Politicians first like British divided Hindu in castes & now are dividing Indians in name of Religion

Let all Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist & Jain compete with each other as a Unit

DAYA SAGAR

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had suggested in 2010 for reservation quota for Muslim also as unit and had also in a way hinted inclusion of ‘some’ Muslims in SC category while he was attending a Conference held by All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz on 1st July 2010 in Patna. Similar demands / suggestions have been made regularly even after that but more for cultivating religion based controversies and less for meaningfully arriving at some genuine solution worth closing the topic once for all. Even some state governments have gone a step forward for ordering some reservation quota in services / education for Muslim as a religious community which surely has not been good &also not correct constitutionally since the reservations for the Schedule caste are not religion based but are more based on social discrimination which had been declared and accepted as a curse prevailing in Hindu society only where as other religious communities had declared that they had no social discrimination based on caste/ sect in them. So the Schedule Caste( socially and educationally backward ) were identified from amongst only Hindu ( Sikh also accepted social discrimination and also included).

As regards the Schedule Tribe where the question primarily was of only backwardness people from among all religions who qualify as a tribe are eligible for reservations in legislature as well as services/ education and there citizens carrying any religion/ sect are included.
Nitish Kumar had then in 2010 also professed / said <“In India caste has deep root, people change their religions but not castes. So, persons belonging to SC category whether they are Muslims or other should be treated in the same manner. Discrimination on the basis of religion is not good for democracy. At the time when I was MP, I had raised the issue to remove the condition of religion from Article 341, but unfortunately it has not been done till date,”.One part of his statement as regards Art 341 was not surely correct since Art-341 no were refers to any religion and hence there was no question of removing condition of religion from Art-341 [Art 341( says (1) The President may with respect to any State [or Union territory], and where it is a State after consultation with the Governor thereof, by public notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State/or Union territory, as the case may be. (2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Castes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any caste, race or tribe or part of or group within any caste, race or tribe, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.]
It will be pertinent to mention here that vide C.O. 19 -the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 issued in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 341 of the Constitution of India the President of India after consultation with Governors and Rajpramukhs of the States concerned was pleased order “1. This Order may be called the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order. 1950. 2. Subject to the provisions of this Order, the castes, races or tribes. or parts of, or groups within, castes or tribes, specified in Parts I to XVI of the Schedule to this Order shall, in relation to the States which those Parts respectively relate, be deemed to be Scheduled Castes so far as regards members thereof resident in the localities specified in relation to them in those Parts of that Schedule. 3. Notwithstanding anything contained in paragraph 2, no person who professes a religion different’ from Hinduism shall be deemed be a member of a Scheduled Caste: Provided that every member of the Ramdasi, Kabirpanthi, Mazhabi or Sikligar caste resident in Punjab or the Patiala and East Punjab States Union shall, in relation to that State, be deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Castes whether he professes the Hindu or the Sikh religion.”; and also The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) orders (Amendment) A??, 1990 No. 15 OF 1990 where in Section -2 it was said ” In paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1990 for the words “or the Sikh”, the words, “the Sikh or the Buddhist” shall be substituted”. It is not out of place to mention here that before 1947 the then India Indian Empire Government had named the caste based / profession based social discrimination officially in 1930s as ‘depressed classes’ / Schedule caste only amongst those practicing only Hinduism which had been questioned by no one and was accepted by Hindu society.
What Nitish Kumar said regarding separate Muslim quota could be surely debated and need be debated. But one thing that need be well received from what Nitish Kumar had said in 2010 that those who change religion ( hope he meant that those who moved to Islam had done that since they had been facing caste based discrimination / social backwardness in the religious society they abandoned) keep on facing discrimination even after change over in the new religion / society too. That means that it was wrong to attribute the alleged curse of caste based / profession based social discrimination officially in1930s by the British by naming ‘depressed classes’ only amongst those practicing as Hindu and even in 1950s by Government of India too in Hindu only. Had leaders of Hindu /Muslims / Christians/ Buddhist/ truthfully accepted in 1949 -50 (i) that the castes and social discrimination are not limited only to those who profess ‘Hinduism’ but could be there in any society: and (ii) had the leaders amongst the Muslims/ Christian/ Buddhists also named the socially discriminated castes ( if there) amongst them ; then the socially and educationally backward castes from amongst the Muslims / Christians ( even Parsi / Buddhist ) too would have been included in Schedule Caste (SC) category in 1950/ 1956 it self. So in that case reservation for SC would have been kept more than 12.5 % in 1950 itself, say15% (say 17% now ) andthe politicians thereafter would have been checked from exploiting the Hindu &Muslim in the name of religion.
(The writer is a Sr. Journalist and Social Activist)