Reservations: PM sets up panel of four ministers

Affluent among the OBCs should not benefit from the quota: CPM

The committee, which is to consist of Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherji, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister H R Bharadwaj, is likely to help government buy time in an agitation that seems to be already petering out.

Signals were sent across to both supporters and critics of reservation today, almost simultaneously. On the one hand, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh gave his word to Parliament that the government would not go back on the reservation promised to backward classes when it amended Article 15 of the Constitution late last year, but on the other, Minister of State for Youth Affairs Oscar Fernandes made an unannounced visit to the venue of the ongoing agitation against reservation at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here and heard the students out.

The CPM today added a new element to the controversy over quota, with the politburo issuing a statement that the affluent among the OBCs should not benefit from the quota and that reservations should be extended to the poor among non-OBCs and non-Dalits based on a purely economic criterion.

Pro-reservation protesters led by Dalit leader Udit Raj of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations marched into the AIIMS premises today, but were arrested by the police.

Udit Raj said the government which was talking in favour of reservation was, however, allowing agitations to be carried on in AIIMS in violation of a Supreme Court judgement.

He accused AIIMS director Venugopalan of being sympathetic towards the anti-quota stir and sought his resignation for violating the SC orders. "If an agitation against quota is lawful inside the AIIMS campus, then we have an equal right to be heard from the same spot," he said.

The health ministry today said that doctors from the Railways and Army hospitals had been mobilised to man hospitals affected by the ongoing stir. Health Minister A Ramadoss said notices had been sent to junior and senior resident doctors for staying away from work.

Meanwhile, shaken by the confrontation with pro-reservation protests, the anti-reservation protesters in AIIMS clarified that they were neither against reservation nor the OBCs.

"We are not anti, so why should there be a pro-quota group," they asked. "We are not against reservation. We just want the issue to be examined properly before any fresh reservation is announced,'' said AIIMS students' union president Anmay Sharma.

"People have misunderstood us. We have been misquoted. We want the reservation system to be reviewed so that anomalies are removed. Today, there is quota at the entrance level, then again at the PG level and then during promotions and even in high postings. Let a non-political committee discuss these matters. Don't even involve us,'' he said.

While protesters brooded on the purpose of their struggle, about 15 of the students have been removed to casualty so far. "They are unlikely to be taken back for the agitation," the students said.