Comrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary, SUCI(C), issued the following statement on 6 March, 2015 :-
The BJP-led Maharashtra government has scrapped the 5% reservation provided for the Muslim community in educational institutions by the former Congress-led government through an ordinance passed in July 2014. A special provision of reservation, it may recalled, was granted in job and education for the SCs and STs soon after independence under public pressure so that the utterly disadvantaged dalits, tribals and other backward strata of people neglected during the British rule could be helped to overcome their backwardness, develop and flourish in merit and soon come on par with the other sections of the people. It was stipulated that this reservation would be for 10 years and thereafter a review should be taken as to how far this reservation for a limited period had met with its objective. But the fact is that in capitalist India, the purpose for which reservation was introduced was never achieved but with the passage of time, the condition of most of the backward and under-privileged sections of the people, predominantly the SCs and STs, progressively worsened further in tandem with the other sections of the downtrodden masses. Moreover, the ruling bourgeois class cunningly wooed a tiny group within them with undue privileges, lure of lucre and power misusing the provision of reservation thus creating a ‘creamy layer’, a diminutive group of affluent ‘elites’ enjoying all privileges and clout as part of the handful of dominating rich in the society. This ‘creamy layer’ is utterly disdainful to the plight, penury and growing misery of the downtrodden people including the dalits, tribals and other backward communities and is virtually an appendage to the ruling class.
Reservation, in fact, has turned into a tool in the hands of the election-based power-crazy bourgeois political parties to create vote banks by dangling carrot and pitting one section of the people against another. Moreover, reservation has been extended even to the people who, as per existing social stratification, are in the upper rung. So, no right-thinking person can support reservation as it evidently does more harm to the oppressed people particularly the backward and tribal populace and breeds disaffection and disharmony among the toiling masses pressed under the grinding wheel of ruthless capitalist oppression.
But if, instead of abolishing reservation system totally, one opts for select axing of reservation for one particular community and also controls the diet of many of the countrymen by banning eating of beef which is consumed by many across the world, such acts will be tantamount to discrimination and reflective of definite communal bias against a particular community, in the instant case, the Muslims. It is in this backdrop that we highly condemn the decision of the BJP-led Maharashtra government to scrap 5% reservation for Muslims and banning of beef eating which, it is clear, is propelled by the arch communal doctrine of Hindutva which the BJP, Shiv Sena, RSS and other Sangh Parivar constituents flaunt so brazenly.
