Jitan Ram Manjhi roots for separate electorates for SCs, STs

Patna, Jul 6 (PTI) Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday lamented on the condition of the Scheduled Castes in the country, and rooted for separate electorates for SCs and STs where only people belonging to these communities would vote. Addressing party workers during the state council meeting of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) here, the party chief said, "Had Dr B R Ambedkar's views prevailed in the 1932 Poona Pact, leading to separate electorates for SCs and STs where only voters belonging to these communities would vote, the outcome would have been entirely different." He claimed that since universal voting is allowed in seats reserved for SCs and STs, voters belonging to "dominant" castes exert influence over elected candidates. "In the reserved constituencies, our people do vote, but when it comes to earning a livelihood, they are the ones who are left to till the land and earn wages. It is the influential people who take it all," the former CM said. He alleged that Mahatma Gandhi's fast-unto-death before the Poona Pact had forced Ambedkar to concede his demand. The ideological tussle between Mahatma Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar on separate electorates for SCs and STs had culminated in the Poona Pact wherein the latter conceded to allowing separate electorates where all voters, and not merely those belonging to SC and ST communities, would vote. Without naming Chirag Paswan, his perceived rival in the NDA ally, Manjhi said some people want to become "torchbearer of reservation without doing enough". "There are some people who say as long as they are alive, reservation would not be tinkered with. They want to assume the tag of martyr by merely cutting their nails," he quipped. PTI SUK ACD