The grand old party also appealed that the people should not accept this decision of creamy layer.
“I would like to appeal that all people should unite and ensure that this judgement does not get recognition and this matter should not be raised again,” he said.
The apex court had asked the state governments to come up with a suitable criteria to bar the ‘creamy layer’ among SCs and STs from availing reservation.
Suggesting that the Congress won’t “tolerate this”, Mallikarjun Kharge pointed out, “The list of SC-ST is different in every state. Therefore, we will move forward after thinking carefully about who benefits from this list and who suffers losses.”
“How can you apply a creamy layer when there is so much backlog? We will never tolerate this,” he added.
He also said that the creamy layer judgement would sabotage the Dalit community.
“On one hand, there are lakhs of government jobs in the country for which recruitments are not being done, on the other hand you are crushing the Dalit society by bringing in the creamy layer,” he said.
‘Govt should’ve rejected SC’s judgment’
The Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge questioned the PM Modi-led government’s intentions on reservations saying that the central government should have introduced legislation in Parliament to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter.
“The Prime Minister says that we will not touch it. If that was the case then you should have said immediately that it will not be implemented. You should have brought it in the Parliament and rejected the Supreme Court’s judgment. But today 10-15 days have passed, but you do not have time for this,” he said.
‘BJP‘s intention to end reservation becoming apparent’
Congress party that has always advocated for conducting a caste census in the country accused the saffron party of having intentions to end reservation.
“BJP’s intention to end reservation is now slowly becoming apparent. Today, government jobs and reservation are being ended by handing over PSUs to private hands,” Kharge said.
“Rahul Gandhi is also thinking about this issue, he has called many intellectuals and discussed this topic. We will do whatever we can to protect the Dalits and the deprived,” he added.
‘As long as there’s untouchability, reservation will remain’
Highlighting that massive imbalance of Dalit community’s representation in high courts and the Supreme Court, Kharge said, “Today, despite reservation, there are no people from the Dalit community in the high court, there are only a few people in the Supreme Court. Similarly, there is no one on the top posts of officers.”
The 7-judge SC bench that pronounced the judgement with 6:1 majority had only one judge, Justice Gavai, from Dalit community.
“Who do you want to benefit by bringing a creamy layer? By bringing a creamy layer (concept) on one hand you are denying untouchables and giving to those who have enjoyed privileges for thousands of years. I condemn this,” he said.
The rationale behind the apex court suggestion to exclude the ‘creamy layer’ was that children of civil servants and other members of SCs who have advanced socio-economically and received quality education should not benefit from quotas. Currently, this policy of excluding the creamy layer applies only to Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
“As long as there is untouchability in this country, reservation should and will remain. We will keep fighting for it. My appeal is that everyone should not accept this decision of the creamy layer,” he said.
Kharge’s comments follow a statement from the Union Cabinet chaired by PM Modi on Friday which claimed that the Constitution, as drafted by B R Ambedkar, does not include a provision for a creamy layer in the reservation for SCs and STs.
The leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha assured that a consultation committee would be set up to address this issue.
“Congress wants us to include such NGOs as well who have been working on this subject for many years. Therefore, we will move forward after taking everyone’s opinion,” he said.