A day after being passed by the Lok Sabha, the 127th Constitution Amendment Bill was also approved by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The bill was brought to restore the power to states to make their own OBC list. Now this bill will be presented to the President and with his signature it will come into force as law.
Under this, all states and Union Territories of the country will have the right to decide the list of castes for OBC reservation at their level and give quota to them. On Wednesday, Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar proposed this bill in the House and started discussion. He said that this Constitutional amendment has been brought to give right to the states to prepare OBC lists. He said that if the state list was abolished, then about 631 castes would not get the benefit of reservation in educational institutions and appointments.
The bill was passed by the House following a division. As in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition parties decided to “cooperate” with the government in passing the bill and suspended their protest in the House over their demand for a probe into allegations of surveillance through Pegasus spyware and repeal of farm laws. The Opposition parties have been protesting and forcing adjournments since the beginning of the monsoon session over their demands. Replying to the debate on the bill, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar said there was unanimous support for the bill and it was historic. He said Social Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data based on the 2011 census was has been used in welfare schemes of the Narendra Modi government including Ujjwala and Ayushman Bharat. The division took place through voting slips as the House has a special seating arrangement as part of precautions against Covid-19. The process of providing voting slips to members and collecting them took time.
The bill was passed by a majority of the total membership of the House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting. The Parliament had in August 2018 passed a Constitution amendment bill to give constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes.
Senior leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared on behalf of the Congress. He clearly said that by bringing this amendment, the government is rectifying its old mistake. But on the second mistake, nothing has been said in this bill. Singhvi said that there is not a single word in this bill on the 50 percent reservation limit. Initiating the discussion in the Upper House, Singhvi said that the government had brought the bill to get over a lacuna “it had left” in the 2018 bill. He said the Opposition parties had repeatedly told the government when the bill was being passed the powers of states on preparing the OBC list should be protected. He said the government should increase the reservation ceiling beyond 50 per cent.
Participating in the debate on the bill, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said it should have a provision that states can give reservation above the cap of 50 per cent. He said the backlog of vacancies for Other Backward Classes should be filled.
The Samajwadi Party supported the Constitution Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Speaking in support of the bill, SP MP Professor Ram Gopal Yadav also said that nothing is being given to OBCs on the ground. Professor Ramgopal Yadav said that after this bill, the states will get the right to make the list, they will not get the benefit of it until the cap of 50 percent is not increased.
RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha, while supporting the Constitution Amendment Bill, said: “I also asked about the caste census figures in the House many times, to which the answer was that the figures have become corrupt.” Jha said that the cap of 50 per cent reservation limit will have to be removed, only then OBCs will get the benefit. During the debate on this bill in the Rajya Sabha, many Opposition parties, including the Congress, demanded that the central government abolish the 50 percent reservation limit. Demand for increasing reservation ceiling was made by several Opposition members, including from DMK and Shiv Sena. Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena also raised the issue of the Maratha reservation. Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP, however, said the Congress did not give constitutional status to OBC Commission during its rule. WITH AGENCY INPUTS