Kerala Minister Sivankutty accuses BJP leader K. Surendran of disparaging SC/ST communities, demands prosecution
Mr. Sivankutty took strong exception to Mr. Surendran's alleged imputation that the ruling front and Opposition MPs and MLAs elected from reserved constituencies in Kerala were SC/ST members 'only in name.'
Mr. Surendran tagged his controversial social media post with the photographs of Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and MP from Mavelikara, a reserved constituency, Kodikunnil Suresh and CPI(M) leader P.K. Biju, who represented Alathur, a reserved Lok Sabha constituency, for two consecutive terms till 2019.
Mr. Sivankutty said the BJP leadership should compel Mr. Surendran to withdraw the 'derogatory' statement, which the Minister said 'reflected the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) Hindutva worldview.'
Mr. Sivankutty also termed Mr. Surendran's post a manifestation of the RSS' ambition to relegate Christians, Muslims, both minorities, and SC/ST communities as subaltern citizens in a Hindu majoritarian State that adheres to an oppressive caste hierarchy.
'However, such attempts would not pass muster in secular and progressive Kerala, which upholds the renaissance values of social reformers,' he added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
6 minutes ago
- Mint
PM Narendra Modi to address crucial NDA meeting ahead of V-P polls and amid Parliament logjam today
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentary party meeting today. This get-together of the ruling alliance's MPs is being held after a considerable gap, news agency PTI said. The NDA meeting, which Narendra Modi will chair, will take place a couple of days before nominations for the vice president's election begin on 7 August. The NDA must announce its candidate, whose election will be a certainty due to the alliance's majority in the electoral college, by 21 August, the last date of nomination filing and the Monsoon Session of Parliament. The meeting also comes in the middle of a session which has been all but a washout so far, except for a two-day discussion on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor, due to a united Opposition's ceaseless protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar by the Election Commission. PM Modi is expected to speak on a host of current issues as the Opposition has been raising the heat over the poll body's alleged partisan conduct favouring the government, and the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. The prime minister is also likely to be felicitated by the parliamentary party over his government's military response to the terror strike. The electoral college for the vice president poll includes MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and its current strength is 782. If the Opposition also names a candidate, a distinct possibility, then the poll is scheduled to be held on 9 September. Sources said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and a few BJP national general secretaries are likely to be coordinating with allies for the vice presidential poll. Since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP lost its majority but comfortably crossed the halfway mark with allies, the sessional meeting of the party's MPs was expanded to include its allies. PM Modi had addressed the first such meeting on July 2. However, no meeting has been held in the last few sessions. Before the last national elections, he addressed the weekly meetings of the BJP parliamentary party, which has now expanded to include party allies such as the TDP, JD(U), and LJP (Ram Vilas). The meeting is attended by MPs of the ruling alliance, and PM Modi often discusses a wide range of political and governance issues and, at times, touches on the government's agenda in Parliament. He often offers the MPs talking points to be raised in public, especially in their constituencies.
Hindustan Times
6 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Disability no licence to fire govt employees: SC
The employer's discretion ends where the employee's dignity begins, the Supreme Court held while ruling that public sector employers cannot mechanically retire employees who acquire disabilities during service without first exploring meaningful alternatives for their redeployment. Disability no licence to fire govt employees: SC 'While judicial restraint guards against overreach, it must not become an excuse for disengagement from injustice. When an employee is removed from service for a condition he did not choose, and where viable alternatives are ignored, the Court is not crossing a line by intervening, it is upholding one drawn by the Constitution itself,' said a bench of justices JK Maheshwari and Aravind Kumar, in a significant reaffirmation of the constitutional right to dignity and equality in employment. The August 1 judgment came as the bench directed the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) to reinstate a driver who was compulsorily retired in 2016 after being diagnosed with colour blindness. Coming down hard on TSRTC for its failure to consider alternative roles for the driver, who had expressed willingness to be reassigned to a non-driving post, the court held that this omission was not just an administrative lapse, but a violation of both statutory obligations and constitutional principles. The judgment drew upon the principle that public employers are duty-bound to provide 'reasonable accommodation' to employees who acquire disabilities during service. Retirement on medical grounds, the court said, must be a measure of last resort, only after all viable options for redeployment have been exhausted. 'The obligation to reasonably accommodate such employees is not just a matter of administrative grace, but a constitutional and statutory imperative, rooted in the principles of non-discrimination, dignity and equal treatment,' noted the bench. The judgment further drew strength from a consistent line of rulings to reaffirm that beneficial legislation must be interpreted purposively to protect the rights of disabled employees. 'Employment security is central not only to individual dignity but also to familial survival,' said the court, emphasising that livelihood cannot be severed 'by the stroke of a medical certificate' without first exhausting all avenues for reassignment. The court cited the example of the driver seeking reassignment to the post of Shramik (helper) , a job that did not require normal colour vision. However, the Corporation did not even attempt to assess his suitability for such a role. According to the bench, the burden lies on the employer, not the employee, to prove that no suitable post exists or can be reasonably created. The court also referenced the pertinent provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act and a binding memorandum of settlement signed by TSRTC in 1979, which explicitly mandated alternate employment for colour-blind drivers with pay protection and continuity of service. The court ruled that TSRTC failed to comply with this binding obligation, adding that internal circulars cited by the Corporation in denying alternate employment, were merely administrative instructions and could not override statutory service conditions created by an industrial settlement. The bench further made it clear that even in the absence of such a settlement, constitutional and statutory principles demand the accommodation of employees who develop disabilities. 'This obligation is not rooted in compassion, but in constitutional discipline and statutory expectation,' it stated. The bench thus ordered the Corporation to appoint the driver to a suitable post consistent with his condition, at the same pay grade he held in 2016, within eight weeks. It also directed payment of 25% of arrears from the date of retirement until reinstatement and held that the intervening period must be treated as continuous service. 'In doing so, we not only vindicate the appellant's rights but also reaffirm our constitutional commitment to a just and humane employer-employee relationship,' the bench concluded.
New Indian Express
6 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Regionalism dictates BJP stance on nuns' arrest
The discourse around the recent arrest of two Kerala nuns on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion, and the subsequent bail granted by court, has revealed the implicit political compulsions of the BJP in the two states – Chhattisgarh and Kerala. While experts cited regional political dynamics as a plausible cause of the Chhattisgarh BJP camp's defense of the nuns' arrest, the party's Kerala unit may have seen it as a chance to mend fences with influential Church leaders. Kerala BJP rushed to intervene, with the state party chief welcoming the nuns as they walked out of Durg jail. The episode sent ripples in Kerala politics, as leaders from every political party was seen rushing to Chhattisgarh last week. 'Zero defect' target in aluminium production A flagship quality transformation initiative titled 'Quality Sankalp' by the Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco) has set a target to achieve 'zero defect' across its diverse product portfolio. The unique monthly initiative engages over 300 employees and business partners across multiple units to foster a culture of shared accountability for quality within the Balco plant in Korba district. From raw material selection to final product inspection, rigorous quality checks are being systematically enforced. Raw materials undergo detailed scrutiny and extensive quality checks at each stage upholds product integrity.
