New Delhi : Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Prof Manoj Kumar Jha on Saturday said that Rohit Vemula's suicide sparked a controversy in the nation but despite that, such incidents have not stopped and the people are still witnessing similar atrocities.
Speaking at an event hosted by All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association (AIISCA) on the topic "Reservation in the Private Sector", Prof Jha remembering Babasaheb Ambedkar said that "Dr Ambedkar was very sharp in mathematics. Once during his school time, he was asked by his teacher to come forward and solve a problem on the classroom board. But as soon as he started walking, all the other students (from the higher castes) rushed towards the blackboard as their tiffin boxes were kept behind that. There was a belief that their food would get polluted if a Dalit person would come closer to that. And in one of his works, Babasaheb has written that he never forgot that day. And that has been going for centuries."
On the caste survey in Bihar, the RJD leader said that "there are several castes and sub castes which are still living in the background. Nobody knows them but they do exist. The question here is not of visibility. People including from the BJP were not very happy with the findings of that survey."
He further said, "I once asked Union Education Minister Dharmender Pradhan if there would be any reservation in the foreign universities that are being set up in India and in return he replied that you need to change your spectacles."
"When the land belongs to the government, money kept in the banks belonged to the people, government given loans to these big industrialists who many a time run abroad taking away all our money. So what is private? And I believe that there should be reservation in the private sector. People talk about merit but the fact is that merit is a myth", he further said.
Similarly, former AAP Minister Rajender Pal Gautam said that "due to the restrictions posed by Manu Smriti, the Dalits and the other backwards have failed to acquire lands and capital. You look at the present situation. A particular community has been controlling all the assets since centuries but the time has come that we should raise our voice."
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