India News
Stay on quotas is 'absurd', says Sharad Yadav
Mar 30, 2007, 12:00 GMT
New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) The Supreme Court ruling staying reservations in higher educational institutes like IITs and IIMs is 'unfortunate, unconstitutional and absurd', Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president Sharad Pawar said Friday.
Yadav joined his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) colleague and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh in criticising the Supreme Court order Thursday that stayed till August the 27 percent quota for other backward classes (OBCs) in centrally run educational institutions.
A furious Yadav also called for setting up a 'judicial council' to go into the selection of judges.
'The government should call all the parties to discuss the constitution of a judicial council. Just as there is a UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) to select officers for the bureaucracy, there should be a judicial council for the selection of judges,' Yadav told a press conference.
He said a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court had upheld the principle of reservation earlier but judges in this case were 'using the same phrases as the petitioning anti-reservation students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
'The reasons given to stay the order are unfortunate, unconstitutional and absurd,' said Yadav, chief lieutenant of former prime minister V.P. Singh when he implemented the Mandal Commission.
'It is ironic that it (judiciary) has not implemented the constitutional provision of reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs in the higher judiciary. Now it is time for parliament to take proper steps so the reservation policy is implemented in all high courts and the Supreme Court of India.'
The JD-U president also struck a note independent of BJP, which had blamed the government for mishandling the whole issue.
He said there are some elements within the Congress trying to 'sabotage' reservations and named Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi. But he added that Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh is making a 'sincere effort'.
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was more restrained in his criticism. 'It is immaterial whether OBCs constitute 54 or 47 percent of the country's population. They are certainly more than 27 percent, so where is the question of any dispute on this account?
'The basis of the consensual decision of parliament, granting OBC reservation in educational institutions, was the Supreme Court judgment of 1991 which accepted and approved 27 reservation in services,' said Singh.
© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Well Mr Yadav has shown his real face...questioning the selection criteria of Judges...way to go MrYadav. I wonder to what length a politician can go to play the Vote game. Infact its time that people should come togather and decide the qulaifying criteria for its politicians.
Let me begin with the first criteria:
First: All the politician should have some other source of legal income apart from politics. This is important since for most of these people its the source of bread and butter and we know that when it comes to that humans can really fall very low.
Second: Politicans should display a fair amount of IQ. Infact there should be a test for the same conducted. They should know the name of our capital and be proficient in addition and subtraction. lets say how many is 2007 - 1931.
Mr. Yadav those are the number of years passed on the report which has formed the basis of the decision.
It is high time that the people going into politics, ligislature and parliament to have minimum qualification. For a peon or clerk minimum qualification is essential. For polititians who make the laws of the country doing a very responsible job must have high degree of sense I mean much more than common sense. Now a days our so called leaders dont lead the country but devote all their energy to secure their future.They have made laws to ensure all facilities including life long pension for themselves. They are now questioning the wisdon of highly learned judges who use lot of time, energy and wisdom to reach to important decisions. Let the judges stay out of the influence of cheap politics. It is very important to help all classes of society specially poor irrespective of class and creed. Classless society brings unity. Our leaders remind people of classes all the time to stay in power and gain cheap popularity. They dont do good of any one except to themselves.
Higher education opportunity should be given to all based on competition. Reservation in higher education is like diluting the very sense of the purpose
page: 1
vipul shrivastava (IIT Bombay)Mar 30th, 2007 - 14:02:29
This is another attempt of such corrupt politians to infuriate the rage that seems to have been tranquilized. Mr. Yadav claimed the SC decision to be unfortunate ad unconstitutional. What can be more unfortunate for an eligible candidate denied a rightly deserved seat in IIT just because he comes from so-called 'Higher Class' and what can be more absurd than an unversed person questioning the actions of Supreme court.
Mr. Yadav must not be knowing the difference between 'IITs and IIMs' and some local govt. school in his locality. It takes time to increase the facilities before such a huge crowd is pushed into the already wobbly infrastructure of these institutions.
Condemning the Honorable judges of being biased is just another action of the reprobate and pathetic mentality of the indefensible polititian. His arguments are totally speculative and have no reason at all. Such selfish politians will do whatever they can to ruin this country just for a handful of votes.
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