NEW DELHI: For Raju Keshari, a faculty member of the political science department at Janki Devi Memorial College, Tuesday’s march stood for ‘self-dignity’. Afflicted with polio, Keshari admitted the decision to march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar was not easy. Same was the case of wheelchair-bound Kedar Mandal, a Hindi professor at Dyal Singh College.
Keshari and Mandal were among thousands of people who took to the Delhi’s streets to protest against the 13-point roster reservation system, the government’s 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker section among the general quota, and the fear among tribal communities after the Supreme Court’s interim order on eviction of over 10 lakh families from forest areas. The SC, however, has stayed the eviction order.
“Under the current government, the marginalised communities are under attack. The issues are being dealt with a callous attitude,” said Keshari. An ad hoc faculty of chemistry at Ramjas college, Madhu Balaraigar said she was tired of living in uncertainty. “The 13 point-roster will make things worse for SC/ST and OBC categories. Our chances of getting employment will be bleak now.” Youths from different outfits turned up with different charter of demands. For Sarvesh Kumar Gautam of Fatehpur district in Uttar Pradesh, the march was about demanding employment for “hundreds like him”. “There are no government jobs for people from the SC/ST/OBC categories,” said Gautam, from Bahujan Kranti Morcha.
The fight was not merely to raise a few issues but to save the Constitution, said Sujeet Samrat from the Bhim Army. The decisions taken by the BJP government means the backward communities will not have the scope in education and employment, he added. “We have come out on the streets in an attempt to save our Constitution. The government is anti-Constitution.”
Joining the protest was a spontaneous decision as some of the marchers were ‘aligned’ with the agenda raised at the protest in the city.RK Sahani from Darbhanga, 70, who was in Delhi for medical treatment, decided to join the protest against ‘jumla’ (empty promise) of the central government.
Roster reservation system, 10 per cent reservation for the EWS among the general quota were among the issues that brought the protesters together out on the roads