The Sangh parivar's response to the Karnataka BJP accepting the Justice Das Committee's recommendations to increase reservation for SCs and STs betrays the contradictions between the saffron party's ideology and politics, due to electoral compulsions. https://thewire.in/caste/justice-das-committee-reservation-sc-st
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh parivar in Karnataka have been pushed to a peculiar paradox by their own ideological brethren after the state accepted the Justice H.N. Nagmohan Das committee report, which recommended an increase in reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).
The BJP government has even implemented the same in a hurry, through the Ordinance route, keeping the fast-approaching assembly elections in mind. Whether this will pass judicial scrutiny seems to be of no concern to the ruling party, which wants to bank on the electoral gains the move will deliver.
However, the BJP government had to face ideological embarrassment from unexpected quarters for accepting the report.
The Deccan Herald, on November 1, published a story about the sociological, anthropological and constitutional basis on which the Justice Das committee recommended the increase of the quantum of reservations for SC and ST communities. The story, citing the report, read, “The Justice H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission, whose report led to the increase in SC/ST reservation, has blamed the “emergence of Vedic philosophy” for social inequality and the caste system.”
The news article also referred to a portion of the report which held “Brahmins, Upanishads, epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana” responsible for the emergence and acceptance of the caste system and social inequality. Further quoting a chapter titled ‘Origin of Castes’ in the Justice Das report, the newspaper wrote, “The truth is that ethnic system has disintegrated with the advent of the caste system. From the very inception Karnataka came into contact with North India, there entered the Vedic system into Karnataka. Its influence has been greater than that of other religions.”
by Shivasundar
07/11/2022
read more