In India, as previously reported, a December 2009 Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities recommended that Parliament change its present scheduled caste set-asides and add a 10% quota in educational institutions and government jobs for Muslims, along with 5% for other minorities. In December 2011, the government said it will create a 4.5% sub-quota for economically and socially disadvantaged non-Hindu minorities. (See prior posting.) Yesterday PTI reported that Salman Khurshid, Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of Law and Justice, speaking at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh where his wife is running for a seat in the state's legislative assembly promised that the Congress Party-- his and his wife's party-- would create a 9% sub-quota for minorities and this would help Muslims. This led India's Election Commission yesterday to issue orders to Khurshid (full text) and his wife to show cause why action should not be taken against them for violating India's Model Code of Conduct that provides: "No party or candidate shall indulge in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic."
UPDATE: The Chandigarh, India Tribune (1/11) reports that the Election Commission has issued an order asking the Ministry of Personnel and Training to hold off on implementing the announced 4.5% sub-quota until the election process in the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur is over.
