Legality of raising creamy layer bar questioned in SC October 5, 2009
Posted by reader111 in Caste Reservations.Tags: Caste, caste based reservations, caste quota, Caste System, casteism, Congress, INC, OBC, quota, SC, ST
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Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN 15 October 2008, 04:02am IST
NEW DELHI: Educationist P V Indiresan on Tuesday threw an open challenge in the Supreme Court questioning the legality of the UPA government’s
recent decision to raise the creamy layer income limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh for OBCs.
But, the government told the apex court that it had done a reasonable job by fixing the creamy layer exclusion income limit at Rs 4.5 lakh at a time when many elected representatives had demanded raising it to Rs 25 lakh.
Appearing for Indiresan, who had challenged the 27% OBC quota in Central educational institutions, senior
advocate K K Venugopal told a 5-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan that it was an election-eve vote bank politics to appease the rich among the OBCs, who could now gobble up the seats meant for the poorest among the backward.
“You file a separate petition if you want to challenge the Centre’s decision,” said the bench, also comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari.
While agreeing to file a separate petition, Venugopal pointed out that on February 23, 2007, the apex court had quashed a Kerala government decision to raise the creamy layer income limit to Rs 3 lakh terming it too high. The court had felt that those having Rs 3 lakh income could not be termed poor or backward, he said.
“Has the inflation rate touched more than 80% for the Central government now to decide the income limit at Rs 4.5 lakh when just a year back the apex court had turned down Rs 3 lakh limit as unreasonable?” Venugopal asked.
This is intended to widen the OBC net and allow the rich and influential among the backward classes to grab the seats meant for the poorest among them, he said. Disgreeing with him, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati said the government had fixed the income limit for exclusion of creamy layer at Rs 4.5 lakh after a lot of deliberations.
Venugopal said during the arguments on the legality of 27% OBC quota, additional solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam had submitted figures indicating that 97.5% of the OBC population had a daily income of less than Rs 80.
Mandal’s angry young face was fading, now gone October 5, 2009
Posted by reader111 in Caste Reservations.Tags: Caste, caste based reservations, caste quota, Caste System, casteism
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PRARTHNA GAHILOTE
Posted: Feb 25, 2004 at 0000 hrs
NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 24 That one act at self-immolation made him the urban face of the anti-Mandal agitation. But Rajeev Goswami, who slipped into oblivion once Mandal became mainstream and was appropriated by even parties which opposed its implementation by the V P Singh government, had very few mourning for him when he died today at age 33.
Only his old mates from Deshbandhu — he set himself ablaze outside this South Delhi college — and relatives came calling at the two-bedroom flat in Kalkaji Extension to mourn for Rajeev. Leaders who had milked dry the anti-Mandal agitation were nowhere to be seen.
You could only hear the muffled sobs of the aged — his parents had flown down from the US a week ago — and the laughter of Rajeev’s two children — Simran (5) and Aditya, just a year-old — who had no idea that father was gone, succumbing to kidney complications at the Holy Family Hospital where he had checked in earlier this month.
Wife Aarti passed out when they broke the news to her.
On February 22, when they saw their son after three years, Madan Goswami (70) and Nandrani Goswami (62) thought it would all work out. Rajeev had phoned Michigan to tell them to fly home. ‘‘He complained of stomach problems but sounded very happy. He said his health was not a problem. We never expected this to happen. He told us that things would be fine if we came home to see him,’’ recalled Rajeev’s father. Mother Nandrani has no idea how Simran and Aditya will react when they realise their father’s gone: ‘‘He was too young to go. His children don’t even know about his death.’’ Madan Goswami still defends his son’s immolation act: ‘‘I stood by him during the Mandal crisis. Not for a moment did I think that he did anything wrong by immolating himself. The situation and the times demanded it. He did what was required.’’
Rajeev’s college mate Kuldip Mehta — he runs a shoe business in the neighbourhood — said: ‘‘Politics did not fascinate him. Which is why he never aspired for a political career. He believed in helping out people.’’
Vikas Mudgal, also from Rajeev’s batch at Deshbandhu, dittoed Kuldip: ‘‘The fact that nothing came out of the whole struggle against reservations bothered him a great deal. He wouldn’t speak much about it but it ate his insides, added to his misery. That’s why he died so early.’’ Of late, these friends from college hadn’t kept in regular touch. Rajeev too had immersed himself in his brother-in-law’s paint business and had little contact with old friends. But what’s also true is that he dropped off the radar a long time ago. Once the anti-Mandal agitation had lived its utility.
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