RANGANATHAN MISHRA REPORT

Senior journalist Santosh Bhartiya's hard-hitting articles in his weekly newspaper Chauthi Duniya kicked up a storm and some Members of Parliament [MPs] got so agitated that they succeeded in getting a privilege notice issued against him. The RS members--Ali Anwar, Sabir Ali, R Prasad and Aziz Pasha--were angry with the writer for using words like 'napunsak' [impotent] and 'shakti-vihin' [powerless] among others. But the result of the reports published in consecutive issues of the newspaper was that the MPs who generally remain silent, had to speak up and the government that had kept the Ranganathan Mishra panel report under wraps for years, had to announce that it would be tabled in the current session of parliament. Two years back, former Chief Justice Ranganathan Mishra had submitted this report on the status of religious and cultural minorities in the country but it was swept under the carpet. The report states that non-inclusion of Christian and Muslim Dalits in the category of Scheduled Castes that are entitled to job reservations, tantamounts to religious discrimination which is against he spirit of constitution. However, the stinging series of articles led to ruckus in Rajya Sabha and PM Manmohan Singh had to accept the demand to table it. It is noteworthy that Twocircles.net had already published the entire report.