Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday lent her support to the ongoing Bharat Bandh and called it a 'conspiracy against reservation.' The day-long Bharat Bandh was called by some Dalit and Adivasi groups to protest against the Supreme Court's recent verdict on the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SCs).
Mayawati took to X and said, "BSP supports Bharat Bandh because there is anger and resentment against the Supreme Court's decision regarding sub-classification of SC/ST and creamy layer in them on 1 August 2024 due to the conspiracy against reservation by parties like BJP and Congress and their collusion to make it ineffective and finally end it."
"In this regard, the people of these classes have given a memorandum to the government today under 'Bharat Bandh' and have made a strong demand to abolish the changes made in reservation through constitutional amendment, etc., which an appeal has been made to be done in a disciplined and peaceful manner without any violence."
"The constitutional right of reservation given to OBC community along with SC-ST is the result of the continuous struggle of Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, the true messiah of these classes. The BJP, Congress and other parties should understand its necessity and sensitivity and should not play with it."
Twenty-one organisations across the country have called for the Bharat Bandh against the Supreme Court order, which they have said will harm the basic principles of reservation.
In a landmark verdict on August 1, the Supreme Court held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the SCs, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.
The apex court, however, made it clear that states have to make sub-classification on the basis of "quantifiable and demonstrable data" of backwardness and representation in government jobs and not on 'whims' and as a matter of "political expediency".
