Tejashwi Yadav slams Nitish Kumar after Patna HC scraps Bihar govt's quota hike

After Patna High Court on Thursday set aside the state government's amendments to increase the reservation for Backward Classes, extremely Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribes, and Scheduled Castes in jobs and educational institutions, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav targeted BJP and said the party has always been against reservation and tried its best to stop caste-based census.

While speaking with ANI, Yadav said, "We increased the reservation for the most backward, Dalits, tribals and backward society. At that time also, we had requested the Government of India to put it in Schedule 9... Some people of BJP always want to stop such work by filing PILs and the caste-based census was also stopped in the same way."

Stepping up his attacks on the BJP, Yadav said, "The people of BJP have always been against reservation. We had not only doubts but full confidence that these people would try to stop and end the increase in reservations for Dalits, tribals, backward and most backward classes. These people had also tried their best to stop the aste-based survey of our government at every level."

The RJD leader further added, "We are hurt by this and this work was done very impartially. We had given the reservation to the ones who deserved it. We had also requested to include it in Schedule 9 in the Eastern Zonal Council meeting held on 10 December 2023 in Patna under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but even after six months, the BJP government did not do so. This shows that the BJP is against caste census and reservation. We continued to demand this in the Lok Sabha elections."

Yadav also targeted the JDU party headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and criticised it for remaining silent on the issue. "I don't know why the JDU people and Nitish Kumar are silent. If the Bihar government does not go to the Supreme Court, then the Rashtriya Janata Dal will go to the Supreme Court."

Notably, a division bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Harish Kumar set aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Act, 2023, and The Bihar Reservation Act, 2023 as ultra vires and violative of the equality clauses under Articles 14, 15 and
16.

The Bihar legislature had in 2023 amended both Acts and increased the reservation from 50 per cent to 65 per cent in jobs and higher educational institutions.

Based on the findings of the caste survey in the state, the state government increased the quota for SC to 20 per cent, Scheduled Tribes to two per cent, Extremely Backward Classes to 25 per cent, and Backward Class to 18 per cent.

With the enactments, Bihar has one the highest reservation percentage among larger states, reaching a total of 75 per cent. This includes a 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker section (EWS) among the upper castes.

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