VCK to hold protest on Aug. 13 against Supreme Court verdict over sub-categorisation of communities in SC list

VCK leader Thirumavalavan during an interaction with media persons in Chennai on Friday.
| Photo Credit: S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder and Chidambaram M.P., Thol. Thirumavalavan, and VCK general secretary and Villupuram M.P., D. Ravikumar, on Friday flagged the ‘dangers of sub-categorisation’ of various communities within the Scheduled Caste list and the comments of the Supreme Court justices on ‘creamy layer’ within SC quota.

Mr. Thirumavalavan also announced a protest on August 13 in Chennai against the SC verdict allowing sub-categorisation of communities within SC list by the State government and the comments on creamy layer, claiming that it would ultimately pave the way to end reservations.

Further more, VCK leaders met Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and few other leaders in an effort to garner support on this issue.

In a statement, Mr. Thirumavalavan said the Union government had ensured that there was no way to enumerate the population of SC/STs by not conducting a census and refusing to increase reservations based on 2011 census data.

“In Union government jobs, the 15% reservations for SCs have not been implemented in any department. Similarly, 7.5% reservations for STs also have not been ensured. The State governments too have not filled the SC/ST vacancies and have kept them without appointing anyone,” he said, adding, “while lakhs of SC/ST youth are struggling to find jobs, a justice has said that reservations should not be given to SC/ST person if one generation has received its benefit.”

Mr. Thirumavalavan further said that there were fears that the BJP government would implement ‘creamy layer’ for SC/ST reservations after four out of seven judges said it.

“Instead of using Parliament to meddle with SC/ST reservations, they are using the Supreme Court. We urge the Union government to file a review petition against the SC verdict that allows States to sub-categorise SC communities and provide reservations. The comments regarding ‘creamy layer’ should be retracted and proportional reservations for SC/STs according to their population should be provided,” he said.

Villupuram MP D. Ravikumar said that while it was true that providing internal reservations for Arundhathiyars within SC quota in Tamil Nadu could be seen broadly as sub-categorisation, it had not been done in the manner it was done in other states. He said that sub-categorisation itself was an attempt at introducing a creamy layer in SC/ST reservations.

“In Bihar and few other States, SC list has been organised into numerous groups. In a broad sense, we could call Arundhathiyar grouping also as sub-categorisation but this is different. I had spoken in the Assembly that internal reservations for Arundhathiyars should be given after increasing the overall reservations for SC/STs. At the time, Kalaignar said it wasn’t possible because it would breach the 69% reservation norm in Tamil Nadu.”