90-year-old wants ‘Gandhi’ to be only caste

New Delhi: With the Supreme Court refusing to entertain his petition, a 90-year-old Gandhian and freedom fighter has sought the intervention of President Pranab Mukherjee to persuade the Centre and state governments to chalk out a programme for creation of a new caste, ‘Gandhi caste’ for children of inter-caste marriages to pave the way for a casteless society.

At a time when Patel and Gujjar leaders want their castes to be included under the Other Backward Classes category, the Gandhian wants to eradicate divisions in society on caste basis. He says there should be only one caste and that should be called Gandhi caste and children of inter-caste marriages should not suffer.

In 2013 the apex court had declined the public interest petition filed by ‘Salem’ Velu Gandhi alias C. Velu, on the ground that being a policy decision of the government, the court cannot give any direction to the Centre or the states. The apex court gave him liberty to make a representation in this regard.

Accordingly he made a representation to the then Manmohan Singh government. As there was no information on action taken, he has sought the intervention of the President. In his representation, Mr Velu said he felt aggrieved at the caste system and its serious consequences. To eradicate divisions in society on caste basis, there should be only one caste and that should be called ‘Gandhi caste’.

He said, “When babies are born, they do not carry any special mark of caste. It is society that labels them. The Hindus are divided into more than 9,500 castes. Even among Muslims there are sub-castes.” Mr Velu said that caste labels had acquired government sanction as early as in 1920. Discrimination on the basis of caste was the root cause for the country being enslaved for years. After independence, the elected representatives perpetuated the system.

He said, “When a childgoes to school, his caste is asked and the discrimination that begins from here gradually increases. The nation should adopt a four-fold principle to form the Gandhi caste, viz. involving those who did not believe in the caste system; inter-caste marriage families; orphan children, and those who decided to change their religion.”