Let Parliament decide if there is a need for caste sub-categorisation: Thirumavalavan
Clarifying his position on the recent Supreme Court verdict upholding sub-categorisation of castes, VCK founder and Chidambaram MP Thol. Thirumavalavan on Sunday said that his party was mainly opposed to it for having allowed State governments to sub-categorise communities within the Scheduled Castes (SC) list, instead of letting Parliament deliberate on such matters.
He underscored that the VCK was not opposed to numerically smaller and weaker SC communities getting representation in education and jobs.
The internal reservations for the Arundhathiyar community within the SC quota should be likened to providing sub-quota, and not be considered as ‘sub-categorisation’, he told The Hindu. “We support the reservations provided to the Arundhathiyar community. In this case, around seven were grouped and renamed as Arundhathiyar because they considered themselves as homogenous communities. However, in the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh, SC communities were divided into four categories – A, B, C, and D – and reservations are provided separately. In Tamil Nadu, the government has not done something like this,” he said.
Mr. Thirumavalavan further said that the creation of Backward Classes and Most Backward Class categories could be called ‘sub-categorisation’, and PMK leader S. Ramadoss was seeking a sub-quota of 10.5% within the MBC quota for Vanniyars.
“We are only stating that State governments shouldn’t be given powers to sub-categorise [communities]. Such powers should be vested only with Parliament. If there is a need to sub-categorise, let Parliament deliberate on it. Sub-categorisation of SC communities will destroy the unity within the SC communities, and create a permanent divide,” the VCK leader added.
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