Exclusive quota for minorities in TN

NEW DELHI: Even as the UPA government chalks out a strategy to get the Supreme Court’s nod for OBC quotas in higher education, the DMK — a member of the Central coalition — has announced reservations along religious lines in Tamil Nadu.

The DMK government in the state has decided to extend “exclusive” reservations for Muslims and Christians in government services and educational institutions once the Supreme Court gives its judgement on the question of allowing 69% reservations in Tamil Nadu.

The move, if implemented, stands little chance of passing the Court’s muster given the precedent in Andhra Pradesh. The YS Rajasekhara Reddy government’s move to reserve 5% seats in education and employment for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh was quashed by the Andhra High Court in 2005 on the grounds that it was “unconstitutional”.

The Supreme Court subsequently upheld this order in 2006. Tamil Nadu has now chosen to take the same road as AP with Chief Minister M Karunanidhi announcing the decision in the state assembly on Thursday.

Making an intervention during the debate on the demand for grants for the minorities department, the veteran OBC leader told the assembly that the government had accepted the recommendations of the state Backward Classes Commission headed by Justice M Janardanam.

The chief minister informed that the commission, which was mandated to go into the reservation issue, had said a report of the second Backward Classes Commission, headed by JA Ambashankar, could be the basis for the ‘exclusive’ reservation for Muslims and Christians. The Ambashankar Commission had gone into the population of backward class people among the Hindus, Christians and Muslims.

However, Mr Karunanidhi also added, while making the announcement, that the government would take legal steps to implement the reservations after the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict in the 69% reservation case currently pending before it.

Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country to have 69% reservations for SCs, STs, OBCs and MBCs despite the Supreme Court’s cap on all reservations at 50%.

The government had got around the SC order by getting the its reservation laws placed in the 9th schedule of the constitution. However, with the Apex court ruling recently that the laws in the 9th schedule are not beyond the purview of judicial scrutiny, the Apex Court will examine Tamil Nadu’s case in the coming months. The court’s decision in the matter will thus be an important factor in Tamil Nadu’s move to implement the minorities quota.

Mr Karunanidhi, while talking in the state assembly, traced the history of reservations in the state and said the famous Government Order (GO) of 1921 had extended reservations to Muslims and ‘Indian Christians’. He added that in the 1927 GO, Muslims and Christians were provided with separate reservation on the basis of rotation.

The DMK had promised to provide separate reservations for Muslims and Christians its 2006 election manifesto. Thursday’s announcement was welcomed in the state assembly by the members of the Congress, PMK and the Left parties, members of the DMK-led coalition the Democratic Progressive Alliance.