While CPM minority leaders and two Left Front allies — CPI and Forward Bloc — are pushing for early implementation of the Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations that call for 15 per cent quota for Muslims, the RSP has decided to oppose any such move.

“We want reservation for economically backward communities,” said top RSP leaders.

Manoj Bhattacharya, central committee member of the RSP, said the Left parties always insisted to give reservations to those who are economically backward.

“We know that a section of Muslims are living in a deplorable condition, but it is also true that a large number of villagers, barring caste and religion are also deprived of government facilities. How many people belonging to BPL families get government jobs? Reservation on the basis of religion will not solve the basic economic problem,” Bhattacharya said.

Considering that the recent erosion of the Left Front vote in the minority areas led to its debacle in the last general elections, the CPI and Forward Bloc have urged big brother CPM for early implementation of the commission’s recommendation. Senior minority leaders of the CPM want to send a message to Muslims, who have shifted their political allegiance to Trinamool’s Mamata Banerjee following the Nandigram agitation in March 2007.

But the RSP has declined to follow Bloc and CPI and raised the questions of creamy layer within minority communities. At the Left Front meeting scheduled for February 1, the RSP will oppose any attempt by other allies to give job quotas to Muslims.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has, meanwhile, told senior Front leaders to decide on the way to implement the reservation proposal. The state Minority Development Department, meanwhile, is working on a separate mechanism to provide reservation for minorities.

They have identified 28 backward castes in the Muslim community to grant reservation status.

“Already there are reservations for 11 such castes. I think it helped non-Bengali Muslims,” said Hashim Abdul Halim, Speaker of the Assembly.

State minorities commission to also push for quota

The West Bengal Minorities Commission has backed the demand for reservation of Muslims in government jobs and educational institutions, and termed it necessary for “bridging the widening gap between Hindus and Muslims in all spheres of the society”. Chairman of the commission, S Z Adnan, said it was time the government take emergency measures like reservation as the growing disparity would ultimately lead to social tension and distrust between the two communities.

“There a few factors, which need to be considered. First of all, there is a lack of Muslim government officials that leads to problems like filling up the posts requiring Muslim officials. Second, there are instances where the posts of teachers in leading universities were not filled by Muslim candidates even though qualified teachers appeared for the interview. Lastly, we have come across a case in Kolkata police in which out of 500 posts that were filled up, Muslims got only 11 posts,” Adnan said.

Adnan said that he would take up the matter with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the issue of recruiting police personnel.

“But before that we would like to discuss the issue among commission members and after that I will write to the chief minister,” he added.

Officials of the Minority department, however, maintain the state government has a limited role in providing reservation to Muslims. Either it will have to wait for the Centre to amend the Constitution or like the Kerala government, it can bring as many Muslim communities in the OBC category as possible for providing reservation.

“It is the Backwards Class Commission that confers the status of OBC on a particular community. So far, only 12 Muslim communities have been included in the list. I don’t know how many applications are pending with the commission,” said B P Gopalika, Secretary, State Minorities Department.