Taking the view that caste transcends both religion and class as the primary source of discrimination in India, Janata Dal(U) president Sharad Yadav today came out strongly against moves to provide reservations for Muslims as a whole but at the same time demanded that Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians should be constitutionally included in the Scheduled Castes category and benefit from existing quotas for SCs.

In a statement that takes a very different view from both the BJP’s stance against religion-based reservations as well as from the pro-reservation statements by leaders such as Ram Vilas Paswan, the JD(U) president said those who were advocating quotas on the basis of religion or economic grounds were actually seeking to dilute the centrality of caste and undermine reservations for OBCs in particular.

Without referring to the “creamy layer” controversy, Yadav also made it clear that his party would oppose any move to dilute quotas by citing class differences within OBCs. “Reservation is not an anti-poverty measure. It has nothing to do with the economic advancements of the beneficiary classes. It is a policy of positive discrimination to offset the discrimination that is institutionalised in the caste system. That is why the only criterion for reservation is caste,” the strongly worded statement said.

In reply to questions, he reiterated that “reservation has nothing to do with (economic) empowerment; it is to do with a sense of belonging, of inclusion.” That is why demands that the reservations be extended to the poor among upper castes were equally untenable, he asserted.

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