The Central Government has recently upgraded the status of Mohammed Shafi Qureshi, the Chairman of National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to the rank of Cabinet minister, bypassing the seniority norms for the post, which are 17 as compared to 7 required for cabinet minister rank. The status upgrade applies only to the present NCM chairman and not to the post as per sources. Upgrading the status of the ‘Post’ requires amendment of the NCM Act by the Parliament, apart from changes in the seniority list of the government.
Although with this change in rank Mr.Qureshi would get higher perks, but Mr.Qureshi himself reacted by saying, “I have held posts higher than the rank of even Cabinet Ministers and never lobbied for this rank at the NCM.” A former Union Minister, Mr.Qureshi has held the post of Governor in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and is a veteran congress leader from Kashmir.
The decision to upgrade Mr.Qureshi was taken in May’08 on insistent from the Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, who even weathered opposition from PMO office, as per officials close to him. Political circles feel that the up gradation was done keeping in mind coming Parliamentary Elections and United Progressive Alliance government is also considering the up gradation of the status of Chairman of the National Commission for Minority Education, may be with the same strategy in mind.
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