Dispute Over Muslim Census In Indian Armed Forces

India's Supreme Court has set March 6 as the date to hear a challenge to a proposed census of Muslims serving the the armed forces of India. Yesterday's edition of The Hindu reported that the Court refused a plea to speed up its hearing on the case brought by Lt. Gen R. S. Kadyan, a former Deputy Chief of the Army Staff, who contends that the census would be divisive and would undermine the secularism of the armed forces. However the case may be moot. Yesterday the UPI reported that India's Defense Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told the upper House of Indian Parliament that the armed forces would be excluded from the survey. The controversy began after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a committee, headed by former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Rajinder Sachar, to study the status of the country's Muslim minority and suggest ways to improve their social mobility. (Background).