After the 127th Constitution Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, the All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA) has welcomed the move but also said that it should be made sure that states don't misuse the powers of inclusion by adding "dominant castes" to the list. The bill will let states and UTs prepare their own social and educationally backward classes list. The AIOBCSA also said that India should remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations and adopt the Tamil Nadu model.
The association added that states need to establish their State Level Commission for Backward Classes to analyse issues of the SEBCs. "The states must not include or exclude any castes without any proper study on the social, educational, economical, cultural and political aspects of the caste/s before inclusion in the SEBC lists," the AIOBCSA said in a statement. Apart from that, the AIOBCSA has demanded that the 50 per cent cap on the reservation policy must be done away with and that the reservation model of Tamil Nadu must be replicated across the country.
In a rare instance of mutual agreement, the opposition leaders and the government were united in passing this particular bill, first in Lok Sabha and then in Rajya Sabha. The association statement said that such unity and this bill is "historic as it will strengthen the federal system and helps in the deepening of the social justice process in the country". The association has further demanded that Union Government needs to conduct a Caste Census. This, the association said, will provide the Union and state to take social-justice policy decisions based on accurate empirical data.
This bill relieves the President from doing so and allows the states to maintain their own 'state list' of Other Backward Classes. The association statement read, "The consultation process with the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) shall continue and the powers enshrined to the NCBC to conduct any enquiry related to the welfare of the OBCS shall continue."
