Police avert clash between groups over quota issue

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 29

With timely intervention of the police, a clash between supporters and opponents of caste-based reservation was averted this afternoon. The issue is likely to snowball into a major political controversy as rival groups have decided to intensify their mobilisation campaign.

On the one hand, opponents of reservation have warned the government against challenging the High Court’s ban on reservation in promotion in the Supreme Court and on the other, Congress Legislature Party leader Nawang Rigzin Zora has introduced a Bill in the Assembly to ensure quota in promotions.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the general category organised a rally today with the slogan “Aarakshan hatao desh bachao” at Maharaja Hari Singh Park. Pro-reservation organisations, on the other hand, had announced their decision to organise a counter-rally at the same venue.

As pro-reservation activists gathered at the Exhibition Ground to start their march towards Maharaja Hari Singh Park, their march was foiled by the police and a clash averted between the two rival groups.

Interestingly, the ongoing controversy over caste-based reservation had led to cracks in all political parties as legislators belonging to reserved categories ignored their political affiliations to fight for, what they called, their constitutional rights.

Zora is leading the legislators who have started exerting pressure on the government against banning reservation in promotions. He was the main target in today’s rally of the JAC, a conglomeration of various social organisations against caste-based reservation.

The Joint Action Committe leaders flayed Zora for introducing a private member’s Bill in the Assembly for continuation of reservation in promotions.

Unfazed by the attack from anti-reservation groups, Zora asserted that he had mobilised MLAs of all political parties who belonged to reserved categories for this cause.

“It is my constitutional right. We will fight for the cause of all reserved categories,” Zora told The Tribune. He alleged that the the BJP had hatched a conspiracy at the national and state levels to deprive weaker sections of their constitutional rights.

He pointed to a landmark judgment of the High Court on October 9, 2015, in which reservation was banned in promotions.

He alleged that it was failure on the part of the state government to protect its own reservation Act. “There was a deliberate move on behalf of the BJP to get reservation banned in promotions,” he said.

Meanwhile, JKRCEA president Dr Sanjay Bhasin announced the decision to intensify their drive in support of reservation in promotions. “We have decided to block the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Udhampur on June 5 to awaken the government from deep slumber,” he told The Tribune.