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Cong slams government for taking away power of states to identify OBCs
“Is it not a serious assault at the federalism of this country as nobody ever disputed that states had this power?” Singhvi said.
Congress on Saturday slammed the Union government for taking away the powers of states to identify and notify the Other Backward Classes. Party MP and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said this was due to “lack of care to detail” by the government while granting constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes in 2018.
“We are the ones who supported it… but (we told the government) that for God’s sake… it should not happen that established power of states to make their own state list (of OBCs) should go away,” Singhvi said while speaking to reporters at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.
He added that then social justice minister Thawarchand Gehlot, along with other BJP members, agreed to this. “But due to the lack of care to detail, you (the government) did not add a two-line clarification that the creation of a national commission does not mean that the states will not have a list of inclusion or exclusion at the state level… How can that power go away at the state level?” Singhvi questioned.
He added that the government’s “blunder” has cost the country much as the Supreme Court has interpreted the amendment in a way that “at the highest”, the list of states will be just one due to the “absence of a clarification” by the government.
“Is it not a serious assault at the federalism of this country as nobody ever disputed that states had this power?” he said.
Singhvi added that amid all this, it was funny as well as tragic that BJP today is “self-congratulating” itself for doing good for the OBCs. “… Should he (PM) be congratulated for making us reach a stage where no state can make a list of OBCs?” Singhvi said.
The BJP leaders had been lauding PM Modi for the recent increase in the All India Medical education quota for the OBCs.
Singhvi added that BJP “bungled” the amendment which is now used and interpreted to suggest that “states have lost a vital power which is at the bedrock of federalism.”
Meanwhile, the government is mulling to bring another amendment to repower the states regarding identifying and notifying the OBCs. The government on Thursday said that the apex court had not taken into account the “legislative intent” of Parliament.
“Government is in consultation with legal experts and the Ministry of Law and is examining ways to protect the power of the states in determining the state list of OBCs…” Ministry of Social Justice said in a press release.
The government had also filed a review petition in the apex court to reconsider its interpretation which was dismissed. The court had upheld that list specified by the President shall be the only list of the OBCs for all purposes of the Constitution.
Earlier in the day, Union minister Bhupendra Yadav lauded the government’s efforts in setting up this commission. He also listed other minority welfare efforts of the government.
Yadav also slammed Congress saying that they never tried to bring in any schemes so that minorities can be uplifted. “It is a blot on the tradition of Congress in the parliament that when a large number OBCs, tribals, women and Dalits were inducted into the cabinet… the Congress did not even let (the PM) introduce them,” he said during a presser at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
