Several states across the country on Wednesday saw protests by Dalit and Adivasi groups against the Supreme Court’s August 1 verdict allowing the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes quotas for reservations in government jobs and education, reported The Hindu.

The protests were largely peaceful with sporadic incidents of violence, according to the newspaper.

The National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations had called for a Bharat Bandh on Wednesday to protest the Supreme Court’s verdict.

The groups have maintained that the verdict undermines the court’s earlier ruling in the landmark Indira Sawhney case, which held that caste is an acceptable indicator of social backwardness.

The Supreme Court has now allowed states to reserve seats for specific sub-groups within the quotas earmarked for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, based on the sub-groups’ socio-economic position.

The court held that these groups “did not constitute a homogeneous class”, and in doing so overturned its 2004 judgment in EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh that said there cannot be sub-classification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for reservation.

Soon after the judgement was pronounced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with a delegation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes MPs and assured them of his government’s commitment toward the welfare of the two communities.

Widespread protests

In Bihar, the police baton-charged protestors who had come onto the streets. The state is ruled by a coalition of the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of baton-charging Dalits while allowing criminals to roam freely.

“Have you ever seen Nitish Kumar’s police baton-charging a criminal?” the Opposition leader asked in a post on X.

In Rajasthan, several Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes groups extended their support for the Bharat Bandh, reported the Hindustan Times. The BJP government in the state closed schools in 16 districts and suspended internet services in several parts.

District collectors ordered schools and coaching centres to be closed in Jaipur, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur, Alwar, Sikar, Bhilwara, Deeg, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bikaner, Tonk, Neem Ka Thana, Kota, Sriganganagar and Chittorgarh.

Internet services were shut in Jaipur, Sikar, Bharatpur, Gangapur City, Jhunjhunu and Deeg.

In Delhi, Bhim Army chief and Lok Sabha MP Chandrashekhar Azad also participated in the protests.

“If our rights come under attack we will not sit quiet,” he told PTI. “If society comes out to the streets, then their leader will not remain in bungalows but join them in the streets and demand protection of their rights.”

Protest marches were also taken out in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur, with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party extending their support to protesting groups.

Such public movements put a check on “unbridled government”, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a post on X.

“The mass movement to protect reservation is a positive effort,” the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said. “It will instil new consciousness among the exploited and deprived and will prove to be a shield of people’s power against any kind of tampering with reservation. Peaceful movement is a democratic right.”

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha also asked its leaders, district presidents, secretaries and district coordinators to actively participate in the Bharat Bandh, reported PTI.

“The recent verdict given by the Supreme Court on the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe reservations would prove to be an obstacle in the path of upliftment and strengthening of the SC/ST classes,” the party’s General Secretary Vinod Kumar Pandey said.

The Congress, meanwhile, said that holding peaceful protests is a democratic right.

“Dalits, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes are constantly agitated, they are living in constant fear,” Congress leader Pawan Khera told PTI. “It is their democratic right to protest if they feel threatened.”

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