Date:26/02/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/02/26/stories/2004022606690400.htm

New Delhi

`BJP adopting divide-and-rule policy'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 25. The All-India Confederation of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Organisations today accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of adopting a divide-and-rule policy with respect to Dalits and Adivasis by bifurcating the National Commission for SC/STs to win over the Scheduled Tribe votes in the forthcoming general elections.

Addressing a press conference, the chairman of the Confederation, Udit Raj, said that under a pre-determined agenda, the BJP had appointed the new Chairmen and the Members of the two Commissions to appease the Adivasis. Pointing out that there are 10 new office-bearers in both the commissions put together, he said, with seven earlier office-bearers also in place, a sort of crisis has taken place.

As such, the Dalit leader alleged that taking of the charge by the new members and Chairmen of the Commission on February 24 was "unconstitutional'' as the existing members and Chairman had not been able to complete their tenure of three years.

Recalling that it was on September 30, 2003 that the 89th Amendment Act was notified in the Official Gazette and Sampat Kumar was appointed a Member of the SC/ST Commission, he said, though his appointment made it compulsory and legally binding that the Commission continued until the completion of the tenure, still the Government went ahead and made the new appointments.

Averring that "according to the Constitution no member or Chairman of the commission can be removed from his office before the completion of a three-year-term,'' Mr Raj said the requirement for removing the Chairman of the SC/ST Commission is the same as that of removing the Judges of the Supreme Court.

Alleging that the only reason behind the Amendment (338-A) - which was notified in the Official Gazette on September 30, 2003 -- was to constitute a separate commission for Adivasis, he said no Government has in the past undermined the Constitution so much by going through such a move when the Lok Sabha stood dissolved. "This act is shocking and smacks of a political gimmick,'' Mr Raj said, hoping that the Congress and other Opposition parties will make the BJP pay for playing such a joke on the Adivasis. He also accused the BJP of politically sidelining its most senior Dalit leader, Suraj Bhan, by making the Chairman of the Commission for Scheduled Castes.

A member of the SC/ST Commission, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, said the Government has created a constitutional crisis by getting the new members to take charge when the old team was still in office. Averring that in a major shift from the norms, the new office-bearers reported at the Ministry instead of the Commissions, he said, most of them do no even know their brief.

Further with office space, cars and other infrastructure available for only the earlier seven members at present, he said, accommodating the new 10 office-bearers along with them has become a nightmare. Mr Chaudhury also filed a writ petition in the Delhi high Court today through senior lawyer and Congress spokesperson, Kapil Sibal. Admitting the writ, the court asked the Government to reply on the issue on March 9.