Page 39 - 15MAR2020E
P. 39
security
that there was inadequate, on occasions agencies and paramilitary forces on
the near- absence or negligible number Though in a India do not mirror the diversity of the
of Muslims and other weaker sections in democracy, the national population… Since Muslims are
the police and paramilitary forces, making not well represented in the IPS, there
the Amnesty International characterize composition of is every justification for reservation for
the PAC a Hindu paramilitary force. ..AG the Police and them. Simultaneously, there ought to
Noorani has also focused on the near- be widespread coaching for minorities
exclusion of minorities from police and Paramilitary should to compete successfully in the UPSC
paramilitary forces. examination.”
♦ ♦ ♦ not matter, but it Khalidi had also detailed that the
Though in a democracy the composition does matter if the decision of keeping Muslims out of the
of the Police and Paramilitary should not police force wasn’t a very some recent
matter, but it does matter if the democracy democracy itself one but taken years back, To quote him,
is itself is going through a crisis phase. If is going through “When on the recommendation of the
fascist forces are making marked intru- National Integration Council (NIC) in
sions into everyday life of the citizen, then a crisis phase. If 1969, the Home Minister YB Chavan
focus rather too automatically dwells on fascist forces are merely broached the idea of recruiting
the State machinery. And in such a dismal Muslims in the police force, the Bharati-
scenario the Indian Muslim’s insecurity is making marked ya Jana Sangh (BJS), the precursor of the
bound to get compounded by the low to intrusions into Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) opposed it as
very low representation of the Muslims ‘an invitation to disaster.’”
in the police force and in the paramilitary, everyday life of the And as the interview progressed ,
and also in the Agencies. citizen, then the Khalidi, who was then attached to the
In fact, during the course of an inter- Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
view, academic- author,Omar Khalidi, focus dwells on the Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, but
had told me in January, 2010, (months had been writing extensively on the
before his death), “Most of the intelligence State machinery Muslims in independent India, focused
39
