Mumbai: Virendra Joshi, who works as a driver in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi, was elated when the Central government approved a plan last year to give 250,000 scholarships to school students.
No sharing: Bhalchandra P. Gaikwad at his shop in Mumbai. Gaikwad is among the many Hindus who are against opening SC reservation for Muslims and Christians, saying they already benefit under the ‘other backward classes’ category and in minority-run educational institutions. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint
Joshi had been struggling to pay for the education of his three sons, who he says are very intelligent, and hoped they would benefit from the Rs1,868 crore plan meant for students studying in classes I to X. Joshi then realized that the scheme was meant only for minority students—or those belonging to any religion other than Hindu.
“I am a Brahmin. My children don’t qualify for it,” Joshi said. “They are the wrong religion.”
For once, though, upper class Hindus and Dalit Hindus are on the same side of the often acrimonious debate over reservations, as so-called Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians seek job and education quotas such as those available for Hindu scheduled castes.
“How much do they want? They (poor Muslims and Christians) already have reservations as other backward classes that we don’t,” says Bhalchandra P. Gaikwad, a Hindu butcher who heads the Maharashtra Hindu Khatik (butchers) Mahasangha.
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Muslim and Christian communities also benefit from reservations for minorities in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, says Gaikwad. And they also have 50% reservations in their own minority educational institutions, and scholarships, according to him.
“No one protests when that money is given only to non-Hindus,” says Gaikwad. “No one calls it religious discrimination. Now they (minorities) want the benefits given to us, the poor of the Hindus, as well? They cannot get all the benefits.”
Scheduled castes are entitled to benefits such as 22.5% reservations in educational institutions and government jobs, lower education fees, easier terms on bank loans, and preference in government housing.
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Last month, Syed Shahabuddin, former MP and organizer of the Joint Committee of Muslim Organizations for Empowerment, summoned a conference on the issue of Muslim reservations in New Delhi. The event was attended by Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan, former chief justice A.M. Ahmadi and A.B. Bardhan, general secretary of the Communist Party of India.
Presidential order
Shahabuddhin described as “illegal and anti-secular” a 1950 presidential order that no person who professes a faith other than Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of scheduled castes. The category has remained the exclusive privilege of Dalit Hindus (including Buddhists and Sikhs) so far because of an order signed by India’s first president Rajendra Prasad.