RS passes quota bill but Oppn asks why the haste

DEBATE PM calls it victory of social justice, Congress says major hurdles ahead

NEWDELHI: The legislation to provide 10% reservation in jobs and education for the economically weaker section, including upper castes, got Parliament’s approval on Wednesday even as leaders from Opposition parties questioned the Union government’s “haste” in pushing the bill through just months ahead of the 2019 general elections.

From its introduction in the Lok Sabha to the final approval in Rajya Sabha, the 124th amendment to the Constitution was cleared in two days.

As compared to the Lower House, where the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) enjoys a big majority, the ninehour-long debate in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed a sharper Opposition onslaught on the government over issues such as the timing of the bill, its constitutional validity, the government’s alleged inability to create jobs, and issues related to its implementation. Some leaders asked for the bill to be first sent to a select committee, while others also demanded that the government bring in the pending women’s reservation bill.

The bill, however, was passed with a 165-7 count in the Upper House of the 172 members present and voting.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress voted in favour, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) voting against it. In the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the bill was passed with 323 “ayes” and just three “noes”.

Shortly after the bill was passed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Passage of The Constitution (One Hundred And Twenty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 2019 in both Houses of Parliament is a victory for social justice. It ensures a wider canvas for our Yuva Shakti to showcase their prowess and contribute towards India’s transformation.”

Speaking in Rajya Sabha, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal accused the government of bringing the bill at a time when more jobs were being lost than created in the country.

“Who are you bringing in reservation for if we are not creating jobs? Jobs will come with economic growth. If you growing at 7.2%, you are not creating jobs,” Sibal said.

He also maintained that the 10% reservation would create jobs for only 4,500 people from the economically weaker section annually. “India has a population of 1.3 billion. You have brought a bill to benefit 4,500 people. That’s what you are amending the Constitution for?” He based the figure on his claim that the government created only 45,000 jobs annually in the last five years.

“Investment is flying out of country… Jobs are being reduced, who are you trying to fool, what’s the purpose of this amendment,” Sibal added, asking the government if it had collected any data before bringing the bill to Parliament and expressed apprehension that the bill could face enormous constitutional hurdles and also big problems in implementation. He said a ninejudge bench of the Supreme Court had struck down 10% reservation for the economically backward category in the Indira Swahney case in the 1990s, calling it unconstitutional.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad countered Sibal by saying that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government sat on a panel report on reservation for economically backward classes.

Prasad said the UPA government sat on the 2010 Sinho Commission report on reservation for economically backward classes. “What stopped the Congress from implementing it?… You did no work for five years and are questioning us now. Maan liya hum late aaye, par durust aaye (Agreed we came in late, but we did the right thing)... Parliament is making history today and this will be discussed even 25 years later. Today is the day of change,” Prasad said.

Congress leader Anand Sharma also questioned the bill’s timing and said that it was aimed at political gains in the general elections: “What took you four years and seven months to bring the bill in the last session before the election? It has been brought by a government that is in the departure lounge of an airport,” Sharma alleged. He asked that the session be extended by one more day and the government bring in the women’s reservation bill. Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’ Brien termed the bill an acknowledgement of the government’s guilt that it failed to create jobs. “~2,100 per day is the new poverty line as against ~32,” he said. This bill is a dhokha [fraud] to the common man and poor people, he said, but his party voted in favour of the bill later. Opposing the bill, the DMK’S Kanimozhi accused the government of doing everything unilaterally. “How do you fix the economic criteria for reservation? The only thing I see is that the elections are 100 days away,” she said. Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav supported the bill but questioned why the bill was not brought earlier. “The bill is aimed at the 2019 elections. If you were honest, the bill could have come three to four years back,” he said. He demanded that the reservation for other backward classes (OBCS) be enhanced to 54% factoring in the increase in their population.

The Nationalist Congress Party’s Praful Patel also supported the bill but cautioned that reservation in unaided education institutes may come with some problems. “Do you know of their fees? Will the poor have the capacity to pay the fees? Even the OBCS get their scholarships after delay of 2-3 years… Hope you will consider all these aspects otherwise this will be still-born or nonstarter. I hope you will infuse life in it,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the Opposition raised questions about rules being bypassed in extending the winter session by a day. But Union finance minister and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said that the Chair has taken the decision “since an important business has been pending”

“It has been a long-standing tradition; we don’t question the ruling as far as the Chair is concerned,” he added.

Union minister for social justice and empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, who introduced the bill, said it was being brought with positive intent as there was an overwhelming demand to support the poor from the general category in getting reservations in educational institutions and jobs.

“At one time, people from the upper castes had contributed towards making reservation provisions for the backward sections. This is a key feature of our culture where we support each other. Now, Narendra Modi, despite being from the backward community, is bringing this legislation for the poor among the general classes,” Gehlot said. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel created a stir when he cited a written reply by Gehlot in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. To a question if the government was considering a reservation in education and job for poor people from upper castes, Gehlot had replied that there is no such proposal under consideration. Patel alleged that the Modi government’s left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. But officials pointed out that such written questions and answers are prepared much in advance.