MYSURU: Retired Karnataka High Court judge, Justice AJ Sadashiva, who headed a commission on internal reservation among Schedule Castes, seemed exasperated over the fate of his report. “I submitted the report on categorisation of Scheduled Castes and equitable distribution of reservation six years ago. The government should either accept it or reject it. If they don’t want to consider it, let it be set on fire,” he remarked.
Speaking at a two-day seminar on ‘one century of reservation’ (since the time of the Mysuru kings), organised by the Ambedkar Research and Extension Centre here, he said tht Justice AM Hanumanthappa was first appointed to look into the categorisation of internal reservation.
But Hanumanthappa got elected to the Lok Sabha much before he could start any work. Later, Justice Balakrishna was appointed to head the commission, but he passed away, Justice Sadashiva noted. Recalling that then Chief Minister N Dharam Singh had appointed him to head the commission, he said financial assistance for the commission was provided by the Yediyurappa in 2008.
Referring to his report, Justice Sadashiva said there are 101 castes among SCs with a population of 96,66,104 of which 84,45,846 people are considered untouchables and 22,84,642 are touchables.
There are a few castes which don’t fall in either category. The survey was conducted with the assistance of Deputy Commissioners and revenue officials in the districts. Justice Sadashiva rued that copies of the report were not given to legislators, but its leak had changed the tone of the debate on the issue as people have made assumptions.
Asserting that he had done justice to SCs through his report, he questioned what the government was up to. The interaction also witnessed heated discussion. Rajaram Nayak, a participant, charged that the Sadashiva Commission report is unscientific and called it anti-people and anti-constitutional.
However, the gathering objected to it. Mahesh Sosale, a student, demanded that the government should seek one more report saying there were flaws in Sadashiva Commission report.
More than eight lakh people are not listed under either category and the sub-castes of six lakh people have not identified, he pointed out. The participants also wanted to know what yardstick was applied to categorise Dalits under A, B, C and D categories.
Noted writer KB Siddaiah strongly objected to BJP MP V Srinivasa Prasad terming the Sadashiva Commission report as unscientific. “If that is so, Prasad should clarify if the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections is constitutional,” he said. He also urged the Centre to bring a constitutional amendment to implement internal reservation for SCs.