Court ruling on SCs/ST quotas a big setback, Govt should act: Kharge

He said “the Scheduled Caste community got reservation through Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s Poona Pact” and that later, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi continued the reservation policy.

“…now excluding SC-ST people from reservation by calling them creamy layer is a big setback to them. This shows the BJP’s intention of ending reservation slowly,” he said.

Kharge’s remarks came a day after the Union Cabinet said no to the Court’s suggestion, saying “there is no provision for a creamy layer in SC/ST reservation” in “the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar”. Also Friday, BJP’s SC, ST MPs met Prime Minister Modi who they said assured them that no step would be taken on the suggestion for exclusion of the creamy layer.

On August 1, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, in a landmark 6-1 majority verdict, ruled that Scheduled Castes do not constitute a socially homogeneous class and can be sub-classified by States for the purpose of providing reservation to the less privileged among them. Four judges favoured excluding the creamy layer from the SC/ST quota.

Kharge said that no changes to the reservation policy should be brought “until the practice of untouchability is there in the country”. He said the Opposition parties are united on the issue.

He alleged that the public sector was being finished and was being handed over to private players. “They are not filling up the lakhs of vacancies that are there. The second thing, which is interesting, is that there are so many backlog vacancies, but people from all the Scheduled Castes are not being admitted to them,” he said.

On the creamy layer issue, Kharge said: “And no person from the SCs is on any important post… Who do you want to benefit by bringing in a creamy layer? By bringing in a creamy layer, you are crushing the Untouchables and SC community, and on the other hand, you are giving it (benefits) to people who, for thousands of years, have enjoyed everything.”

He said until “untouchability exists in the country, reservation should continue” and the Supreme Court Bench, by “raising the issue of creamy layer, have not thought about the people from the SC community”.

Underlining the issue of “untouchability”, he said: “I heard that someone went to a temple but was not allowed to enter and was made to sit separately… I would also like to mention that there are some areas in Karnataka where they don’t let them enter. A BJP minister had faced this… he was not allowed in by a particular community. Till such issues are there, there should be no changes to reservation,” he said.

He also accused the “government of not having brought the issue to the Parliament despite being capable of writing Bills in a few hours”.

Last Tuesday, the Congress leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Kharge, held a meeting on the subclassification issue. Others at the meeting at Kharge’s residence were party general secretary K C Venugopal, Congress’s Karnataka in-charge Randeep Surjewala, general secretary Jairam Ramesh, and the party’s legal and Dalit faces.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ramesh reiterated the party’s demand for a caste census and removal of the Supreme Court-mandated 50% cap on reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs – key promises in the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.

Before the Congress, several parties with a significant Dalit votebase, including Mayawati’s BSP, Chiraj Paswan’s LJP and Ramdas Athawale’s RPI, criticised various facets of the court verdict. Paswan, in fact, said his party would go to the Supreme Court for a review of the judgment.

However, two Congress Chief Ministers – Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah and Telangana’s A Revanth Reddy – have welcomed the verdict due to local political compulsions. The Congress leaders, however, said that the party’s view would be decided by the leadership in Delhi.

Kharge said Rahul Gandhi has also been thinking about the issue, and has held meetings to discuss it with intellectuals and lawyers.

“We will do anything for the safety of SCs,” Kharge said and spoke about the lack of representation of Dalits in the judiciary and bureaucracy. “Despite this backlog, you impose a creamy layer. We will not accept it,” he said.

Speaking about Opposition unity “on such issues”, he said: “We will fight together and we will pursue this legally and will pressurise the government too.”