http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/One_more_quota_war_simmering_this_time_in_AP/articleshow/2107881.cms
One more quota war simmering, this time in AP TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JUNE 08, 2007 02:51:31 AM] NEW DELHI: As the Gurjar-Meena fire raged in Rajasthan, the gathering at a recent Congress Working Committee meeting decided to skip a lengthy discussion on reservation. The party, which had rushed to provide OBC reservations a few months ago, decided it was prudent to be quiet. But if Rajasthan was directly prompting the Congress' reticence, then it could also not have forgotten lingering quota problems in states such as Andhra Pradesh. The conflict between two of AP's Dalit communities—Malas and Madigas—has put the YS Rajasekhara Reddy government in a difficult position. The bone of contention in the decade-old conflict is the Madigas' demand for a separate quota within the state's Scheduled Caste (SC) quota. The Malas, who are better represented in government and education like the Meenas, oppose the idea. The clash has escalated in the past week with MPs and MLAs from both communities offering to resign if their demands were not met. The chief minister, perhaps having taken the cue from his Rajasthan counterpart, has asked his ministers not to make any comments on the issue. Though all political parties in the state including the Congress, TDP, BJP and the Left have in principle agreed to the Madiga demand — the state assembly has passed a resolution to this effect in the mid 1990s— the issue remains unresolved. The dispute is now stuck with a Supreme Court order scrapping an AP government order mooting the sub-categorisation within the SC category. The Madigas, who have refused to accept the court order, have put pressure on the YSR government to act on their behalf. Malas leaders in the Congress have alleged that the YSR government is favouring Madigas and have threatened to bring their protest to the capital. The YSR government is now refusing to take a stand on the issue and has appointed a committee headed by Justice Usha Mehra to go into the case once again. The Mala-Madiga rivalry traces it roots way back in time. In recent years, with the Malas having enjoyed a major portion of the reservation benefits, the Madigas have demanded that the state's 15% SC quota be further sub-categorised according to the population strength. The community organised itself under the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) and demand a quota of 7% within the existing SC quota in 1996. Mr Chandrababu Naidu's government agreed to the demand in 1997 and divided the SCs into a,b,c and d categories. The Malas, however, challenged the government order first in the AP high court and then in the apex court. It was the TDP government which had fanned the conflict by offering reservation to the Madigas. The Malas, said to be Congress supporters, were not on its radar. Mr Naidu inducted two Madiga ministers in his government in addition to the reservation offer. However, with that promise failing to materialise, the Congress wooed the Madigas to its side in the 2004 elections on the same plank. It managed to get their backing and the TDP suffered in Madiga dominated areas. However, post-elections the Congress government was unable to take a stand on the issue. It continues to remain ambivalent despite having instituted a committee to look into the issue. Though the Mala-Madiga conflict has not taken a drastic turn, it too fits the bill of the quota politics experiment gone out of hand. -- Subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a BLANK email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
