‘Congress should rethink its stance on EWS quota in reservation’,

Former advocate-general Ravivarma Kumar releasing a book on former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Mysuru on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: M.A. SRIRAM

Former advocate-general and chairperson of Karnataka Backward Class Commission .A.G. Ravivarma Kumar called upon the Congress to review its support for reservation for economically weaker section (EWS) from the general categories.

He was speaking after releasing a book on former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah authored by Harish Kumar, here on Tuesday. Mr. Ravivarma Kumar said the efforts of the struggle for social justice were being nullified. The party should take a stance on either ensuring social justice for Dalits, OBCs or supporting the EWS but cannot be supportive of both, he added.

The Congress should seek a rollback and also file a review petition. He also rued that the Congress had not stated its stance on the inclusion of dalit Christians and dalit Muslims in the Scheduled Caste list. ‘You should file a statement before Justice Balakrishna Commission in this regard’’, said Ravivarma Kumar.

The senior advocate said there was no internal democracy in any political party in the present times. ‘’When there is no internal democracy parliamentary democracy also suffers’’, he added.

Referring to the policies and programmes launched by Siddaramaiah as the Chief Minister Mr. Ravivarma Kumar  said there has been no analysis of its impact or evaluation of the social and economic benefits at the societal levels. He turned to the contents of the book and said though it provides insights into many issue about Mr. Siddaramaiah, there was scope to write the impact assessment of the policies..

He said Anna Bhagya which provided rice at ₹1 per kg helped reduce hunger and malnutrition but there has been no detailed analysis of the impact of the programme either in the book nor has it been conducted at a broader level in the varsities. ‘’I don’t know what the university professors are doing’’, said Mr. Ravivarma Kumar.

Pointing out that there was scope to conduct a detailed impact assessment Prof. Ravivarma Kumar said child labour was rampant when the programme was introduced  in Karnataka. But when nutrition and food was assured in school, child labour reduced and enrollment in schools increased, he added.

Mr. Siddaramaiah, former Minister H.C. Mahadevappa, social activist Pa. Mallesh and others were present.