New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has batted for reservations in judicial appointments. Speaking at a social justice platform, he also backed the implementation of women’s reservations and a caste-based census.
“Provision of reservations should be implemented in the judiciary,” Stalin said in his virtual address. He was speaking at the third national conference of the All India Federation for Social Justice Tuesday on ‘The caste census, women’s rights, and reservations: The pillars of social justice’.
Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for, what he called, its aversion to social justice, he said the central government must immediately commence the census as well as a caste-based survey. The CM highlighted that the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly had passed a resolution in June urging the Union government to do so.
He claimed that the BJP was not just against Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, but also women because it had put the women’s reservation bill “in cold storage” and inserted clauses that would delay its implementation. He was referring to The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, which provides 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies.
Noting that the implementation of women’s reservation has been tied to the completion of the census and delimitation based on the census, he said, “Going by this, reservation for women will come into effect only after 2029, that is 6 years away. But they project as if they have passed the reservation act now itself.”
Stalin also spoke out against the economically weaker section (EWS) quota. “We do not oppose financial assistance for the poor and needy. However, we are opposed to extending reservation—which should be provided on the basis of social backwardness—to general category castes solely based on economic criteria.”
Stalin had launched the All India Federation for Social Justice platform in 2022 with ‘everything for everyone’ as its founding principle. At the time, he said that the platform would provide suggestions for all states to bring in laws related to social justice
The Tuesday event saw the participation of several prominent speakers, including Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D. Raja, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MP Fauzia Tahseen Ahmed Khan, and Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad, along with MLAs, MLCs, retired judges and social activists from various states.
DMK MPs Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and P. Wilson, who is also the convener of the platform, as well as Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, were also in attendance.
D. Raja, too, said that it was time for a popular movement to demand reservation in the private sector and the judiciary.
“Judiciary should have appropriate social representation. The judiciary should have appropriate women representation,” he said, while questioning the Supreme Court-imposed 50 percent ceiling on reservations.
Congress leader Hariprasad also batted for the caste census and supported the suggestion that it should be added to the ninth schedule of the Constitution, to provide it immunity from legal challenges.
He added that the BJP-coalition’s majority in the Maharashtra Assembly elections despite the state’s long list of social justice leaders, including Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Shahu Maharaj, Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh, was indicative of a “very dangerous trend”.
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Against RSS, lateral entry
Among other speakers, Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh hit out against RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat over his recent comments pushing Indian couples to have at least three children to counter the population decline.
“How will people feed kids, educate them, how will inflation come down in the country? These are not their concerns. They just ask you to have more children,” he said.
He also claimed that, despite the organisation being around for a 100 years, no RSS leader has so far come from any backward, Dalit, or tribal communities.
“This means that their definition of a Hindu is very limited,” he asserted, claiming that even the BJP did not have any representatives from Dalit and backward communities apart from one former national president. He was referring to former Union minister and BJP leader Bangaru Laxman.
Several dignitaries also spoke against lateral entry of officers into public service.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said, “It is very worrying that despite having such a strong Constitution, lateral entry is discussed.”
He also said that people of all classes are being intimidated and there is an atmosphere of fear in the country.
Former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav called the ruling party anti-reservation and anti-Constitution. “Through lateral entry, the institutions which were providing employment and reservations, are now gradually being privatised, so that reservations are finished.”
He claimed that under the guise of lateral entry, the BJP was planning to fill bureaucratic vacancies with RSS-affiliated candidates, while there are several backlog vacancies in reserved categories.
Sanjay Singh also suggested that with lateral entry and privatisation of government institutions, reservations will automatically come to an end.
“Now there is lateral entry. All the government institutions are being sold to the private sector. Today, all government institutions are being privatised. Then reservation will automatically come to an end,” he said.
‘Dividing people will not make India strong’
Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Abdullah spoke of the cumbersome process for women’s reservation in the Parliament and State assemblies, saying that he wondered if it can be implemented by even 2040.
“You see what India is going through. How religion is being used to destroy this nation. Hindus have been told that Muslims are our targets. And they are the ones who will take your homes, take your nice jobs, and will even take your mangalsutra,” Abdullah said, adding that such a language does not befit the prime minister.
He asserted that the government must realise that dividing people for votes is not going to make India strong.
Soren also mentioned the abrogation of Article 370, saying that people and tribal communities of Leh and Ladakh were suffering because the environmental situation was deteriorating.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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