Casteist slur mars forward panel Bill

Thiruvananthapuram: The State Commission for Forward Communities Bill, 2015 - which seeks to constitute a commission to identify, and suggest welfare measures for, the economically backward among the forward castes - had a sentence that was patently unconstitutional.

“The reservation availed by the SC/ST, backward and minority communities are limiting the educational and employment opportunities of the youths of the forward communities,” it is said in the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill.

The sentence, inexplicably, went unnoticed during the long and elaborate process of vetting the Bill. When the Bill was tabled in the Assembly in the first week of December, it was referred to the subject committee without a word of discussion as the opposition had disrupted proceedings that day. It was not mentioned even in the dissent noted written by four opposition MLAs.

Finally on Wednesday, this was pointed out by CPM leaders A.K. Balan and G Sudhakaran, and CPI member V.S. Sunil Kumar. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy lost no time to admit the error, and the sentence was struck out and a clarificatory note was circulated among the members. By then the damage had been done.

G Sudhakaran demanded that the law secretary be sacked. “Chandy is attempting to implement Vellappally’s agenda in the state, he is trying to pit the forward castes against the backward communities” he added.  The Chief Minister, though conceding the mistake, said it was the collective failure of the house. “None of you had pointed this out even at the subject committee discussion,” he said. Chandy, however, assured the house that responsibility would be fixed.