Dear
I would like to draw your attention to my
Letter on the six Black OMs issued by successive Govts, including yours, that
are adversely affecting the large number of SCs and STs in Govt Services,
Banks, PSUs, Universities and other Autonomous Institutions. SC&ST Members of Parliament had taken up
this issue, discussed, debated,
protested and agitated in the Parliament, asking you to withdraw and cancel all
these six anti-Reservation and anti-SC&ST Black OMs. We have so far drawn only a blank from the
Govt.
All the promises by you and your Govt, have neither become
realities, nor borne any fruit. More
than three than 3 years had passed by, since the promulgation of the first OM,
and nothing material had yet been done. Your Govt appears to be contemplating some
halfhearted measures, only in bits and pieces, and has been considering various
options that are of no practical use, not only to the SCs&STs but also to
the OBCs who are also adversely affected by many of these OMs. So far, your Govt had only brought about, in
a very casual manner, two Constitutional Amendments - the Eighty Eighth and the
Ninetieth. We also understand that your Govt is a prisoner to the pressures and
influences of dominant caste hindu higher officials in the Deptt of Personnel,
who are basically against SCs&STs and OBCs, and hence are dead against
Reservations for the SCs&STs and OBCs.
Your Govt have so far added to the Constitution, Additional
Provisions in Article 335 to enable the Govt to relax qualifying marks in any
exams, and lower the standards of evaluation in Promotions to Posts and
Services, Reserved for the SCs&STs.
You have also inserted the sub-clause 16(4a) in the Fundamental Rights,
to treat Unfilled Carry Forward Vacancies as a Separate Class of Posts that can
be filled up anytime with suitable SCs&STs, without clubbing them up with
new vacancies and affecting the 50% Reservation Limits. But these do not meet the need of the hour or
remedy the problems created by the Officials and the Courts. Hence, the present Constitutional Amendments are
not fully effective, and would serve very very limited purposes.
Even after these Constitution Amendments, the SC&ST
Employees are helpless. That
is the result and real effectiveness of all the half-hearted and the hasty
last-minute decisions by your Govt, without consulting knowledgeable SC&ST
Leaders on these issues, or taking the SC&ST Parliamentary Forum into
confidence. I would alsi like to emphasize that you should not go on tampering with
the Constitution so casually and so frequently, every time the caste hindus
resent, the officials oppose, the Courts are upset, and the Judges frown. Otherwise you will end up adding, the entire
Subordinate Service Legislations and Rules into the Constitution. But that is not the end.
Your Govt actions show that you are unable to come to grips
with the Unreasonable and Prejudiced Judiciary, and their pre-dispositions
against Reservations and SC&ST Dalits’ Progress in Life. Emboldened by your
soft weak knee-jerk reactions, already many caste hindus and a handful of their
official supporters are saying that whatever the Govt may do or the Parliament
enact, they will get them struck down by their Courts, blaming the Parliament
as being Un-Constitutional! They have
such respect for the Parliament, have so much of confidence in their Judges,
and are taking the Courts for granted.
They so easily predict the course of actions and decisions by their
Judges, and or are in a position - perhaps to influence them to act the way
they themselves think and want the Courts to decide. So cheaply they take the Parliament, and have so much of contempt
for Parliament’s Power, and the Constitutional Amendments.
These also raise the Questions as to whether the Courts,
Judges and the whole Judiciary, are not accountable and answerable to anyone
today? Whether they and the caste hindu
Lawyers can, with total impunity, distort, flout, go against and trample down
the Constitution as they like? This is
not just a Question! They are actually
doing these now! Many of them, in the
name of interpretting the Constitution and the Laws are attributing totally new
and allien unheard of meanings to the Constitution, and specific Constitutional
Provisions. English, and Constitution
today is becoming a laughing stock in the hands of these Lawyers, Judges and
Courts! It is high time we sit up and
take note of these things, before it is too late. Here, I would like to recall the Prophetic
Foresight and Warning of Baba Saheb in the Constituent Assembly on 25th Nov
1949. Baba Saheb, very rightly and appropriately quoted, while delineating
the Limits of the Courts, and the Boundaries which the Judges Can Not Cross -
“Courts may modify, they cannot replace. They can revise earlier interpretations as
new arguments, new points of view are presented. They can shift the dividing line in marginal cases, but there are barriers they can not pass,
definite assignments of power they can not reallocate. They can give a broadening construction of
existing powers, but they cannot assign to one arbitrary powers, explicitly
granted to another.”
This Quotation by Honourable Baba Saheb Dr BR Ambedkar
himself in the Constituent Assembly on the 25th of November while introducing
his Motion for Adoption of our Constitution, is very relevant to us today,
as the intolerant reckless Judges are showing signs of dictatorial tendencies,
and are trying to grab and centralise all Powers with them, by snatching them
from other Independent Sovereign Institutions like the Parliament, and
Authorities like the Govt of India. The
Judges are definitely having much more dangerous, far deeper, clever and clear
sinister designs and plans! Perhaps, the Judges are planning a Coup to
subvert the Govt, Parliament and Democracy, and want to take over all Soverign
Powers. May be they want to create for
the future only puppet Govts, remote controlled by an oligarchy of old caste
hindu judges!
Whatever
it may be, today the large number of SC&ST Dalits and OBCs in the Country are
fast loosing faith in the caste hindu dominated Courts! In any case, the SC&ST Dalits and OBCs, are today not
willing or ready to repose their faith and trust in the hands of a few old
judges, who refuse to be unbiased and function with complete neutrality, to
let their traditional historic biases against the SC&ST Dalits and also the
OBCs show up only too frequently, and that too openly. As a
Democracy, We just can not ever afford to, or be allowed to be dictated and
driven by a bunch of individuals, however great intelligent wise and
experienced they may be! I and my
fellow SC&ST and OBC Members of
Parliament, can never pledge or surrender the rights dignity and future of 260
million SC&ST Dalits, and the 500 plus million OBCs of this Country, to
the biases prejudices intolerance and hatred of any of these great wise men and
women. Once again in this connection,
I would like to fall back on the Speech of 25th November 1949, and recall Baba
Saheb Dr BR Ambedkar, when he respectfully and in all humility quoted John
Stuart’s caution -
all who are
interested in the maintenance of Democracy, namely, not “to lay their liberties
at the feet of even a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to
subvert their institutions”
Honourable
Baba Saheb’s Statement and Mill’s Quotation here were of course directed at and
towards powerful and charismatic Political Personalities, and not to the
Judges. For, none even in their wildest of
dreams ever thought that the Judges would be so greedy of grabbing the rights,
privileges and duties of the Govt, and the privileges and powers of the
Parliament. Hence, it is a very very sad day that, I had to
now Quote, both of them in the context of the actions of the Courts and Judges
in this Country, vis-à-vis the large number of poor and weak SC&ST Dalits. Yes,
it is really sad! And I feel extremely
sad and ashamed of the actions, doings and pronouncements of the Judges. They are trying to be the evil
incarnations of the old Manu, the dangerous and distorted law giver of the
ancient times, who basically had destroyed the Indian Society, and the Great
Indian Nation of the great native Indus Valley Civilisation People. Please
please therefore rethink, and assert the Authority of the Parliament and People
before the Courts, least it be too late in the day.
Coming
back to the OMs you have really not done
anything worthwhile. You have to
therefore immediately and at the earliest take necessary corrective
action. For your information and benefit,
I am enclosing herewith, a Table showing the List of OMs, the publicly stated
reasons for the same, their impact, and what the Govt had done and not done so
far. I also enclose a detailed
Memorandum along with these for your perusal.
In
view of the above, I on behalf of all
SC&ST Members of Parliament and Political Leaders from all Parties without
any reservation, unanimously feel that you and your Govt had not done anything
and had failed to keep up your promises to safeguard and protect the interests
of SC&ST Govt Employees. Your
Constitution Amendments have not served the SCs&STs. In fact, I would like to warn you now, well
in advance, and caution that right now there is a great conspiracy going on
between many employees associations, leading lawyers, and members of the bar
etc, to set aside and declare Articles 16(4A) and 16(4B) as null and void, and
strike them off as being unconstitutional.
Therefore, there is a great urgency, for the Govt to act holistically,
if we are to protect the interests of the SCs&STs, preserve the neutrality
of the Govt, Supremacy of the Parliament, and prevent an endless Civil Strife
in the Country with the SCs&STs and OBCs on the one side and the rest on
the other, which would otherwise break out and become the order of the
day. You must immediately withdraw all the Black OMs, than going in for
piecemeal solutions and resorting to meaningless exercises of Constitutional
Amendments.
To
think of it, there is much more that needs to be done by the Govt, in view of a whole
lot of anti-SC&ST, anti-OBC, anti-Reservation Judgements being pronounced
by the Courts to deny Education, Jobs, Promotions, Seniority and so on! Let the Govt act, before it is too late in
the day!
Hope you could see
reason.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
( Buta Singh )