Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar slammed the Centre on Monday over the Constitution (127th Amendment) Bill, 2021 that was passed during the recently concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament, and alleged it was deceiving the OBC community. He said he will generate public awareness around the issue and pressure the government to make changes to the Bill.
Pawar demanded a caste-based census, adding that the data should be made available to the state governments, and sought that the limit of 50% reservation due to the Indra Sawhney judgment should be removed.
“In 90% states, reservation has crossed 50%. We will have to think of all the states. In the future, this will affect everything including scholarships, availability of seats in educational institutions,” he said. According to the provisions of the amendment bill, the state government will be given back the right to decide on the OBC reservation.
The statements are important to the Maratha reservation issue, which has been in limbo.
“Two years ago, the Central government had taken away the rights of the states about OBCs. What the Centre is now doing, is clear deception of OBCs. In 1992, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court, in Indra Sawhney vs India case, gave an important decision. The decision was that reservation shouldn’t be more than 50%. With an amendment in between, there was a 10% increase,” he said.
He enlisted the states where reservation had already crossed the 60% mark. “Today, reservation in all states is above 50%. Haryana has 67% reservation, Rajasthan has 64%, Maharashtra 65%, Kerala 60%, Punjab 60%, Jharkhand at 60%, Uttar Pradesh has 59.33% reservation, and Himachal Pradesh has 59%,” he said.
“NCP will create public opinion about this. In Parliament, NCP leader Supriya Sule put forth these points- that the 50% limit should be removed, and that there should be caste-based census. Till that is done, there will be no information about how much representation has been given to the smaller castes. Institutional data should be made available to the state governments. 50% limit should be removed,” he added.
When asked if the OBC reservation can be extended to Marathas in Maharashtra, he said, “Whichever community’s reservation you give, 50% cap will remain. Remove this lakshmanrekha of 50%,” he said.
Pegasus Row: Appoint Singhvi, Sibal on Panel
Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar suggested the names of Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram and Abhishek Manu Singhvi for the committee which should look into the Pegasus controversy. “Some of our parliamentarians have done a lot of study on this. If a committee is to be appointed, I would suggest that Abhishek Manu Singhvi or Kapil Sibal or P Chidambaram be a part of it,” he said at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday.
When asked about the issue, he questioned why the defence ministry responded to it. “The question is, has the technology been bought? Israel says it only gives it to the government. Defence ministry says it hasn’t bought. But why would the defence ministry buy it? For this, there is RAW, home ministry,” he said.
Referring to the manhandling of MPs inside the House, the veteran NCP leader said it was unprecedented.
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