Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo, Sharad Pawar has accused the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led government at the Centre of misleading the Other Backward Class (OBC) community. The government has amended the Constitution for providing quota to the community, but there is a lack of political will, he said.
Two years back, the BJP government revoked the powers accorded to states to decide the communities that fall under the OBC category, only to amend it again and restore those powers. This amendment is, however, misleading since it will not benefit the community because of the 50 per cent cap imposed on reservations, he claimed.
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In 1992, a Supreme Court (SC) bench had placed the quota capping, following which the Centre had tweaked the Constitution to push the reservation window by 10 per cent, and now it has changed its stance on the matter allowing states to prepare their own OBC list, he pointed out.
The only way to ensure justice for the community is to remove the 50 per cent quota ceiling, he added.
The NCP will soon launch a campaign to press for the removal of the quota ceiling, he added.
The Centre needs to launch a caste-based census so that justice can be ensured for minorities across the country, he declared. The NCP heavyweight also went on to accuse the Centre of avoiding a discussion on the topic in the Parliament, when it was raised by NCP members.
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The statement comes in the backdrop of reports about the Centre planning to undertake a socio-economic caste census (SECC), albeit after the conclusion of the decennial Census 2021. The exercise shall also cover OBCs, a demand the political class has been pressing for increasingly.
