Reservation wall will be broken: Rahul Gandhi promises to dismantle Supreme Court’s 50% cap on reservations
On 9th April, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reiterated his promise that the party would remove the 50% reservation quota for members of the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in government employment and education. The development transpired during a Congress session in Ahmedabad. He also reaffirmed the party’s call for a national caste census and assured that the Congress would follow Telangana’s recent example nationwide.
The Telangana government approved a bill that elevates the reservation for Backward Classes (BCs) to 42 per cent, thereby surpassing the 50 per cent limit on total reservations established by the Supreme Court. He announced, “Telangana has taken a revolutionary step and shown the way to the country. I want to assure you that this 50 per cent wall will be broken. What happened in Telangana, we will do in Delhi and for the entire country.”
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha stated that the OBCs, members of the most backward castes, Dalits, particularly those who are most marginalized, minorities, and Adivasis make up 90% of the population in Telangana. He claimed that the demographic composition reflects the overall situation of the nation. He cited the 1992 Mandal Commission decision by the Supreme Court, which limited reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs to 50% of open seats or positions.
Notably, the Gandhi scion made a similar statement at a “Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan” event in Patna, Bihar on 7th April. He alleged, “I told Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha, right in front of him, if you don’t dismantle this artificial 50 per cent barrier on reservations, we will break it, destroy it, and throw it away.”
The Congress has regularly demanded that this ceiling be lifted, claiming that it hampers chances for under represented population and needs to be re-examined to guarantee more equitable access to resources, work and education.
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