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        Minority appeasement as a political tool is a given in India. Parties vie with each other to appeal to the religious minorities by pushing their way the gravytrain of sops and more sops. Officially though they have a different name for it: Secularism. In schools. In colleges. In official appointments. In everything else that the government has a role. It always helps to be from a so-called minority grouping. It doesn't really matter whether they are really disadvantaged or not. It also doesn't occur to the government that by rewarding 'minorityness', it is only alienating them (the minorities) and not assimilating them into the mainstream of national polity. The minorities too, fattened on the thick pie of pampering, have quickly understood the perks of being a minority. And, what more, they are driving an even more hard bargain. The demand of Christians and Muslims for inclusion in the SC/ST ranks is a good example of this growing trend. It is surprising that they don't see a contradiction between this demand and their regular claim of notional superiority over Hinduism on the grounds that theirs is a caste-less religion. By constantly yielding ground, the government has emboldened them to be a new version of Oliver Twist - always asking for more.

        Rather than getting its act together, and ensure real parity, where what religion you belong to does not matter, the government is only carrying its charade further. In a move that is fraught with danger and diabolism, the apex bank of the land has decided to include minority communities in the list of 'weaker sections' for the purpose of priority-sector lending. This is patently a patronising and retrograde step, and flies in the face of fiscal principles that ought to govern the banking system. To automatically deem all minorities as being weak is fecklessly facile and a risky proposition. There is no empirical evidence to even remotely suggest that the minorities are discriminated against by financial lending institutions. And there is also no proof that all minorities are not well off in the country. If anything, the government's shortsighted, and obviously communal, game is leading to the vulgar and bizarre situation of the majority groups being discriminated against. Banks, by norms, have to lend 40 per cent of loans to priority sector customers — hitherto comprising farmers, small businessmen and borrowers of home loans below Rs 20 lakh. But with home loans becoming dearer, priority lending to newer sections like minorities would strike a deathblow to unprepossessing members of the majority communities. Further, lending by force as opposed to by fiscal rules of thumb, will make the running of banks and financial institutions unviable. This, in turn will lead to large-scale imbalance in the financial markets, and will hurt India very badly. What we are about to see is a revisit of the loan-melas that lead to mountainous NPAs and sickly institutions.

        Money is the ultimate reality in modern-day society. It straddles above everything else - caste, creed, colour. It is the real leveller. But to the UPA government will go the credit of making even money communal.