Union Minister for Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid clarified in Parliament on Wednesday that the government had used the Mandal formula to arrive at the figure of 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota.
In a statement, the Minister said the government had taken into account the recommendations of the Ranganath Misra-headed National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM) as well as the Rajinder Sachar Committee, both of which acknowledged the pervasive backwardness among Muslims.
Panel recommendation
The Misra Commission, he noted, had recommended a 15 per cent quota for minorities with an internal break-up of 10 per cent for Muslims.
It also recommended an alternative formula of six per cent for Muslims and 2.4 per cent for other minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota.
Mr. Khurshid said the Mandal Commission estimated the population of OBCs at 52 per cent of which a segment of 8.4 cent was formed by non-Hindu minorities: “Thus the proportion of non-Hindu to Hindu caste/castes/communities is approximately 1:5…Going by this recommendation of the NCRLM, percentage of reservation for minorities on the basis of pro-rata population would have been 4.36 per cent out of the 27 % of OBC quota…”
