Congress, BJP welcome EWS verdict

CHENNAI: Otherwise political rivals, who do not see eye to eye, the State units of Congress and BJP, for once, spoke in the same language, in welcoming Monday’s Supreme Court verdict upholding 10% reservation for the EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) among the forward castes.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president KS Alagiri struck a chord with his national high command and said, “Social justice is common to the whole of mankind. It is not a preserve of a section. Hence, Tamil Nadu Congress wholeheartedly welcomes the 10% reservation.”

Opposing 10% reservation to the EWS among the open category would also not amount to social justice, he added.

“As far as the Congress is concerned, Congress is in agreement with breaching the 50% reservation limit if the situation arises and if it renders justice to all sections. Exclusion of a few has been acknowledged once,” Alagiri added, reminding that the efforts to implement 10% reservation was first taken during the prime ministership of Manmohan Singh.

Notably, the tone and tenor of Alagiri was no different from the state BJP vice president

Narayanan Thirupathy who said: “Whoever opposes the EWS reservation is indulging in hate politics because it caters to the economically weaker ones who are beyond the purview of reservation. Those opposing EWS are misleading people and spreading misinformation among the state people that it would affect the existing reservation. At least 70 different castes will benefit from it. Our PM has delivered social justice to the needy. Even the Congress and communist parties have welcomed it.”

Equally glaring was the eerie silence of the state unit of the Marxist party, which was one of the supporters of the EWS reservation. An ideological nemesis of the BJP, the Marxists in Tamil Nadu have chosen to not react to the verdict over 24 hours since the apex court delivered its verdict. Another strikingly strange union was also felt in the Dravidian quarters where the DMK and AIADMK or at least one or two factions of the now divided party were in agreement over moving an appeal against the Supreme Court verdict.

“There is nothing surprising in the BJP and Congress welcoming the verdict. The true face of the CPM has been uncovered. Marxists always preach equality aloud, but when it comes to social justice, they remain mute. It gives an opportunity to the state people to evaluate who’s for and against social justice. Recalling Ambedkar’s warning about the Marxists, he said, “Beware of them. They will never stand for the depressed and marginalised,” said A B Karl Marx Siddhartha, author and advocate of the Madras High Court.