 "Govt, BJP looking at separate quotas for extremely backwards within OBC quota")
In his efforts to consolidate non-Yadav OBC castes with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due by early 2017, party chief Amit Shah on Saturday announced at Mau in Uttar Pradesh an alliance with the Suheldeo Bhratiya Samaj Party.
This comes on the heels of Apna Dal Lok Sabha member Anupriya Patel being included in the union council of ministers and Keshav Prasad Maurya made the BJP Uttar Pradesh unit chief. Patel is a Kurmi and Maurya a Kushwaha — both being important non-Yadav OBC castes of eastern UP. The Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party represents Rajbhar caste — primarily masons, which is an important non-Yadav caste with significant presence in eastern UP.
Eastern UP has for the past two decades been a weak area for the BJP. The party currently has only 13 legislators from eastern UP’s 102 assembly seats, although it swept the 2014 Lok Sabha in the region on the back of Narendra Modi contesting from Varanasi and alliance with the Apna Dal. The UP assembly has 403 seats.
The BJP believes the key to success in eastern UP is to isolate Yadav and Muslim support base of the Samajwadi Party and consolidate all other castes in its favour.
To woo non-Yadav OBCs, the BJP's trump card is going to be the ‘Karpoori Thakur formula’. Simply put, it means a quota or quotas within a larger quota. The Narendra Modi government is mulling a proposal to introduce a two or three layered category in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation of 27% in government jobs and educational institutions. It is also likely to recommend increase of current annual income ceiling for the creamy layer in the category from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8.5 lakh.
The government has asked the National Commission for Backward Castes to revive an old proposal to subdivide the OBC quota into three distinct categories — Extremely Backward Classes or EBCs, Most Backward Classes or MBCs and OBCs. Caste groups in each category will be eligible for 9% quota each from the consolidated 27%.
Sources said there is enough empirical as well as anecdotal evidence that the OBC quota has been monopolised by dominant caste groups within the category ever since it was implemented in 1993. In the context of Uttar Pradesh, the Yadavs, given their relative prosperity and access to education, have benefited from the reservations while EBCs and MBCs have lagged behind.
This is in contrast to the neighbouring Bihar, where the then CM Karpoori Thakur made two separate list within OBCs. While Yadavs and Kurmis did benefit and found, given their numerical strength, greater political representation, but in central government jobs several others EBCs match them. This is also true for Tamil Nadu, which again has separate lists within the OBC category.
Incidentally, in 2010, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar introduced a similar formula within the 15.5% reservation for the Dalits by distinguishing between the ‘mahadalits’ and dalits. The list identified the Paswans as Dalits, which due to their relative affluence were managing to get the most benefit.
However, any such sub-categorisation at the Centre in the OBC list would require a fresh survey of which among the OBCs are extremely backward and most backward, as also parameters to judge whether a particular caste or castes have monopolised the benefits from the reservation policy.
But such concerns are not stopping the BJP from making it a Yadav versus non-Yadav issue in UP. Shah and BJP leaders have already identified Yadavs as perpetrators of lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh. They, along with Muslims, or so the BJP’s argument goes, have a hegemony over the current Akhilesh Yadav-led government and dominate other castes, particularly the extremely backwards and Dalits.
During Saturday’s public rally in Mau, Shah also remembered Suheldeo as protector of Hindu religion and enemy of ‘foreign invaders’. Suheldeo is a century king from Rajbhar community and Shah has taken to marking his anniversary every year in March and invoking him in his speeches. At one such event in 2015, Shah had said: “Today is the beginning of bringing the backward castes and others under a single umbrella. This is needed because despite the reservation policy, only one caste (a hint at the Yadavs) has monopolised all the benefits.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Gorakhpur to lay the foundation stone for a new AIIMS on July 22, while Shah has visited the region twice in the last one week. The OBCs account for 54% of UP’s population. Among the OBCs, Yadavs are numerically the strongest caste. Last week, the PM increased the representation of non-Yadav OBCs as well as those from eastern UP in the council of ministers. Meanwhile, BSP chief EBC leaders — like Swami Prasad Maurya and others — may continue to desert BSP chief Mayawati in recent weeks and join the BJP.
