DMK, a key constituent of the ruling UPA at the Centre, today demanded immediate summoning of Parliament to protect the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in elite educational institutions in the wake of the Supreme Court declining to vacate the stay on the reservation act.

Soon after the apex court’s ruling, DMK chief Karunanidhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying “at this critical juncture, we are duty-bound to extend a helping hand to the OBCs in order to lift them from a trying situation and they should not be let down.

“Therefore, I kindly request you to take urgent action to protect the reservation of 27 per cent for OBCs in the central education institutions extended to them by the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006,” he said in the letter.

Karunanidhi said the Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution on March 30 urging the Centre to convene both Houses of Parliament to protect the quota. “We have already taken a stand that OBC reservation can be implemented since the Supreme Court had only expressed its desire to keep on hold on aforesaid reservation and had not passed a categorical order staying the reservation for OBCs.”

He had sent identical letters to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh and Union Law minister H R Bhardwaj.

Congress treads cautiously

NEW DELHI: The Congress responded cautiously to the SC order on OBC quotas saying it will “comment after studying the order”, and “trusted the government to take all necessary steps” in this regard. However, party General Secretary Digvijay Singh admitted that developments may “hurt” the organisation. “It will hurt the socially deprived sections more than the Congress. It is very unfortunate”, Singh said. He said the “people of India have to ponder why the SC always goes against the underprivileged”.

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