In his speech in the Lok Sabha, VCK party President Thol Thirumavalavan slammed the Union Budget as being ‘anti-people’. He accused the Centre of not wanting marginalised students to get an education. The MP also spoke on the ongoing controversy regarding the 69 per cent reservation that Tamil Nadu implements in the state and said that the Centre was ‘gradually destroying social justice’ in the state.
Possibly referring to the Anna University controversy over its reservation policy, the MP said in his speech, “The 69 per cent reservation policy is in practice in Tamil Nadu and the law relating to this reservation policy is a part of the Ninth Schedule. But it appears that in the universities and educational institutions funded through the centrally affiliated University Grants Commission, the Union government has passed orders that it is sufficient if 50 per cent reservation is implemented. As a result, those from the OBC communities are only given 27 per cent reservation.” He said that through this move, the Union government is taking steps to ‘gradually destroy social justice’.
“At the same time, the Union government is making it mandatory that 10 per cent EWS reservation for forward castes should be implemented. As a result, the Tamil Nadu government which had maintained that it would not implement this reservation has now come forward to begin implementing it,” he said. “This government is against social justice. This government is against the poor and working class people. The government only seeks to protect corporates. This is an anti-people budget,” he added.
Thirumavalavan also spoke about the budget allocations for SC, ST students, that used to be made through the Special Component Budget, being completely abandoned. He pointed out that the Post Matric scholarship scheme had been drastically reduced. “In 2018-29, the government made the yearly allocation of Rs 6000 crore for the scheme, but it has now been reduced to Rs 3415 crore, cutting it in half. We realise now that this government does not want poor students, particularly Dalit students to get educated,” he explained. He said he condemned the budget, “I condemn this in the most vehement terms. I demand that the Special Component Plan should be implemented once again, and additional funds must be directed to the Post Matric scholarship scheme,” he said.