After taking a principled position on the contentious reservations issue, the elected Jammu & Kashmir government submitted an affidavit in the High Court, calling a writ petition against the reservation policy “frivolous” and “mischievous.” This has generated fresh controversy with the opposition accusing the government of hypocrisy.
It was only weeks ago that the government in response to growing public protests and civil society pressure, set up a cabinet sub-committee to look into the issue of unfair job quotas. The sub-committee, headed by Social Welfare Minister Sakina Itoo, was meant to recommend reform to the existing quotas, which are believed to disproportionately favour the underprivileged classes. But the affidavit tells another story altogether: it goes against the government position.
The government in damage control mode has said it will file a fresh affidavit, if need be. Addressing a press conference in Anantnag. Itoo termed the affidavit in question as vague, The National Conference, on the other hand, has distanced itself from the affidavit. The NC spokesman Imran Nabi Dar has made it clear that the affidavit has been “submitted in a distorted way, without taking into consideration the ground realities.”
But this has not convinced the opposition. The Peoples Democratic Party legislator Waheed Para said that the cabinet sub-committee on reservations “seems to be a façade.” And the People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone tweeted the lack of the mention of the sub-committee in the affidavit, terming this “a legal mystery.”
The petition in the court argues that the 2024 amendments made by the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory government are unconstitutional and violate principles of equity and fairness. According to the petition, the amendments have restructured reservation percentages, reducing the open merit category from 57% to 33% and the Resident of Backward Areas (RBA) category from 20% to 10%. In contrast, reservations for Scheduled Tribes have been increased from 10% to 20%, social castes from 2% to 8%, the Area Line of Control from 3% to 4%, and physically handicapped candidates from 2% to 4%. New categories introduced include children of defense personnel (3%), police personnel (1%), and sports achievers (2%), among others.
The issue also dominated the budget session of J&K Assembly, with opposition parties, except the BJP, aggressively raising the issue. This calls for the elected government to take the issue seriously. Any backpedaling on the issue and it risks alienating a substantial part of its support base in the Valley.
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