The split verdict of the Supreme Court that upholds the 103rd Amendment Act of January 2019 brought out by Modi government providing 10% economic reservation to the economically backward upper castes excluding the ‘backward classes’ among SC/ST/OBC is arbitrary and violative of the spirit of reservation as conceptualised in the Indian Constitution. Obviously, caste-based reservation in India and the so called ‘affirmative actions’ prevailing in other countries intend not to remove economic inequalities, but only aim at protecting the oppressed peoples from the monopolisation of public spheres by the elite sections.
In India, the Constitution drafted by Dr. Ambedkar had incorporated reservation to rectify the historical injustice committed against the ‘untouchables’ and oppressed castes by the brahmanical upper castes, and to ensure the representation of the oppressed castes in the administration and public institutions. As we know, the 103rd Constitutional amendment was being adopted when the RSS through Modi government has established full-fledged control over the Indian state. Revealingly, when the Constituent Assembly was drafting the Indian Constitution, the RSS was proposing Manusmriti that treats the Dalits as subhuman as India’s Constitution. As such, undermining of the oppressed caste-oriented constitutionally mandated reservation through upper caste-based economic reservation through Constitutional amendment today should be seen as inalienable component of Manuvadi-Hindutva, the ideological basis of RSS neofascism in India.
Now, when the Supreme Court also, in spite a split verdict, upholds the validity of this ‘anti-Constitutional’, and outrightly brahmanical move, it is not an isolated one, but a part of the varying forms of untouchability, caste oppression and caste discrimination that are bouncing back with intensified vigour under RSS neofascism. It is severe blow to the oppressed peoples of India, and is to be evaluated as a death knell of systematic abolition of caste-based reservation enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
CPI (ML) Red Star resolutely condemns this heinous move on the part of the brahmanical fascist forces. We call upon all the people of the oppressed castes and anti-caste democratic sections to resolutely come forward against this heavy inflicted by the neofascist forces.
P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star
Guntur
7th November 2022