Maya wins again on Dalit agenda

Incidentally, it was former CM Ram Prakash Gupta of the BJP who had initiated an amendment in the UP Labour Court and Industrial Tribunal’s Presiding Officers (Appointment and Services) Rules, 1996, to provide reservations for SCs and OBCs. However, he couldn’t ensure its passage in the House.

Now Mayawati has walked away with the credit for getting reservations in the sector.

The BJP is desperately trying to sell it as the achievement of the party. ‘‘I am happy the amendment has finally been made. It is one of the major achievements of the BJP during the past one year,’’ Labour Minister Dharampal Singh says. However, the truth is that while Ram Prakash Gupta and later Rajnath Singh failed to get the amendment cleared, Mayawati went to the extent of getting legal opinion beforehand that it wouldn’t be scrapped by courts. Rajnath had taken up the issue but gave up after it came under a cloud.

However, Mayawati’s move has set off alarm bells and experts fear the next stop for Mayawati’s reservation express could be the judiciary.

The amendment notches another victory for Mayawati in her campaign to establish herself as a messiah of the backward classes. There are six industrial tribunals and 17 labour courts in the state, of which two posts in tribunals and five in labour courts are lying vacant and will be filled under the amended rules.

Meanwhile, Mayawati has written to PM A.B. Vajpayee seeking reservation in the private sector. Sources say letters are also going out to private concerns seeking employees’ caste details. of their employees. The owner of a private firm confirmed this to The Indian Express.