India's amoral BJP Rulers attempt to dilute Constitutional Reservation for Scheduled castes
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - The great English essayist and poet Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) wrote many years ago that, "A decent provision for the poor is a true test of a civilization." Something `independent India has failed to do for its three hundred and fifty million citizens who eke out a living for under $. 1 a day and eight hundred million Indians who live in squalor and hunger on under $. 2 a day.In squalidly dirt-poor India (which has been ranked 127th, below umpteen poverty-ridden African countries like Botswana, Namibia, Gabon, Mongolia, Guinea et.al., in the latest UN's Human Development Report-2003 - click at www.khalistan-affairs.org/khalistancalling/2003/july16.aspx) whatever little social progress has been made in the past few decades by the Dalits and Tribals (the lowest strata of the Indian caste-ridden society) to lift themselves from centuries of misery and squalor, has been made possible by the official policy of reservations enshrined in the Indian Constitution on the basis of social and economic backwardness. A constitution which was drafted by a Dalit, the redoutable Dr. Ambedhkar whose memory is revered by millions of schedule castes all over India even today.
For a looksee of the state of the hundreds of millions of Indian subhumans, whom these constitutional reservations are supposed to help, please click at the following website for a graphic description in the June 2003 issue of the National Geographic magazine which has run a spine-chilling and disgusting story about India's lowest of the lowest caste, (the 5th untouchable category) headlined, "Untouchable" by Tom O'Neill, at: magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature1/index.html Now even those constitutional provisions are being abused, circumvented and diluted by the Brahmin-caste dominated, Hindutva-fundamentalist BJP government under cover of different excuses and ruses. How disgraceful?
For some years it was believed by everybody that these constitutional reservations (after the historic November 1992 Supreme Court judgment (in the Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case - or the ‘Mandal case’, as it is popularly known) were a done thing and would end the mischief of the muscular upper castes in the caste-ridden Indian society. By the year 2000, the representation of Schedule castes in the IAS, the IPS and the IFS central services rose to 10.6 per cent, 12.4 per cent and 11.4 per cent respectively - much less than the 15 per cent reservations provision approved by the Supreme Court but much better than what it was ten years ago. This special nine-member bench of the Indian Supreme Court was constituted to "finally settle the legal position relating to reservations." The two most basic questions addressed in that 1992 Supreme Court judgment were: "Who are the ‘backward class of citizens’ referred to in Article 16 of the Constitution eligible for reservation?" And, "what should the extent of such reservation be, so as to be fair to the ‘backwards’, the ‘general’ category of citizens, as well as be 'consistent with the maintenance of efficiency of administration' as laid down in Article 335 of the Indian Constitution?"
The majority Supreme Court judgment in this case concluded that "a caste can be, and quite often is, a social class in India" and if it is ‘backward socially’ it would be a ‘backward class’ for purpose of Article 16. The accent in the clause, it was ruled, was on "social backwardness" - i.e., people of castes that are lower down in the social hierarchy. The court had further stated that the word ‘class’ had been used "in the sense of social class - and not in the sense it is understood in the Marxist jargon". Thus, economic backwardness, unrelated to social backwardness, could not be the basis of reservation. So, according to this court decision, Rajputs and Brahmins, and other upper castes, would be ineligible for reservation as they ranked high in the social hierarchy.
Unfortunately, because of the intolerant Neo-Nazi winds currently blowing in the world's largest Castocracy - India - unmerited reservation claims are now being made (with obviously a 'wink and a nod' from the Brahmin-caste-dominated BJP ruling troika of Vajpayee, Advani & Joshi Inc., and others of that ilk) by people already enjoying well-entrenched political advantages. Such claims are also being supported and encouraged by different political parties as part of their vote bank politics. Upper caste Rajputs and even Brahmins are now trying to become claimants of reservation on some ground or the other. How morally repugnant can one be to snatch, or subvert, what belongs to the poor untouchables?
Despite the fact that the Brahmin-caste dominated upper classes hold 80% of the top echelon jobs of the bureaucracy in India, political leaders in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh seem to be leading players in this new subversion game and have increased reservation percentages for their state services to above 60 per cent despite the Supreme Court's limit of 50%. The supposedly secular All India Congress party could also become a player in the politics of reservations although, at this point in time, it has held back despite the fact that the state Congress party in Rajasthan for example, has recommended that the Centre make extra provisions in favour of the Rajputs and Brahmins, both upper castes. Rajasthan has also become the first state in the country where Dalit IPS officers have been reverted to make way for others of higher castes.
In contrast the Punjab government has not circumvented the reservation law yet but the 85th amendment, which deals with seniority, has not been implemented either. We urge the government of Sikh Punjab not to change course now on reservations, or in the future, as it is not in Sikh interest to do so. Our support for reservations for the down trodden sends a powerful message of brotherhood and generosity and what better stand for a Sikh then a stand for egalitarianism and justice?
Writing in today's (July 22, 2003) Hindustan Times, a New Delhi English language newspaper, Mr. Udit Raj, President of the Justice party and the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, has urged the Dalits to think seriously about the fact that any amount of awareness and any number of reforms and constitutional reservations will not help them unless accompanied by specific rights like reservations in the private sector as well. We support that stand.
Mr. Raj points out in his article that the Congress party remained in power as long as the Muslims and the Dalits supported it en bloc. With the BJP’s anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, the Congress has sent out clear signals that Muslims must be accommodated in strategic positions like the police and the paramilitary forces. The Congress has also decided to support the cause of reservations in the private sector which is the plank of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations. Mr. Raj feels that these are healthy developments and will make a difference if implemented honestly. We agree, but will the moraly repugnant Brahmins allow an honest exercise?.
This whole episode says a book about India's upper castes - read Brahmin castes. Their intrigue and salivation against their own lower caste have not Hindus, who live in abject poverty from which squalor, other than a few openings under constitutional reservations, there is no escape. This development is indicative of the Hindutva fascist mindset and greed which never has, and never will, tolerate a prosperous, egalitarian and proud minority least of all the muscular Sikhs who were captured in the Indian map in 1947 through intrigue when Imperial Britain withdrew from South Asia. For us Sikhs an independent, democratic, egalitarian buffer state of Khalistan, stretching from the Jumna river on the East to the Pakistan border on the West is the only way out of the world's largest oligarchic Castocracy - India.