor Buddhist and yet belongs to adherents of each one of these faiths and of many more. This was, as Maulana Azad put it, India's historic destiny".

Institutions like the IICC have to play an important role in promoting this culture and to cooperate with the Government in improving the socio-economic condition of Mulslims and other minorities, said Gandhi.