NEW DELHI: A day after the Centre appointed a three-member commission to examine the issue of Scheduled Caste (SC) status for Dalit converts, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale denied allegations that setting up of the panel is a delaying tactic and said that the government will wait for the Commission to submit its report.
Speaking to this newspaper, Athawale also said that 80 per cent of the Muslim Community belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category and they avail reservation as per the recommendations of the Mandal Commission.
The Social Justice Ministry in a notification on Friday said that the commission will be headed by former CJI Justice K G Balakrishnan and it will have two more members — retired IAS officer Ravindra Jain and UGC member Sushma Yadav. The commission has to submit its report in two years. The ministry’s move has invited criticism from groups of Dalit Christians and Muslims, who have been demanding the SC status for a long time. Many activists described the decision as politically motivated and called it discriminatory.
Responding to the allegations, the minister said that the previous Congress governments could have acceded to the long-standing demand of the communities and that they delayed it. “If the communities were demanding for a long time, why didn’t the Congress party take a decision? PM Modi is here only for eight years while Congress was in power for many years. Now, they (Congress) are talking about Muslims and Christians,” he said.
Athawale also pointed out that according to the Presidential orders, reservation benefits are available only to Dalit Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists. However, he said that 80 per cent of the Muslim community is listed under the OBC category and the Mandal Commission has given reservations to them. “In Mandal Commission’s list, many Muslim castes are there and they are already getting the reservation. Mandal has given 27 per cent reservation to the OBC community,” he said.
According to the ministry, the Balakrishnan Commission will examine the matter of “according Scheduled Caste status to new persons, who claim to have historically belonged to the Scheduled Castes, but have converted to religions other than those mentioned in the Presidential Orders issued from time to time under Article 341 of the Constitution”.
Athawale said that while Dalit Hindus were given the SC status in 1950, Sikhs were covered in 1956. In 1990, the V P Singh government accorded SC status to Buddhists after demands from the community.
Activists also point out that while the previous governments instituted several committees in this regard, no action was taken in this regard. The UPA government under Manmohan Singh set up the Ranganath Misra Commission in 2004 and the Rajinder Sachar Committee to examine the social, economic, and educational status of converted Muslims in 2005.
Though both the panels submitted reports in favour of giving SC status to the converts, it wasn’t accepted by the Parliament. However, Athawale says that earlier commissions haven’t given any clear recommendation in this regard. “No revisions took place because of that. Now, the new committee will look into the issues revolving around it. Once the report comes, the government will review it,” he said.