Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday that an INDIA bloc government will end the 50 per cent cap on reservation while asserting that the alliance will protect the Constitution with "dil, jaan aur khoon". Addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh's Bansgaon with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Gandhi said, "There is INDIA bloc and the Constitution on one side and those who want to finish the Constitution on the other." The INDIA bloc will protect the Constitution with "dil, jaan aur khoon (heart, life and blood)", he said and added that the alliance will end the 50 per cent cap on reservation while also increasing it. On Agnipath, Gandhi said the INDIA bloc, once it assumes power, will tear apart the scheme and throw it in the dustbin. The government rolled out the Agnipath recruitment scheme in June 2022 for short-term induction of personnel with an aim to bring down the age profile of the three armed services. It provides for recruiting youngsters between the age .
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday claimed that the INDIA bloc is talking about having five PMs over the next five years and said the fight over 'ghee' has broken out in the alliance, even before the cow has given milk. Hours before campaigning for the sixth round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls came to an end, Modi at a rally in Haryana's Mahendragarh asserted that till he is alive, no one can snatch the reservation for Dalits and tribals. In this election, "you will not only choose the country's PM but also decide the country's future", the prime minister told the gathering. "On one hand is your tried and tested 'sewak' Modi. Who is on the other side, one does not know," he said, targeting the INDIA bloc that has as its constituents opposition parties, including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The INDIA bloc is "extremely communal, casteist and nepotist", he said while alleging that when the Congress was in power, it d
The Congress on Sunday attacked the BJP over Home Minister Amit Shah's quota remarks in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that the Modi government has used privatization as a "weapon" to weaken reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs in the last 10 years. The opposition party also claimed that the secret behind the BJP's '400 paar' slogan is that they will openly try to end reservation this time. The Congress' attack came after Shah, speaking at a UP rally, said the BJP will neither remove reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs nor will it allow anyone to do so, calling it a "Modi guarantee". Responding to Shah's remarks, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "Mr. Home Minister when airports were handed over to the prime minister's best friend in various cities, wasn't reservation finished there? When Air India was sold, wasn't the reservation finished there? When you were going to sell steel plants and oil refineries, wouldn't that have ended reservation there?" "Earlier IPCL, BSNL, Ashoka
Gehlot further said if PM Modi considers himself as the biggest supporter of the OBC community, then he should have a nationwide caste census conducted at the earliest
The Supreme Court on Saturday stayed all proceedings before the Calcutta High Court in a matter relating to alleged irregularities in the issuance of reserved category certificates and admission of MBBS candidates in state-run medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal. In a special hearing, a five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant, and Aniruddha Bose issued notice to the West Bengal government and the original petitioner in the case. It also stayed the orders passed by the single-judge bench and the division bench in the matter. "We will take this up on Monday, took this up now to pass this order. We have taken charge now," the bench said. The top court has taken suo moto cognisance of an order passed by a single bench of the Calcutta High Court that termed as "illegal and ignored" an order of the division bench in a case of alleged irregularities in the admission of MBBS candidates in state-run medic
BJP in its manifesto said that it will remove unconstitutional religion-based reservations and provide this to OBCs, SCs and STs.
Condition will not improve by increasing reservations
The Haryana Cabinet on Monday accepted the State Backward Classes Commission's report on the proportion of reservation for the communities in urban local body elections, according to an official statement. The commission has recommended that every municipal body shall have at least one councillor belonging to backward classes Block-A if its population is not less than two per cent of the total population of the urban local body, it said. There are as many as 78 backward classes in the state and more than 70 of them fall in Block-A sub-category. The commission, headed by Justice (retired) Darshan Singh, conducted an empirical assessment of the political backwardness of the backward classes. In the assessment, the commission found that the backward classes Block-A are not adequately represented in the political setup, so they require the support of reservation in the elections of urban local bodies and municipalities for adequate participation in the grassroots democratic setup, ...
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday said that BJP does not want common people to get the benefits of reservation
The Congress amended its constitution at its 85th plenary session here on Saturday to provide a 50 per cent reservation to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), women, youngsters and minorities in its working committee. According to the amended constitution of the party, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) will now include the former prime ministers from the party and the former AICC chiefs. The number of CWC members will go up to 35 from the earlier 25. The amended constitution says from now on, the party will only have digital membership and records.
The Ministry of Defence has said that the companies assured that suitable provisions would be made in their recruitment policies for reservations for Agniveers based on the available skill sets
Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today:
The grant of reservation to the Pahari community in Jammu and Kashmir will not have any effect on the quota of the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme here, he referred to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement during his visit to Rajouri and Baramulla on the grant of reservation to the Pahari community. "Some people are trying to mislead the communities for political reasons, but I again reiterate with confidence and responsibility that there will no change in the reservation quota of Gujjars, Bakerwals, Gaddis and Sippis," Sinha said. Gujjars and Bakerwals have been holding protests against the Centre's move to give Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to Paharis.
A bill was passed in the Jharkhand assembly on Friday to raise the total reservation offered to different categories to 77 per cent. In a special session, the assembly passed an amendment to the Jharkhand Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services Act, 2001, raising the reservations for STs, SCs, EBCs, OBCs and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government jobs from the present 60 per cent. The bill proposes that the state will urge the Centre for changes in the Ninth Schedule of Constitution. In the proposed reservation, local people of the SC community will get a quota of 12 per cent, STs will get 28 per cent, Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) 15 per cent, OBCs 12 per cent, and EWS barring those from the other reserved categories 10 per cent. At present, the STs get a 26 per cent reservation in Jharkhand, while SCs get 10 per cent quota. The OBCs currently get a 14 per cent quota in the state, and increasing it was an electoral promise of all mainstream parties in 2019, .
On January 12, 2019, the government of India amended the Constitution to provide a 10 per cent reservation to the candidates from the general category that belong to the EWS
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said his government will take every measure to offer legal protection to the ordinance increasing the reservation for SCs and STs in education institutions and government jobs. The ordinance increasing the reservation for Scheduled Castes from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and Scheduled Tribes from 3 per cent to 7 per cent, got Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot's assent on Sunday. After it was approved by the Governor, it was made public through a gazette notification. The gazette notification said the number of castes increased drastically after the inclusion of some more communities. The total population of SCs and STs in the state went up by leaps and bounds, it added. "There is a need to get approval of both the Houses, which we will do in the next (Assembly) session," Bommai said. Regarding a few other recommendations on reservation, the Chief Minister said those proposals are pending before various commissions. Once the report come
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday announced that the Gujjar, Bakerwal and Pahari communities in Jammu and Kashmir will get reservation benefits in accordance with the recommendations of the Justice Sharma Commission which examined the issue of quota. He said this while addressing a rally organised in this town, situated at the foothills of the Pir Panjal mountain range along the Indo-Pak border. Shah also said there will be no decline in ST quota of Gujjars and Bakerwals and Paharis and everyone will get their share. He said the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 has paved the way for providing reservation benefits to the deprived sections of the society in Jammu and Kashmir. "The Justice Sharma Commission has recommended that Paharis, Bakerwal and Gujjars should be included for ST quota benefits. These recommendations have been received and soon after completion of legal procedure, Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis will get the reservation benefits," he said. The home minister
Forum of Academics for Social Justice has written to VC of Delhi University demanding that before admission process for SC, ST, OBC quota begins, data of last 5 years should be checked
The Commission was set up by the President under the Article 340 of the Constitution to sub-categorise OBCs so that the benefits of reservation reach all of them
Fulfilling one of the key poll promise made by Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), a coalition partner of the BJP in Haryana, a law that provides 75 per cent reservation