Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Jan 28: Former chairman of Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission, Dr C S Dwarakanath, accused BJP, RSS, and Ashish Nandy, for siding with higher castes and denying the backward classes their rights.

He was speaking after inaugurating a symposium on ‘Reservation for Social Transformation’, organized in the city. It was organized at Ravindra Kala Bhavan on Sunday, January 27,under the aegis of Dakshina Kannada District Social Transformation Forum.

Dwarakanath also demanded for enforcing reservation policy for backward classes even in judiciary and private sectors, and for urgently passing a bill in the parliament to provide for reservation based promotions for these classes.

“Fundamentalist parties like the Congress and the BJP are opposed to this bill and therefore stalled the bill from being moved in the parliament, by diverting the focus on coal scam,” he analyzed. He charged Ashish Nandy and RSS of supporting corrupt people like Harshad Mehta, Yeddyurappa, and Anant Kumar. He felt that the judiciary of the country continues to believe in the theory mooted by Balagangadhar Tilak that reservations affectively sideline merit, duly noting that only very few higher posts are occupied by Dalit IAS and IFS officers in the central government, even though a policy for reservation based promotion is in place there.

The symposium was chaired by the leader of social transformation movement, P Deekaiah. At a session on reservation based promotions held later at the venue, special officer in SC ST unit of Mangalore University, M P Umeshchandra, and writer, Raghottama, expressed their views. Priest, William Martis, Dakshina Kannada unit president of SDPI, Abdul Jaleel Krishnapura, and retired deputy tahsildar, C H Bhaskar, also spoke on the occasion.

The programme was presented by Ajai Kumar. Leader of the forum, Dr Vasudeva Belle, delivered introductory address.