Congress looks to ‘expose’ govt Govt committed to reservation in faculty positions, says Javadekar
NOTRUST VOTE Oppn party says motion is more than a show of numbers and it will use the opportunity to highlight govt ‘failures’
NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will lead the opposition’s charge against the government over its “failure on all fronts over the past 50 months” during the day-long debate on the no-confidence motion on Friday.
With numbers not on its side, the Congress hopes to expose the “fault lines” within the ruling National Democratic Alliance and also those who have been critical of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but continue to support its “misdeeds”.
On the eve of the no-confidence vote, the Congress on Thursday said the motion was more than a show of numbers and claimed all the 12 opposition parties are united.
“This is the launch of a campaign which will send them packing in 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” Congress spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters.
He said the opposition parties will highlight various issues concerning the people and ensure that the truth reaches them.
“It is not only a question of numbers. We will use the occasion to expose the government and raise various issues concerning the people of the country and tell the truth to the people. It is to show the mirror to the government,” Sharma said.
Apart from Gandhi, the other two speakers from the Congress would be its leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and chief whip, Jyotiraditya Scindia. The party has been given 38 minutes of the total seven-hour-long debate.
On Thursday, the principal opposition party issued a threeline whip to its members, asking them to be present in the Lok Sabha on Friday during the no-confidence motion.
The Congress will use the opportunity to attack the government on issues like mob lynchings, job losses, agrarian crisis, state of the economy, women’s safety, price rise, Jammu and Kashmir and demonetization.
It will also target the government over “shoddy implementation” of the goods and services tax, “failure” to set up the anticorruption watchdog, Lokpal, bank frauds and the escape of Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choks — who are all wanted for suspected economic offences — from the country apart from alleged attacks on Dalits.
Sharma said Parliament is the place where issues are discussed and debated and “that is where you expose” the government.
He alleged that the Prime Minister and his government “believe in propaganda” and are unaware of the problems confronting the country and its people. “The Prime Minister is at best a demagogue and believes in hypocrisy.”
Apart from its main demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh, the opposition parties have also asked the state’s ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to raise issues such as lynchings and communal violence to present a united front against the government.
The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad held a discussion with Opposition leaders, who agreed that the TDP should reciprocate their support to its no-trust motionby mentioningtheissues raised by them. NEWDELHI: Union human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday the government was committed to 50% reservation for SC/ST and OBC candidates in university faculty positions.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the Zero Hour, Javadekar said the Centre “does not agree” with the Allahabad high court ruling that had in last year’s April struck down a circular prescribing institution-wise reservation to fill vacant faculty positions
“We are hopeful we will be able to save reservation for SC, ST and OBCS. Reservation is a Constitutional right... we stand by reservation and are committed to provide it to SC/ST and OBCS,” he said adding the government and University Grants Commission (UGC) has filed separate Special Leave Petitions (SLPS) against the order and the next date of hearing is on August 13.
The UGC on Thursday asked all universities to postpone the teacher recruitment process till the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the SLPS.
The commission announced in March that an individual department should be considered as the base unit to calculate the number of reserved slot for SC/ST and OBC candidates following the Allahabad high court order in April last year, which was upheld by the Supreme Court.
“A number of universities and colleges are going ahead with the appointments and are calculating the vacancies on the basis of departments which may affect the representation of SC/ST candidates. As the matter is due for hearing, we are asking them to postpone the process,” a senior ministry official said.
A university is treated as a single unit for calculating the number of faculty from reserved categories. For instance, during the listing of all teaching posts of the same grade, all departments are clubbed together to decide the quota. But under the new rule, each department in a varsity was to be treated as a unit but experts had pointed out that the move would reduce the number of posts for SC/ST candidates.