Wrong to talk about creamy layer in SC, ST communities, says Mallikarjun Kharge on apex court verdict

New Delhi [India], August 10 : A day after the Centre spelled out its stance on the creamy layer suggestion given by the Supreme Court in its verdict concerning sub-categorisation, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Saturday that it is "wrong to talk about creamy layer" and said the BJP-led government should have brought a bill in the budget session of Parliament on the issue.
"It is wrong to talk about creamy layer in SC/ST community. Congress party is against it," said Kharge, emphasising that as long as untouchability exists in India, reservations are necessary to protect the rights of SCs and STs.
He also attacked the BJP and said public sector jobs are being privatised.
"This shows the BJP's intention of ending the reservations. On one side, they have privatised public sector jobs. There are a lot of vacancies, but they are not recruiting. SCs and STs are not able to get jobs. No SCs are at the high-level positions. ................................................They are trying to suppress the SCs and STs by classifying them in a creamy layer... As long as there is untouchability in this country, the reservations should be there," Kharge stated while addressing a press conference on Saturday.
He further said that if the Central government wanted, it could have resolved this issue by bringing a constitutional amendment in this budget session itself. "If the Modi government brings a new bill within 2-3 hours, then this was also possible," he added.
"On one hand, the government is slowly eliminating jobs by selling government PSUs. On top of that, the BJP's Dalit-tribal mentality is constantly attacking reservation. We are in consultation with various people - intellectuals, experts, NGOs - to decide on the nuances of other subjects of judgement," said Congress National President.
Notably, the Supreme Court's earlier ruled that states have the power to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs) and said that the authority concerned, while deciding if the class is adequately represented, must calculate adequacy based on effective and not quantitative representation.
The Supreme Court ruled by a majority judgement of 6:1 that sub-classification within the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs) reservation is permissible and it prompted criticism from Congress.
The judgement was delivered by the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, which overruled earlier judgement in the EV Chinnaiah matter, which had held that sub-classification was not permissible because SC/STs form homogenous classes.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday that there is no provision for creamy layer in SCs and STs reservation in the Constitution drafted by BR Ambedkar, and the NDA government is bound to follow that Constitution.
Prior to this, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, held a detailed discussion on the Supreme Court judgment regarding the sub-categorisation of reservations for SCs and STs as outlined in the Constitution.
"Recently, the Supreme Court delivered a judgment regarding the reservation and a suggestion regarding SC and ST reservations. Today, the Cabinet had a detailed discussion on this matter. The NDA government is bound to follow the Constitution prepared by Baba Saheb Ambedkar. According to Ambedkar's Constitution, there is no provision for a creamy layer within SC and ST reservations," Vaishnaw said while addressing a conference.