New Delhi: Taking a stance contrary to that of the BJP-led central government, senior party leader Kirodi Lal Meena has voiced support for the Supreme Court’s call to identify the creamy layer among Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and exclude them from the reservation fold.
Meena has previously too taken a separate line from his party in an apparent bid to shape a distinct identity for himself. Earlier this year, he left the BJP red-faced with his stand on the party’s Lok Sabha losses as well as alleged corruption in Rajasthan.
Speaking to the media in Jaipur Wednesday, the Rajasthan leader, who held the agriculture ministry portfolio until June this year, used an analogy to explain his view.
“One of my neighbours in my village has for the last 30 years been living on daily wages and now his son has also become a daily wager. I, on the other hand, became a doctor first, then an MLA and then minister. My brother has become an IAS officer but my neighbour is still at the same place. Now, he (neighbour) should get a chance to make his life better,” he said.
“I am in favour of excluding the creamy layer (from reservation) and that is why I am supporting the Supreme Court’s decision,” he added.
Meena’s stand is significant as he comes from the Meena tribal community that is dominant in Rajasthan. The Meenas, who are estimated to make up around 10 percent of the state population, are seen as having benefitted the most from the reservation policy and many community members are in the bureaucracy.
By supporting the exclusion of the creamy layer from reservation, Meena is apparently making an effort to reach out to the disadvantaged in his community.
Speaking to ThePrint Thursday, Meena asked “why other disadvantaged groups still not getting benefited from reservation should not get the quota benefit?”
“Those who have been empowered in due course should be excluded from the benefit—that is the essence of the reservation policy, and that is why I have supported the court’s view,” he added.
In contrast to Meena’s opinion, the Modi government has aired the view that the creamy layer concept cannot be applied to deny benefits of quota in promotions to government employees of SC/ST communities as the stigma of caste and backwardness is still attached to them.
Chintamani Maharaj, a BJP MP from Chhattisgarh, had earlier told ThePrint that a lot of confusion had been created over the apex court’s creamy layer observation.
At present, the principle of creamy layer applies to only Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
“How can STs be compared with the OBC creamy layer? How many STs are in the top position in the bureaucracy and judiciary? This creamy layer talk is unnecessary,” he said.
Meena’s ‘rebellion’
Meena resigned from the Rajasthan cabinet in early June, soon after the BJP’s dismal performance in the general elections and in Rajasthan, where it got reduced from 25 seats to 14. His resignation was, however, not accepted.
According to state BJP sources, three weeks later, Meena met Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma to press him to accept his resignation but Sharma refused. Meena then sent his resignation by mail and also disclosed at a religious event in June that he had resigned as agriculture minister.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda called Meena to meet him in New Delhi to discuss the matter of his resignation.
Nadda reportedly asked Meena to withdraw his resignation but he did not relent, saying that “he was not annoyed with any leader”. “The people of my constituency have not supported me in the election and that is why I am resigning,” he said, adding that “he had no issue with the new CM or anybody else”.
However, a senior state BJP leader told ThePrint that “Meena is the most senior member of the cabinet and he was expecting the top job as CM but the BJP leadership gave the post to first-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma to bring a generational shift”.
“Meena was not even considered for the post of deputy CM which went to Diya Kumari and the other to Prem Chand Bairwa. Further, even his agriculture department budget was bifurcated with (another minister) Madan Dilawar,” explained the leader, adding that “since then, Meena has led a crusade on one front or another, from writing to the CM to putting the state government on check”.
Since submitting his resignation citing poll defeat in his stronghold Lok Sabha seats of Dausa and Sawai Madhopur, Meena has not attended office, nor used his official car and residence, party sources said.
At the assembly session earlier this month, CM Sharma was forced to face embarrassment when former CM and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot raised the issue of Meena’s absence from flood-affected areas.
Meena has previously demanded the recall of a housing project in Jaipur as it did not have cabinet clearance.
In May, Meena wrote to the CM alleging “irregularities” in the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the state. It was another act seen in BJP circles as rebellion against the CM.
In the letter, Meena emphasised the need to fix a number of issues at various levels and instructions to be given for “strict monitoring”.
“Our government should also not have to face the same allegations which we had levelled against the Congress six months ago,” he stated.
Meena further highlighted two key concerns—pooling of tenders of the Jal Jeevan Mission, and “embezzlement in quality and quantity of pipelines laid in villages”.
He called for “strict monitoring so that there is no wastage of public money, embezzlement and scam and our government is also not accused of the same”.
According to Meena, under the previous government, “firms pooled (cartel) tenders worth about Rs 20,000 crore at high rates under political and administrative protection”, but due to the “irregularities being exposed by our party, the Congress government cancelled the tenders”.
Speaking to ThePrint, a former minister said that “Meena knows his importance”.
“He was virtually the opposition leader during the Gehlot government by making raids on firms, holding fast on the paper-leak issue and pushing the government on several matters. Since the BJP government’s formation, he has become another power centre, nobody can ignore him,” he said.
“Meena knows that three of six state bypolls are due in his stronghold areas and the government can’t do without him. He is in charge of one seat, Dausa, but he is using a twin strategy—if the BJP loses in Dausa, the blame can’t be put on him as he has already resigned over poll losses, and if the party wins, all credit will go to him as he is a veteran leader of the tribals,” the leader added.
Court & Centre’s view
Following the Supreme Court judgment of 1 August—which affirmed the jurisdiction of states to sub-classify SC/STs to grant them a separate quota inside the reserved category and in which the judges suggested that the creamy layer should be identified and taken out of the fold of reservation policy—the Union Cabinet on 9 August asserted that the principle of creamy layer did not apply to reservations for SCs and STs.
The court’s decision overruled the precedent set by the 2004 judgment in the E.V. Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh case, which deemed sub-classification within the SC/STs impermissible.
After a meeting of the Cabinet, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw categorically said that extensive discussion was held on the judgement and that there was “no provision of creamy layer in Babasaheb’s Constitution”.
“This government is committed to the constitutional provisions given by Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar. There is no provision of creamy layer in Babasaheb’s Constitution. The Cabinet’s well thought out decision is that it is only according to Babasaheb’s Constitution that reservations for SC/ST should be provided,” Vaishnaw told the media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too assured SC and ST MPs who had raised with him the matter of exclusion of the creamy layer that the government was committed to the welfare and empowerment of the SC/ST communities.
Justice B.R. Gavai, in his judgment, said the creamy layer principle would prevent reservation benefits from being monopolised by a few and ensure that the truly disadvantaged get the benefits, while pointing out that such an approach was needed since some communities within these categories had advanced more than others. He also highlighted the need for empirical data to support sub-classification, adding that it should not be done based on political factors.
Justice Pankaj Mithal stated that the quota among SCs and STs has to be limited to the first generation and not the second generation if any member of the first generation has reached higher status through reservation.
“It is also commonly known that disparities and social discrimination, which is highly prevalent in the rural areas, start diminishing when one travels to the urban and metropolitan areas,” said Gavai.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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