By Sunil Sonker
Mussoorie, 21 Aug: Dalit and tribal organisations called for a Bharat Bandh today. Their demand is that a new law should be passed on reservation for SC-ST and OBC and the Supreme Court should withdraw or reconsider its recent quota-in-quota decision. Activists of organisations associated with the Aarakshan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti gathered at Ambedkar Chowk, here, and garlanded the statue of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and protested against the BJP government at the Centre for tampering with the Constitution and reservations by making new laws regarding SC-ST and OBC, which would not be tolerated.
On this occasion, the Aarakshan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti sent a memorandum to the President through Naib Tehsildar Kamal Rathod and demanded intervention on the tampering with the reservations for SC ST and OBC. Mussoorie Reservation Bachao Sangharsh Samiti members Jabbar Verma, Jasbir Kaur, Amit Gupta said that the Supreme Court’s decision has been supported by most opposition parties. Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which is part of NDA, has also supported the movement. They said that the case demanding reservation in sub-categories for SC-ST class for reservation in jobs was pending in the Supreme Court for a long time. The Supreme Court, while giving a big decision on 1 August, has overturned its old decision of 2004 and has put its seal on Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes Act, 2006 and Tamil Nadu Arunthathiyar Act and approved quota within quota (reservation in sub-categories). They said that the BJP government at the Centre is violating the rights given to SC-ST and OBC under the Constitution in a conspiracy and the government is indirectly using the Supreme Court in the whole matter. They said that Bharat Bandh has been called in protest against the decision given by the Supreme Court across the country which has been quite successful. Nandlal Sonkar, Darshan Rawat, Arvind Sonkar, Rubina, Deepak Bansal, Sunil Kumar, etc., were present on this occasion.
