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TN bandh against SC quota stay
Published on Fri, Mar 30, 2007 at 08:14, Updated on Tue, Jun 19, 2007 at 08:45 in section
Tags: SC/ST Reservation, Quota , Chennai
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Chennai: The Congress is under strong pressure from its allies after the Supreme Court stayed the controversial Other Backward Classes (OBCs) quota on Thursday.
A late evening reaction came from the DMK to the Supreme Court stay order on OBC quota in higher education.
On Thursday evening, DMK and its allies met to decide on how to protest the order and finally decided to call for a bandh across Tamil Nadu on Saturday.
The DMK will request the Centre to hold a joint Parliamentary meeting to discuss the issue and will also request the cancellation of all flights and trains to Tamil Nadu between 0600 hrs IST to 1800 hrs IST on Saturday.
Says Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, "This is to make everyone realise that the Supreme Court's order attacks the very roots of the downtrodden in our society."
Karunanidhi even stopped just short of a verbal attack on the Apex Court.
"I will not say it is a motivated judgement, but I am sad that the judgement has made some people wonder if it is one," he said.
Tamil Nadu has the highest percentage of reservation in institutes of higher education in the country - 69 per cent - and the state's politics revolves around the OBC vote bank.
"Nowhere in the world do castes, classes or communities queue up for the sake of gaining status" |
Even the merit argument is countered by supporters of reservation who say that several decades after quota was enforced, Tamil Nadu still produces world class professionals.
Says Former Vice Chancellor, Anna University, Dr V Anandakrishnan, "Many of the premier engineering colleges like Anna University have adopted the reservation policy, but in now way has the competence, capability or the quality of the education in the university has been reduced."
Pro-reservationists in the state won their battle decades ago while the Apex Court's order gives some hope to those against reservations, it now seems that they are all set to face strong protests from the southern state.
QUOTA UNQUOTE | |
 | The Supreme Court said that data based on the 76-year-old census cannot be the basis for the affirmative action. |
| The Bench said that the 'creamy layer' among the OBCs will have to be excluded from quota. |
| The Bench also said that the Central Government can initiate processes for determining OBCs. |
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