The Opposition parties united on Tuesday to term the proposed amendments to the Constitution as a political gimmick and protested the haste and lack of sincerity in pushing the Bill to provide 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker forward castes in jobs and in educational institutions. There was a joint protest at the Gandhi statue in front of Parliament House over the decision to extend the Winter Session for another day so that the Bill can be passed in the Upper House on Wednesday.
The leaders of Opposition parties termed the move as unprecedented and said the Centre is being autocratic by bypassing institutions to push its agenda. All the Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha raised objection to the way the Bill was brought in Parliament. The parties also found issues with the clauses in the Bill, particularly the one that provides reservation for the poor among forward caste in private educational institutions. Both the Congress and the Left parties pointed out that such a provision does not exist even for persons belonging to SC and ST communities.
The parties are convinced that the issue will not have an electoral impact. “It will backfire. The BJP will lose the support it had from the OBC and the Dalit communities in the last election,” a senior Congress leader said. There is a demand that the Bill must be send to a standing committee or a select committee.
All the parties, however, are supporting the Bill in principle. “Without generating jobs, creating reservation in the same is another ‘jumla’. So, we support reservation for the economically poor sections but the simple question is when will you give jobs in addition to giving reservation in jobs? It is a question that Prime Minister needs to answer,” Congress’ media in charge Randeep Singh Surjewala had said on Monday.
CPI(M) targets BJP
The CPI(M) said the move is also acceptance of the abject failure of the Modi regime to create employment in the past four-and-a-half years. “The haste with which the Union Cabinet has decided, completely exposes the Modi Government’s intentions of using this issue for electoral dividends. The policies pursued by the Modi Government have instead of generating employment, led to the loss of existing jobs. The existing quota for SC/ST and OBCs is not being filled up. Benefits of reservations are increasingly eroded by the pursuit of aggressive neo-liberal policies and by keeping the private sector outside its purview,” a statement from the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said.
The CPI said the Bill will open a Pandora’s box. “There are demands for such reservation from among the upper castes in Rajasthan, Haryana, UP, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other States. The State governments which were unable to reject these demands agreed for such reservations, which were the struck down by the Judiciary,” a CPI statement said.