Haryana govt’s move to clear Dalit sub-quotas evoke mixed response

The Haryana government’s move to implement a panel recommendation dividing the Scheduled Caste (SC) community into two groups and applying the sub-quotas as per a recent verdict of the Supreme Court has evoked mixed responses.
The members of the A block of the scheduled castes, who are newly classified as Deprived Scheduled Castes (DSC), who were demanding implementation of sub-quota, welcomed the move. The DSC comprises 36 groups such as Balmikis, Dhanaks, Mazhabi Sikhs and Khatiks. Whereas, the Other Scheduled Castes (OSC) comprising groups such as Chamar, Jatia Chamar, Rehgar, Raigar, Ramdasi, Ravidasi and Jatav termed this decision as a ‘tactic of the BJP government to divide SC community’.
A notification ordering subclassification of SCs into DSCs and OSCs to provide each of the two categories 50% each of the 20% SC quota in government jobs will be issued by the chief secretary, said an official on Friday.
The Haryana government had in 2020 enacted the Haryana Scheduled Castes (reservation in admission in educational institutions) Act, to set aside 50% of the 20% seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes in higher education institutions of the state for a new category, the deprived Scheduled Castes. The decision is important because the subclassification pitch helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pick up a substantial chunk of the SC vote during the recently concluded assembly elections on its way to a historic third consecutive term. The party won eight of the 17 seats reserved for SCs, up from five in 2019.
BJP leaders and former Haryana ministers Anoop Dhanak and Bishamber Singh Valmiki termed the state government’s move as historic and said that the members of the B block–Other Scheduled Castes (OSC)–had been getting the lion’s share of reservation benefit for several years and the BJP government has given rights to Deprived Scheduled Castes (DSC).
Dhanak said that DSC’s remained deprived of the reservation benefits and the other group classified as OSC has taken advantage because they have more resources and they got a major chunk of jobs within the SC quota in the last many years.
Ex-minister Bishamber Singh Valmiki said that the members of the DSC faction had backed the BJP in the recently concluded assembly polls and they were expecting implementation of the sub-quota, which was fulfilled by the chief minister Nayab Singh Saini.
“The other faction within the Scheduled Castes are unhappy because they availed the reservation benefits for many years and it’s our request to them not to be decried. The BJP government has always given due rights and benefits to every community. If this sub-quota had been implemented earlier, the children from DSC could also get job benefits in Haryana. The other faction within the SC community has more wealth and they have eaten our rights,” he added.
Slamming the Haryana government’s move, Jhajjar’s Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal said that the Haryana government’s decision of bifurcation of 20% of the SC quota is an attempt to divide the community and the BJP government has taken this decision to score brownie points and they have not studied the entire matter seriously.
“The BJP government should fill the SC community backlog in the government posts before taking any decision. No reservation is followed in recruiting youths in Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited and other contractual jobs. The BJP government has now bifurcated the SC quota and their next move will be to abolish the reservation system,” she said.
Dalit activist Vikram Dumolia, state president of Ambedkar Missionaries Vidyarthi Association (AMVA), said that the state government has taken this decision to weaken the Scheduled Caste community and this government has failed to appoint a single vice-chancellor, exam controller and registrar in the state universities in Haryana, from the SC.
“If this government wants to help the SC communities like Dhanak, Balmiki and others, they should have given 10% reservation to them under the EWS category without making any change in the SC reservation quota. On what basis this decision was taken? No economic survey was conducted and neither the population census took place. This is an attempt to create a rift in the society and gain political mileage,” he added.