Reservation for minorities in Lokpal: India stands divided
FP Politics Dec 23, 2011
The government's decision to introduce a 'not more than 50 per cent'
reservation for women, SC/ST, OBC, and minorities in the Lokpal, has
lawmakers and judiciary sharply divided. While Anna Hazare readies
himself for his 27 December fast, and with the debate on Lokpal slated
to happen next week, the focus has shifted from Lokpal to reservations
in the Ombudsman: Should social diversity weigh in an empowered body
to fight corruption?
Speaking at the parliament yesterday afternoon, the BJP had termed the
decision 'patently unconstitutional'. "The BJP will move an amendment
motion against the provision for reservation to minorities in the
Lokpal Bill. This is against the Constitution which does not provide
for reservations on the basis of religion," Sushma Swaraj said in the
parliament.
PTI
The government was forced to bring in reservation within the Lokpal
after Opposition parties led by Lalu Prasad Yadav demanded that it
also represent minorities. The reservation clause was brought in at
the last minute as a corrigenda.
Lalu Prasad Yadav of the RJD said all parties had agreed to the
reservation clause at the all-party meet called by the government
before the bill was tabled.
"Under pressure from the BJP and the RSS the word minority was removed
from the Bill last night. There was provision for reservation for
SC/ST women and minorities. This had been accepted at the all party
meeting. There is conspiracy behind removing minority quota. If there
is no reservations for minorities there will be protests," Lalu said
in the Parliament on Thursday.
Reacting strongly against the government's decision to bring in
reservation for minorities, Yashwant Sinha of the BJP said, "You are
seeking to amend this Bill through this corrigenda. This is blackmail;
this is not a parliamentary practice, and I oppose it strongly. The
government has no business doing this through this corrigenda.
Corrigenda (are) used for correcting spelling mistakes and not to move
amendments to a Bill… This government has shown a monumental
inefficiency in dealing with this Bill."
Speaking to the media, MoS PMO Narayanaswamy said that while some
courts have ruled against religion based reservations, courts at times
have upheld religious reservations. "There is no law which says
whether religious reservations are valid or not," he said.
While the parliament was clearly divided over the issue of
reservations members of the Judiciary, political analysts, and civil
society too are unclear about what to make of the situation.
"The constitution contemplates reservation for certain reserved
classes and not for minorities and others but if the government wants
to make reservations it is possible," Team Anna member Justice Santosh
Hegde said. "In a small nine member body like this to have reservation
for women, SC/ST, minorities and backward classes is not practical",
he added.
Former Supreme Court Justice JS Verma was quoted by the Indian
Express, "I have always believed that those at the top should reflect
the plurality of Indian society. That is central to any conception of
inclusive democracy that we aspire for. Even without decreeing that
there should be places reserved, I have always been a votary of
ensuring that there is a broad-spectrum representation of people on
benches, for example. Once that is done, it takes away any excuse for
turning down any findings of the Lokpal as being the view of a certain
empowered caste or class."
While everyone agreed in principle with the government's rationale to
bring in reservations – to reflect the plurality of country – most
disagreed with the idea that reservation is the only means to achieve
social justice, and representation.
"Why is it important to ensure whether the person is a Brahmin, Muslim
or another caste? The job of the Lokpal is to fight corruption and
those who can do it should be appointed to the post. This won't help
the country in the long run. If this is challenged in courts, several
other issues, "untested waters so far," may be raised "like why the
judiciary or the armed forces should be insulated from the principle
of reservation," Justice BN Srikrishna said.
Team Anna meanwhile has steered clear of the debate and has maintained
that they would go by the parliament's decision on the issue of
reservations in the Lokpal.
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