MP govt directs authorities to ensure peaceful 'Bharat Bandh'

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh home department has directed the collectors and superintendents of police (SPs) of all districts in the state to take necessary steps to maintain law and order situation during the day-long Bharat Bandh called by some groups over community-based reservation on Wednesday.

Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh also extended support to Bharat Bandh.

In a circular issued on Tuesday night, the state home department directed the collectors and SPs of all districts besides police commissioners of Bhopal and Indore to maintain law and order situation in their respective jurisdictions during the Bharat Bandh.

Twenty-one organisations across the country have called for a Bharat Bandh on Wednesday against the Supreme Court's August 1 decision on the issue of Scheduled Castes-Scheduled Tribes (SC-ST) reservation. The organisations opposed this decision and said that it will harm the basic principles of reservation.

The Supreme Court on August 1 held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the SCs, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.

The apex court, however, made it clear that states have to make sub-classification on the basis of "quantifiable and demonstrable data" of backwardness and representation in government jobs and not on "whims" and as a matter of "political expediency".

Digvijaya Singh in a post on X on Wednesday morning said, "I support Bharat Bandh in protest against the Honourable Supreme Court's decision regarding division of classes among the SC ST and appeal to everyone for cooperation." The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister on Tuesday tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have also extended support to the Bharat Bandh.