BJP against convert Dalit quota
India Blooms News Service
New Delhi, Mar 26 (IBNS): With the National Religious and Linguistic
Minorities Commission's recommendations receiving a thrust forward
with the Supreme Court Thursday lending its support for Muslim
reservation in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP on Friday built a strong case
against reservation based on religion, citing the opposition to such a
move by even the builders of the nation.
The Commission's recommendations, if accepted, will force Scheduled
Castes (SCs) to share their reservation in government jobs and
political fields with convert Christians and Muslims, which the
government wants in their vested interests, BJP national spokesperson
Ramnath Kovind said.
The National Religious and Linguistic Minorities Commission was
constituted by the Central government on October 29, 2004, and its
report was placed on the floor of both houses of the Parliament on
December 18, 2009.
Justice Rangnath Mishra was the Chairman of the Commission so the
Commission is known by his name as Rangnath Mishra Commission.
Kovind pointed that the report of the Commission is not unanimous.
The Commission, inter alia, made recommendations to give 15 per cent
reservation to minorities under Backward Class quota in education,
government employment and social welfare schemes. Out of this 15
percent reservation, 10 percent reservation has been recommended to
Muslim Community and remaining 5 percent to other minority
communities.
The Commission had further recommended to include convert Dalit
Christian and Dalit Muslims in the list of Scheduled Castes. At
present convert Christians and Muslims are getting reservation in
government jobs under Backward Class categories.
"Their special interest is not in getting reservation in government
jobs, they want SC category reservation for contesting elections from
village Panchayats to the Lok Sabha," Kovind said.
The BJP spokesperson maintained that the demand for including convert
Christians in SC list was rejected several times since it was first
raised in 1936 after the Poona Pact.
"All senior leaders including Ambedkar, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar
Patel, C Rajagopalachari had rejected the demand saying that no
religious follower other than a Hindu can be granted any reservation
as so-called SC have been suffering from untouchability and social
discrimination for centuries," Kovind said, referring to the leaders'
reaction when a similar demand was placed before the Constituent
Assembly.
"Moreover the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had out rightly
rejected the demand of religion-based reservation in his letter
addressed to all the Chief Ministers on June 27, 1961," he added.
Governments in the post-Independence era have also failed to muster
support for such a reservation, with the National Scheduled Castes and
Tribes Commission under the Chairmanship of Karnataka Congress Leader
Hanumanthappa also rejecting the demand of including convert
Christians and Muslims in the list of SCs, Kovind said.
"The Supreme Court had clearly opined through its various decisions
that convert Dalit Christians and Muslims cannot be equated with SCs,"
he added.
The BJP leader also maintained that Convert Dalit Chirstians and
Muslims are better educated than SCs and hence, reservation in the
same quota will also eat into the other SCs prospects.
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