Kumar Bahukhandi
New Delhi. Bharat Bandh has been declared on Wednesday, August 21 , in protest against the Supreme Court’s decision regarding reservation for all scheduled castes and tribes. On this day, Dalits are going to protest against the Supreme Court’s decision in the country. Apart from this, campaigning has also started on social media to protest
Let us inform you that in this episode, the officials of Sarva Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Society gave a memorandum to all the officials and different organizations of Jagdalpur and informed about the Bharat Bandh on 21st August. An appeal was made to make Bharat Bandh-Bastar Bandh successful. Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Association, Transport Association, Bus Transport Association, Amcho Taxi Transport Association etc. organizations were also informed. Divisional President of Sarva Adivasi Samaj Prakash Thakur said that the entire division will be closed from 5 am to 5 pm on 21st in protest against the decision given by the Supreme Court regarding reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
There will be a Bharat Bandh. District President of Sarva Scheduled Caste Society Vikram Lahare said that during the bandh our youth will keep moving around on bikes from morning onwards, after that they will gather near Dharampura PG College and walk through the main road to reach Lalbagh Maidan and pay homage to Bhimrao Ambedkar here. District President of the Federation Satish Wankhade has requested all the rural and urban people to participate in maximum numbers so that the echo of the movement can be heard till the Supreme Court.
The Aarakshan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti has called for this bandh to protest against the recent Supreme Court verdict regarding reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench delivered a crucial verdict on August 1, 2024. They allowed states to create sub-categories within SC and ST groups, saying, “Those who really need it should get priority in reservation.”
This verdict has sparked widespread debate and a call for a Bharat Bandh, as reported by OneIndia Hindi. The main objective of this Bharat Bandh is to challenge the Supreme Court’s verdict on reservation and demand its reversal. The bandh is expected to receive support from various social and political organisations.
The protest aims to highlight the unjust decision of the court. In view of the possible violence during the bandh, top police officials held a preparatory meeting through video conferencing. All divisional commissioners, district magistrates and senior police officers attended the meeting. Principal Secretary Home and Director General of Police (DGP) chaired the meeting and directed officials to prepare for the demonstrations on August 21. Western Uttar Pradesh has been deemed particularly sensitive, due to which the police there have been put on high alert. Authorities are taking extensive steps to ensure the safety of the public during the protests.
After the Supreme Court’s decision to sub-categorize SC-ST reservation and the suggestion of creamy layer, another big platform for the struggle on reservation seems certain to be set up. After the August 1 decision of the apex court, the people of SC-ST communities are divided into two parts: pro and anti, and the rest of the society, especially the Hindu reservationists, are keeping an eye on them, enjoying it. Among these, the opposition has expressed disagreement with the court’s decision and announced a Bharat Bandh on August 21. Although there is a buzz all over India regarding the Bharat Bandh, but there is more activity in North India. In the states of this region like UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana etc., the organizations of Dalits have started preparing for the bandh on a war footing.
In comparison to them, the activities of the sub-categorization supporting groups are looking weak. The reason for this is that they neither have big leaders like Mayawati, Chirag Paswan, Ramdas Athawale, Chandrashekhar Azad nor YouTube channels and portals that use social media effectively! Despite this, the leaders and intellectuals of the group supporting the decision of the apex court are using their limited resources to explain the benefits of sub-classification of reservation and are calling for depriving Mayawati, Chirag, Athawale, Chandrashekhar etc. of their votes forever, which is also having an effect.
However, both the supporters and opponents of classification are definitely active at their own level, but the eyes of the country are fixed on the group opposing the decision, which has started preparing on a war footing for a bigger bandh than the historic bandh of 2 April 2018.
However, now that Bharat Bandh seems certain, it is important for the bandh supporters to keep some basic things in mind before joining the bandh. First of all, it must be kept in mind that the Dalits are not going to suffer any loss due to the classification of reservation, because even after the classification, their reservation will remain intact in proportion to their numbers. In such a situation, from the news coming from all around, it seems that the real concern of the bandh supporters is the breaking of unity. To maintain unity, they want to reverse the court’s decision by putting pressure on the Modi government through the bandh. But even if the Modi government reverses the decision of sub-classification under the pressure of Bharat Bandh, as it has done in the case of creamy layer, the unity will not remain unbroken. After the court’s decision, the feeling of hostility towards the alleged beneficiaries of reservation that has developed among the groups seeing benefits in sub-classification has almost become permanent. Therefore, even reversing the court’s decision will not be of much benefit on the unity front, because the non-progressive groups have developed a mindset of seeing the advanced groups as the oppressor class, which seems difficult to change in the near future.
As far as the question of the division of reservation into Dalit-Adivasi unity is concerned, the bandh supporters should not forget the unpleasant truth that there has never been any real unity among them, especially among the Dalit castes! Everywhere, the Dalit castes like Chamar-Bhangi, Mahar-Mang, Dhobi-Dusadh-Pasi etc. have not only been indifferent to each other’s happiness and sorrow, but they themselves have lacked sufficient compassion and brotherhood towards their own lower sub-castes. But if the bandh supporting groups are really worried about the breakdown of mutual unity, then they will have to look for other options to compensate for it, which is not very difficult.
The honourable judges of the Supreme Court themselves have provided such a basis, which can be used to not only give a bigger dimension to unity, but also to end the economic and social inequality in the most severe form and fulfill the dream of Ambedkar-Gandhi etc. of building an egalitarian India. The decision and suggestion that came from the Supreme Court on August 1, conveys the message that for the upliftment/betterment of the deprived, some special measures can be taken even by going beyond the scope of the Constitution and those who have become capable by taking advantage of the system (reservation) should be excluded from it.
Remember that the burden that the court has entrusted to the states to identify the creamy layer along with the classification of reservation, comes under the category of encroachment of the scope of the Constitution: Only the President and the Parliament have the right to change the reservation. However, the deprived for whose upliftment and benefit the honourable Supreme Court has given this surprising decision, are only of the SC and ST communities. Not of the entire Indian society! Whereas the concern should have been for the entire deprived of the Indian society. But the court has ignored it, which is a matter of great surprise.
If the court had cast a comprehensive view on this problem, it would have found that just like Dalits and tribals, the way OBCs, minorities and above all half the population are victims of deprivation and exploitation, is no less a big problem than the non-progressive Dalits and tribals. The report of the World Inequality Lab released in May 2024 titled ‘Towards Tax Justice and Wealth Re-Distribution’ showed that the upper castes have 89% share in the country’s wealth, Dalits have 2.8% and the vast majority of backward communities have only 9% share. But the section in India which is suffering the most from deprivation is half the population of the country, which according to the 2023 Oxfam report has only 3% share in the country’s wealth. In the Global Gender Gap report published by the World Economic Forum since 2006, the condition of Indian women has been seen to be getting worse. This report evaluates gender equality on four bases: economic participation and opportunity, educational opportunity, political participation, health and survival. In the Global Gender Gap report that has been published for more than a decade and a half, year after year, India’s condition has been worse than Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan and even Pakistan. Half of India’s population is more than 70 crores, which includes several dozen countries of Europe and two countries like America.
According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021, it will take 257 years for half of India’s population to be at par with men economically. Overall, if looked at properly, the deprivation of half of our population of more than 70 crores is the biggest problem not only of India but of the world, which neither the Modi government nor the Supreme Court is paying attention to.
The Modi government has been dividing the reservation for Dalits for a long time by setting up the Rohini Commission for the upliftment of the backward classes. The reason behind this is more political selfishness than the welfare of the deprived. The policy of division that it is adopting in the name of upliftment is to create division between Dalits and backward classes so that the parties fighting for the deprived become weak and it can take advantage of this.
Not only this, the ultimate goal of BJP behind creating division in the name of upliftment of deprived castes is to give all the sources of power in the hands of upper castes. Therefore, while it is turning a blind eye to the dominance of upper castes who have captured 80-90% of all the fields like economic, political, educational, religious-cultural, film-media etc., it is completely unaware of the extremely worrying situation of Dalits-tribals, backward, minorities and women
