Long marches are paying political dividend in Andhra Pradesh. After completing his 55 day, 1,500 km padayatra from Bangalore to Hyderabad last week, Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) chief Manda Krishna Madiga has threatened to intensify the agitation. His demand is that Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy lead an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and persuade the Centre to classify the Scheduled Castes into distinct groups and reserve jobs accordingly. "If the Government fails to force the Centre to introduce an appropriate legislation in Parliament, it alone will be responsible for the consequences," says Madiga, who has set June 25 as the deadline for the Government to show results. He warns that MRPS cadres will disrupt the counselling sessions for students being admitted in professional colleges in the state "if justice is not done by that time". His lament is that Reddy has reneged on his promises on the issue. Though his long march did not receive much media attention, it made all parties join the rally marking the end of the march in Hyderabad. The Madigas constitute 7 per cent of the state's population and, therefore, form a vote bank. So it was not surprising that those who turned up there included state Municipal Administration Minister Koneru Ranga Rao and Congress MP Nandi Yellaiah, besides leaders from the TDP and the BJP.

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ON THE WARPATH: Madigas hit the streets seeking new quota policy

Reddy has readily agreed to lead an all-party team the need to impress upon the UPA Government the need to initiate an early action on the demand. Last year, a resolution was adopted in the Assembly that sought the introduction of a bill in Parliament to classify the Scheduled Castes. This was soon after a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court struck down the classification done by the previous TDP government on the grounds that the Constitution treated Scheduled Castes as a homogeneous class. Now, the legal opinion gathered by the Government suggests that the only option before it is to persuade the Centre to amend the Constitution. A similar classification of Scheduled Castes exists only in Punjab. One option before the apex court is to constitute a larger bench if a petition comes up before it, questioning the classification in Punjab. Then, the entire issue will come up for judicial review again.

Meanwhile, the Mala Mahanadu, which represents the dominant Mala group among the SCs in the state, has decided to protest against the move. "We will challenge any step to create subgroups," says its president P.V. Rao.

But with the belligerent Madigas and others already on the warpath, segregation, like it is done in the case of the other backward classes, appears to be the only way out of a deepening conflict.

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