TDP roots for sub-categorisation of caste by states, says aviation minister

NEW DELHI: Even as the Centre maintains a stony silence on the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing states to go ahead with sub-classification among Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), the NDA ally Telugu Desam party (TDP) has strongly rooted for the verdict.

Speaking at the Delhi Dialogues organised by this newspaper, TDP leader and Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu hailed the verdict. “Our CM has welcomed the judgment. The reason is that he introduced the classification when he was the CM back in the day,” said Naidu, adding, “A process was followed and he set up a committee for the purpose.”

In a majority ruling, the apex court, on August 1, allowed state governments to sub-classify SC/STs to advance the cause of affirmative action. The court also suggested that states devise a policy to identify and exclude the creamy layer from the SC/ST categories.

While the ‘exclusion of creamy layer’ became a sticking point within the BJP and allies, the Centre clarified last week that it will not implement the SC proposal of carving out the creamy layer within the SC/ST reservations.

When asked about the Centre’s silence on the sub-classification part of the verdict, the minister said, “The Centre hasn’t responded yet. I am not commenting on behalf of it.”

Incidentally, the Centre has set up a high-level committee in January this year, led by the Cabinet Secretary, to address inequality within the SC communities. It was perceived that the move was to reach out to the Madiga community in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. However, there is no clarity on the functioning of the committee after Modi 3.0 assumed office in June this year.

In response to the long-standing demand for SC sub-classification, Chandrababu Naidu, the then CM of united Andhra Pradesh, had introduced SC categorisation in 1997. After constituting Justice Ramachandra Raju Commission for the purpose, the government had divided SCs into four categories to provide reservation quotas to various castes in accordance with the population size and backwardness.

The TDP claims that 22,000 youth from Madigas and other sub-castes got jobs between 2000 and 2004 following the implementation of categorisation. Subsequently, the top court struck down the reservation for SC sub-classification in 2004.

The TDP wrote a letter to the Prime Minister on October 10, 2012, with an appeal to introduce a bill in Parliament on SC categorisation to amend the Constitution.