![]() In this regard the concerned State will have to show in each case the existence of the compelling reasons, namely, backwardness, inadequacy of representation and overall administrative efficiency before making provision for reservation. “…the main issue concerns the “extent of reservation”. The Constitution bench of the Supreme Court under CJI YK Sabharwal concluded: The Supreme Court verdict in M Nagaraj & Others vs Union Of India & Others of October, 2006, had laid down some method to rein in the madness. Such brazen misuse for electoral reasons poses a seminal question for the nation: who should get the benefits under OBC quota and how should it be decided? He said many states including Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab and West Bengal were violating the reservation policy to hire for government jobs. When asked for proof, they could not provide it. He said state officials initially said these were Hindus who had later converted to Islam. What is more, illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar’s Rohingya had made their way into the beneficiaries list depriving thousands who deserved it, revealed NCBC chairperson Hansraj Gangaram Ahir. How can one-fourth of the overall population snatch three-fourth of OBC benefits?Ĭlearly, what sneaked in as affirmative action for a backward section has emerged as a full-blown scandal to appease Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party TMC’s biggest vote bank. The state’s Muslim population on last count (2011) was 27 per cent. Of the 98 communities in Category B, 45 are Muslim and the rest Hindu. In the Most Backward Class category, of 81 communities 73 are Muslim and only eight are Hindu. Until the same NCBC recently discovered that 118 of 179 groups in the Bengal OBC list were Muslims! It meant to address Sachar Committee findings that Muslims had remained socially and economically backward as a group and needed affirmative action. So far, it all seemed innocuous and well-meaning. In 1993, the Congress government under PV Narasimha Rao took this further by forming the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), a statutory organisation under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Instead, it floats it in the river of ambiguity to refer to educationally and economically underprivileged individuals compared to other social groups. Now, the Constitution does not clearly define “Backward Classes”. ![]() In this context, Article 15.4 is important: “Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.” Politics can paint a zebra in the colours of a kingfisher, but it can’t make it go fishing or fly.īending the Constitutional guarantee of Article 15.1 that “the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them”, a provision was created within OBC (Other Backward Classes) of reservation for Muslims. ![]()
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