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Govt may consider extending reservations to Christians and Muslims

Law and Justice Minister Ram Jethmalani today agreed to consider a proposal for extension of reservations to those schedule caste members who have converted to Islam and Christianity.

Moving a constitution amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha to extend reservations for SC/STs for another ten years, the minister said that it was the Supreme Court which had denied reservation to those who had embraced Islam and Christianity. He, however, said that a suggestion of Edurado Faleiro (Congress) in this regard was a ''good point for consideration.''

He said that court had ruled that Islam and Christianity did not recognise caste system.

The minister hoped that this would be the last extension to reservations and said that repeated extensions reflected badly on the country.

H Hanumanthappa (Congress) hoped that the reservation would not be carried to the next millennium. He said the attitude of the society should change towards SC/STs. He lamented that no serious efforts were made to bring the SC/STs into the national mainstream.

Minister of State for Planning and Programme Implementation Bangaru Laxman, while supporting the bill, said the recent judgements of the Supreme Court had created some hurdles in implementing reservations which needed to be sorted out through discussion.

Sarla Maheshwari, CPI, regretted that the national agenda of the government did not talk about land reforms, without which it was difficult to bring about a change in society. She said the provision of reservation was made for bringing about a change in society. But even after 50 years of independence, landlords continued to rule over landless farmers.

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