In Madhya Pradesh College, free bags come with caste baggage

Mandsaur: “SC/ ST scheme” on bags of Government college Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students has created an environment of politics.

According to Indian Express, Rajiv Gandhi Government PG College 250 of the 600 UG and PG students in Mandsaur had received these bags containing a calculator, pen and a notebook in it.

B R Nalvaya, the Principal told to express, “What’s wrong if it is spelled out clearly, because the bags were distributed under a welfare scheme… If some people don’t like it, I will get the words erased. In any case, it was the supplier who wrote it on the bags.’’

He said the bags were distributed in August and ensured he would remove the words from the left over bags.
It had created controversies when the pictures of the bags were posted on Social media.

On Wednesday, Arun Yadav, PCC chief tweeted “The distribution of bags that indicate caste is shameful. It reflects the anti-Dalit and anti-tribal mindset of the RSS-backed government in Madhya Pradesh.’’

Meenakshi Natarajan, former Congress MP from Mandsaur said “It’s atrocious and cannot be tolerated. It amounts to profiling’’ and would lead a protest on Thursday.