New Delhi: Amidst the controversy of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill that has been tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, what has missed the public attention was the removal of Anglo-Indians from the list of reserved categories.
The Lok Sabha on Monday last withdrawn the preferential treatment accorded to Anglo-Indians along with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes long years ago. While the Lok Sabha extended the reservation for SCs and STs for another 10 years it withheld the renewal for the AI community.
The quotas for SCs, STs and Anglo-Indians were due to end on January 25, 2020.
However, this bill does not include a provision for continuing the same reservation for Anglo-Indians beyond that date.
While acknowledging the opposition regarding the exclusion of Anglo-Indians, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Law Minister, quoted the 2011 census when claiming that there are only 296 members of the Anglo-Indian community. Standing by his figures, Prasad stated that the government will consider this issue further.
Lok Sabha Congress MP, Hibi Eden, questioned these numbers by mentioning that about 20,000 people of this community reside in his constituency which is located in Kerala. “What is the basis of the figure of 296 people…?” he asked.
He, however, did not protest against the extension of reservation to SCs and STs.
Others MPs such as Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy, DMK MP M. Kanimozhi outrightly dismissed Prasad’s claim. Besides legislators, prominent Anglo-Indians have also expressed concern about not extending their community’s representation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
Barry O’Brien, the President of the All-India Anglo-Indian Association, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi to reconsider this move.