‘By bringing in creamy layer, you are crushing untouchables; Cong will oppose sub-classification of scheduled castes’: Mallikarjun Kharge

On Saturday – after several meetings being held for the last few days – the Congress made its stand clear with party president Mallikarjun Kharge saying that “now excluding SC-ST people from reservation by calling them creamy layer is a big setback to them” and that the Congress will oppose it. He also appealed for unity from other Opposition parties on the issue.

In the seven-judge order of August 1, Justice B R Gavai, in his opinion, wrote that “the State must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes so as to exclude them from the benefit of affirmative action”.

Kharge said that “the Scheduled Caste Community got reservation through Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s Poona Pact” and that later, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi continued the reservation policy.

“Along with political reservation, reservation in education and employment was also an important issue, but now excluding SC-ST people from reservation by calling them creamy layer is a big setback to them. This shows the BJP’s intention of ending reservation slowly,” he said.

Kharge alleged that the public sector is being finished and that the sector is being handed to private players. “They are not filling up the lakhs of vacancies that are there. The second thing which is interesting is that there are so many backlog vacancies, but the people from all the Scheduled Castes are not being admitted to them,” he said.

Talking of the creamy layer issue, the Congress chief said, “And no person from the SCs is on any big posts. Who do you want to benefit by bringing in a creamy layer? By bringing in a creamy layer, you are crushing the Untouchables and SC community, and on the other hand, you are giving it to people who have for thousands of years enjoyed everything.”

He also said that till “untouchability exists in the country, reservation should continue”. “And the issue of creamy layer raised by the seven judges is… I can say they have not thought about the people from the SC community. And till this country has untouchability, the reservation should continue and we will fight for it,” he said.

He also said that people from within the community face discrimination despite being wealthy and that “no changes to the reservation system be brought till there is untouchability”.

“Despite having money, people face untouchability,” he said. “I heard that someone went to a temple but was not allowed to enter and was made to sit separately. I would also like to mention that there are some areas in Karnataka where they don’t let them (Dalits) enter. A BJP minister had faced this that he was not allowed in by a particular community. Till such issues are there, there should be no changes to reservation,” he said.

He also accused the “government of not having brought the issue to the Parliament despite being capable of writing Bills in a few hours”.

Before the Congress, several parties boasting of a significant Dalit vote base, including Mayawati’s BSP, Chiraj Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Ramdas Athawale’s Republican Party of India, have already slammed various facets of the verdict. Paswan has, in fact, said his party would go to the Supreme Court for a review of the judgment.