Former Congress chief Rahul accuses RSS BJP for hatching conspiracy to devoid SC, ST n OBC aspirants seek jobs in higher educational institutions
The former Congress president who is on 4700 kilometre long Nyay Yatra acknowledging tumultuous welcome where ever he is going, likely to cross 15 states and impact over hundred parliamentary constituencies has castigated the RSS and the Bhartiya Janata Party for hatching a conspiracy to rid the backward class of caste based reservations in higher educational institutions.
Vociferous Congress leader Rahul Gandhi categorically said that the Congress party will not let it happen at any cost.
It may be recalled that the Union education ministry has unambiguously rejected the earlier proposal/ official directives of the University Grants Commission to accord jobs of lecturers / professors etc to the SC, ST or OBC candidates in the event of the above posts falling vacant in government institutions and universities.
The University Grants Commission chairman has asked to fill these vacant posts at the earliest.
The former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi while criticising the BJP led NDA government said that this is a planned conspiracy of RSS BJP combine hatched to devoid the SC, ST and backward class aspirants to seek jobs in higher educational institutions.
Expressing his grave discontentment and dissent Congress leader of hectic Nyay Yatra wrote in social media platform X as below :
In the new draft of UGC, there is a conspiracy to end the reservation given to SC, ST and OBC categories in higher education institutions.
Rahul added : Today, out of approximately 7,000 reserved posts in 45 central universities, 3,000 are vacant, and of which only 7.1% are Dalit, 1.6% tribal and 4.5% backward class professors. BJP-RSS, which have even talked about reviewing reservation, now want to snatch the jobs of the deprived class from such higher education institutions. This is an attempt to kill the dreams of the heroes fighting for social justice and to eliminate the participation of the deprived sections said, Rahul Gandhi. He further wrote : This is the difference between ‘symbolic politics’ and ‘real justice’ and this is the character of BJP. Congress will never allow this to happen – we will continue to fight for social justice and will fill these vacant posts only with qualified candidates from reserved categories said, Rahul Gandhi.
It may be recalled that according to the recommendations of Draft of Education Panel the posts of professors lying vacant under the SC, ST and OBC categories can be altered to unreserved categories and thereafter these posts can be filled by general category aspirants.
Regarding the filling of vacancies of professors under the SC, ST and OBC categories the draft mentions that in the context of straight admissions there is a general ban on making the reserved vacancies unreserved. Though in the context of extraordinary situations when in group A services/ posts/ vacancies are not allowed to remain vacant then the concerned university /universities can bring a proposal to convert the reserved vacancies/ posts etc into general category. The proposal thus put forward should be officially listed. The university is bound to explain the reasons behind converting the reserve category vacancies into general category including furnishing of Convincing reasons as to why the reserved category vacancy can’t be continued further etc.
After the incessant and strong protest by the Congress party , the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has given assurance not to convert / modify the reserved seats of professor for general catagory in future. He categorically stated to the journalists that after existing central educational Institution act 2019 ( Resevation in teaching cadre) there is no scope of any non clarity in this regard.
