On Saturday, 9 Dec 2006, birthday of Sonia Gandhi, the Maharani of India, her loyal family servant, Dr. Manmohan Singh - officially the Prime Minister of India (not Pakistan or Bangladesh) said that Muslims must have the first claim on national resources.
This is a secular country, so a Talibani statement like this needed to be highlighted.
And yet, search Google and you find only the Indian Express version and the IBN Live version. A diluted version of news appearing on The Hindu also comes up.
As a look at the Times of India archives shows, the article exists, but even for a search like 'Muslims must have first claim" it does not appear.
This is a common trend for many articles / news that highlight the negatives of Congress / other traitors. They simply disappear from Google.
For record purposes, the article is being stored here.
This is the Indian Express version.
For record purposes, the article is being stored here.
This is the Indian Express version.
'Muslims must have first claim on resources'
Posted: Dec 09, 2006 at 1139 hrs IST
Press Trust of India
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said plans for minorities, particularly Muslims, must have the ‘first claim’ on resources so that benefits of development reach them equitably.
"We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably the fruits of development. These must have the first claim on resources,' he said in his address at the 52nd meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) inNew Delhi.
The Centre's resources, he added, will be stretched with greater responsibility given to states in this regard.
'The Centre has a myriad other responsibilities whose demands will have to be fitted within its overall resource availability,' he said.
The Planning Commission will undertake a thorough review of ongoing programmes to eliminate those which have outlived their original rationale, Singh added.
'But we cannot escape from the fact that the Centre's resources will be stretched in the immediate future and an increasing share of the responsibility will have to be shouldered by the states,' he remarked.
Singh also emphasised that special component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes needed to be revitalised in the country.
Last month, the Prime Minister favoured ‘fair share’ for minorities in government and private jobs as he spoke at the meeting of the National Commission for Minorities.
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New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh courted controversy in his address at the National Development Council on Saturday by saying that Muslims should have the first claim on the country's resources.
There's a split down the middle over the Sachar panel's report. Muslims are in such a miserable state that the Prime Minister wants top priority for minority development schemes. At the National Development Council meeting attended by most chief ministers, Manmohan Singh was emphatic.
“We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources,” Singh said.
The BJP is insisting that some of the Sachar panel's recommendations are divisive. The party is opposed to quotas and benefits on religious grounds.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said, “Poor is poor. Hunger and sickness don't discriminate by caste or creed.”
While Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said, “The most deprived in society should benefit. It isn't advisable that people benefit based on their community.”
“Saying only Muslims have the right is dangerous for the unity of India. The country expects better from its Prime Minister,” Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said.
The Government has already drawn up a plan to spend Rs 1800 crore on minority development in the eleventh five-year plan. But the BJP is not convinced. They are lashing out at what they insist is politics of appeasement.
What should have been a number-crunching exercise on the road map to development sounded like a debate on minority appeasement.
And while the PM managed to get his approach right where Muslims are concerned, what he didn't remember is that his road map is not viable as far as the constitution is concerned.
