The Indian Army expressed its objection to the Congress-led UPA government panel’s questions on Muslim numbers, ranks and roles in the armed forces.
The Army prepared a list of postings of top Muslim officers, which included one Lieutenant General, one Major General and nine Brigadiers, and sent it to the government.
But it told the Defense Ministry that a comparison of such data could affect the troops’ morale.
The Army also stressed that it follows an open, merit-selection system without quota or reservation on the basis of caste, creed or religion.
“The Army is and will remain an apolitical, secular and professional force”, Army Chief General JJ Singh said.
“It is not the Army’s philosophy to discriminate or maintain such information. We are equal-opportunity employers. We strive to take people on certain standards after which only merit takes them forward. We do not bother about where they are from, their faith or their language. We have responded to the Defense Ministry (on the Committee’s demand).’’
Critics describe the survey as “divisive, communal and anti-national”, but the Justice Rajindar Sachar, the head of the seven-member panel, and the Indian Prime Minister’s office said that commission’s mandate was to collect information on all Muslims in India to present a report on the current “social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India”.
The committee also denied that it asked the Army for the number of Muslims in the Indian Army, but a letter from Member-Secretary Abusaleh Shariff to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee does stress the “importance” of identifying Muslim representation in the armed.