Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, July 20, 2024

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, July 20, 2024

India’s constitution makes no distinction between citizens based on region, religion, identity, language, colour, caste and gender. This universal logic of equality between citizens need be the guiding principle for all governments, whether local, regional or national that get elected across India. Unfortunately there have been many instances of demands across different regions to give priority to ‘locals’ or natives’ as opposed to outsiders or migrants from other regions of states of India. In the recent years there have been a number of state governments have pandered to sectional & parochial demands and brought in legislation reserving jobs for people based on ‘local’ identity. In 2020, the BJP government in the state of Haryana passed a bill setting aside 75% jobs in the private sector for domiciled locals. The Faridabad Industries Association as employers challenged this law in The Punjab and Haryana High Court. In November 2023, The Punjab & Haryana High Court struck down the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020 declaring it unconstitutional [1] The Jharkhand state government of Hemant Soren in December 2023 had passed the domicile Bill reserving 100% of Class 3 & 4 of state government jobs for ‘locals’. The bill was returned by Governor of the state of Jharkhand who considered that The Bill violated the spirit of equality enshrined in the Constitution. The Jharkhand law remains unimplemented. Recently, the Congress party government in the state of Karnataka sought to bring in a similar regressive measure — The Karnataka state employment of local candidates in the industries, factories and other establishments bill, stipulated reserving a range of jobs in the private sector only for Kannadigas only, but it provoked an immediate negative reaction from the trade and industry body National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) leading the Karnataka cabinet to hold back it planned law. Short term electoral gain is the misdirected reason for these retrograde policies which should be firmly rejected leaving no room for discriminatory legislation on any grounds in any part of secular India.

19 Jul 2024 —HK