Reservation or Deceit

In the name of reservation, we are being discriminated on the basis of religion. We are Dalit Muslims, Dalit Christian that is why our rights are being usurped

Mohammad Yahya Saifi

The Idea of Scheduled caste was first introduced by the British but there was no Religious restriction in that. Today in independent India except the Hindu Dalits, all the restrictions have been put on the remaining Dalits. The Sikh Dalits were the first ones to protest against it and so, they were included in the scheduled caste. During the tenure of VP Singh’s government, this right was given to the Buddhist Dalits; whereas, Christian and Muslim Dalits have been fighting for it for years. The report submitted by Justice Ranganath Mishra on this issue also proclaimed this discrimination to be non constitutional and has pleaded put an immediate end to it.

The central government of UPA wanted to subdue this report. In May 2007, this report was given to the Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh. It was due to dedication of our efficient parliament member Ali Anwar Ansari that the report came into the open but the government is still creating a fuss over implementing it. So, we have to fight for it, because the rights as stated in this report if implemented will lead to reservation not only in government jobs and education but will also increase our election in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The problems lying in the Sachhar Committee have been underlined and Mishra Commission has suggested solid intervention for it.

The number of Muslim members in Lok Sabha is decreasing at a constant rate. Last time there were 36 Muslim members in the Lok Sabha which has now decreased to 29 and in many state governments there were no Muslim at all. The main question is: – how many Dalit Muslims are there amongst the number of Muslim members and legislators who are selected?

The answer is that there are very few Muslims but no Dalits at all. This can very dangerous for a secular country like India.
The numbers tell us that the low caste Muslims who have received the OBC reservation are getting only a namesake advantage of it. Keeping this in mind the Ranganath Mishra commission has said that in 27% OBC reservation, 84% is for other OBC and 6% is for the Muslim OBC. So, there should be a guaranty that these people will get their rights. There is another advantage of following this decision, which being that this reservation will also have to be included in the 33% proposed women reservation.

The reservation we are asking for consists of cutting a part of general category and including it in the SC quota. The OBC quota is already lesser than its population so, there is no question of decreasing its number. The court’s order in not giving more than 50% reservation is always given as a reference, but this decision is of the 1963 Bala Ji Banam Mysore case was given by a bench of 3 judges. In 1974 during the case of Thomos Banam Keral,a bench of 5 judges said that there can be reservation up to 80% and Narshimha Rao’s government not only showed a green signal to 69% reservation in Tamil Nadu but made it a 9th schedule in the Indian constitution.

Ranganath Mishra Commission has suggested a 15% reservation for the OBC in government jobs within which 10% seats has been earmarked for the Muslims. But he himself feels that there will be a lot of obstacles in the implementation of this rule. I too believe there will be a lot of problem in implementing this decision especially in the name of religious reservation. The court may also put stop to such a reservation as it happened in the case of Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh government twice took a decision to allot 5% reservation to the Muslims yet every time it was overrules by the High Court. Another thing is that if 10% of seats are earmarked fro the Muslims then the reservation for the OBC Muslims will be finished. The doors for the Dalit Muslims of Scheduled caste will be closed. All Muslims will be moved to the same Category. And thi would amount to a situation where big fishes would swallow the small ones.

The leaders of the society should analyze whether it would be a proper decision to leave the 50% of the general category seats? In spite of the many injustices being done they are able to gain seats on the basis of their merits. Coming within a small stream will only create confusion amongst them. With the placing of many of its policies the government has kept the minority institutions out of the reservation limits. This is my belief that this limitation is doing great injustice to the people of lower castes of that religion and therefore reservation should be made for the lower castes of the religious group to which the institution belongs.

It’s a relief that there is no religious restriction in regard to the ST’s and there are many more clans that are needed to be included in this list. The Sachhar Committee has also expressed the importance of this. Take the example of our Meo brethren. The Mina Clan of the Hindu’s is scheduled tribe but not Meo. The British has declared both these warrior classes as criminals. The history proves that the Meo’s neither accepted the Mughal nor Brithish slavery and have fought against both. By discriminating against the Meo Muslims, the government of India is flouting the constitutional principles.