Bharat Bandh: Centre Clarifies Stand Over Quota, Opposition Doing Politics, Says BJP MP Kulaste

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Former Union minister and BJP's prominent tribal leader Faggan Singh Kulaste on Wednesday accused the opposition of politicising the Supreme Court's ruling about sub-classification within Scheduled Castes, saying the Centre has already clarified its stand on it.

The MP from Mandla (ST) Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh said, "The judges have given their opinion. I personally along with 60-70 MPs met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue. The PM told us that the creamy layer provision (sub-classification) will not be implemented among SCs and STs." The Union cabinet has also decided that the "apex court's opinion" will not be implemented, he told reporters in Bhopal.

"Despite such clarity and decision of the government, people have called for a Bharat Bandh. They are playing politics. Congress played politics in the name of SCs and STs and Mayawati (BSP chief) is also doing the same," Kulaste said.

He said that former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also protected the reservation.

"There could be an opinion of the judges but the government's stand is clear on this issue as it will not be implemented," he said.

Twenty-one organisations across the country have called for a Bharat Bandh on Wednesday against the Supreme Court's August 1 decision over quota. The organisations have opposed the decision, saying it will harm the basic principles of reservation.

The Supreme Court on August 1 held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the SCs, which it said form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.

The apex court, however, made it clear that states have to make the sub-classification based on "quantifiable and demonstrable data" of backwardness and representation in government jobs and not on "whims" and as a matter of "political expediency".