Sachar Committee - Criticism

Criticism

Indian media expert Dasu Krishnamoorti has criticized the way the media has handled the report. He criticizes them saying that "Positive journalism means projecting the Muslims as us and not them". Sunil Jain in an article in rediff says "The problem with all such data, however, is that you need to "normalise" it for any meaningful conclusions to be made. Sachar does this only partially", and that rather than basing its results on the entire population of Muslims, the Report should only have considered those Muslims with a college degree.

In addition, the demands made by the Sachar Committee to provide preferential treatment to Muslims in the Indian Army to bring about a greater representation have been severely criticized by members of the Indian Armed Forces as well as BJP political party. Retired Colonel Anil Athale of the Indian Army comments that it is vital that the Indian Armed forces remain secular and not give preference to anybody irrespective of religion, and that the Sachar Committee seeks to undermine that legacy. However, Dr. Sachar replied to this criticism saying that it was an uncalled for attempt to communalise a non-issue.

The Sachar commission findings were later alleged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to be manipulated for electoral purposes.

There was widespread disagreement over the methodology and conclusions of the Sachar Committee. A K Dubey, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said that the “Sachar Committee has indulged in a statistical manipulation that needs to be understood. The approach it adopted to bring to light social and political truths were muddled”