The National Commission on Religious & Linguistic Minorities Leaded by Justice Ranganath Mishra former Chief Justice of India recommended:
- 15% Reservation for Muslims in Education & Employment
- Inclusion of Muslim & Christian Dalits in Schedule-Caste List
With this report as the base, Andhra Pradesh government gave 4% reservation for the economically backward muslims in the employment and education, which was quashed by the 7-judge bench in the Andhra Pradesh High court.
Recently our apex court has given the unprecedented interim judgment allowing the Andhra Pradesh government to go ahead with their reservation and also referred this case to the higher bench as this has the constitutional impact. The higher bench will hear this case in August.
(The 3-judge bench of the Apex court quashed the earlier judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High court’s 7-judge bench. Our legal system is bit weird here!!!)
While passing the order bench observed, “The government is of the view that certain sections of the Muslim community are socially and educationally backward. What is wrong in it? It is only a question as to how you identify them...It is not a question as to whether they are Hindus or Muslims but the question is social and educational backwardness. Merely because they are Muslims they cannot be denied”.
Personally I am not convinced with the judgment:
- As the apex court observed that the objective of the reservation is not based on the religion and only for the economically backward people, then why not it applies to the economically backward Hindus or Christians? Why it doesn’t question the existing reservation which doesn’t consider the economic status?
- If a government can identify the BPL (Below Poverty Line) families, whats the issue in changing the reservation system to benefit the people in BPL instead of mere caste system? Why not Apex court raise this question?
- Even though reservation helped few sections of people to come forward, it also divided them further into multiple smaller groups. This judgment will further divide the people based on their religion and also within the religion they will be called as Dalits/Backwards.
- This judgment will indirectly help the minority communities to continue their conversion.
- Till now I know that only in Hinduism, the Dalits/Backward castes were existing. But I don’t know where do these Dalit/Backward-muslims/christians have come from? If the dalit gets converted to Christianity, why he should be called as a Dalit-Christian? He should be just a Christian, right? In fact, one of the main argument being made by non-hindu religions is that there is no casteism in their religion. If that’s the case why they want to be called as Dalit-muslim or Dalit-Christian? We should first fight to remove the caste system in Hinduism, instead of spreading it to other religions.
The way politics being played in our country I don’t think we can really get away with the reservation soon.
How to remove the reservation?
Even though the existing reservations have become a necessary evil, all of us would agree that reservation is not the way to go forward and all the existing reservations should be slowly removed. The existing reservation system seems not helping the needy and creamy-layer in that caste is continue to enjoy the benefits.
Irrespective of your religion/caste, if you have benefited from any kind of reservation and have grown economically better (I know economically better is very subjective, I leave it to your fair judgment), do NOT avail the reservation benefits for your kids. Declare them as No-Caste (Or Forward-Caste if No-Caste option is not available). Since you can provide your kids proper education and guidance, he/she can compete in the open quota.
This will make sure the reservation benefit can reach the right people and help all sections of people to come up. I believe this will speed-up the process of removing the reservation completely.
Instead we all talking about reservation in length, lets make difference at our level and thereby better future to everyone.
