NOW, what is the target of BJP and Sangh Parivar, after Citizens Amendment Bill 2020 and the Farm Bills-Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (promotion and facilitation) Bill, 2020 and the Farmers (empowerment and protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 ? Does the centre’s delay in reconstituting the Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) precisely give any hints? Does the bids to include salary as a factor to calculate the creamy layer and political vendetta on sub-categorisation of OBCs for central services, in context of reservations, bespeak something?

Because, the agrarian unrest in the country, post the enactment of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (promotion and facilitation) Bill, 2020 and the Farmers (empowerment and protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, is strongly getting emerged against the centre. A large section of the agrarian community in the Hindi heartland belongs to OBC communities. Here, BJP thinks that the bid to dilute OBC reservations would mutually pit various OBC communities against each other in the near future. In the process, the party is aiming to woo and silence a section of OBCs on the pretext of “targeted reservation” for the “most marginalised”, which would ultimately weaken the agrarian protest.

The decision to keep reconstitution of the Committee on Welfare of OBCs in abeyance is detrimental to the aspirations of the huge population of the OBCs, especially the youth among them, in the country. The committee has the mandate to “examine the measures taken by the union government to secure the representation of the backward classes”. Hence the committee’s absence raises sneaking suspicion that the anti-reservation mongering of Sangh Parivar would be espoused by the centre very soon to strengthen its political agenda, by keeping all accepted democratic traditions at bay!

The rules regarding constituting the Parliamentary Committee on OBCs specify that the “members of the committee shall hold the office for a period of one year from the date of first meeting, which shall be reconstituted thereafter for one year at a time.” Although eight other committees were reconstituted by the centre in September 2020, the decision to forgo the reconstitution of the Committee on OBCs deemed to be incredulous. The reluctance to reconstitute the committee is not deemed to be an action impromptu given the fact that the strong stance by the last committee on OBCs against diluting the OBC reservations had invited the brunt of BJP leadership.

The committee on OBCs , in its report submitted in February 2019 had noted that in spite of four revisions of the income criteria since 1997, the 27 per cent vacancies reserved for OBCs are not being filled up. As per data from the report of the committee, in the central government’s elite group A category, there are only 13 per cent OBCs. Various estimates show, among the 32.58 lakh government employees, which includes Group A, B, C, the number of those from OBCs is 7 lakh or 21 per cent of the quota for them as against 27 per cent. The maximum number of OBCs (6.4 lakh or 22.65 per cent) are employed in Group C, which comprises mainly the safaikaramcharis or the sanitation department staff. This is well short of the specified 27 per cent of OBCs’ employment.

In the higher education sector, the OBC participation in faculty positions is not even somewhere near to the prescribed 27 per cent of reservations. The University Grants Commission’s Annual Report 2018-19 says that OBC assistant professors constitute merely 11 per cent and there is no representation of OBC academics at the higher level of associate professors and professors. Further, as per the data furnished under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, as of year 2015-16 out of the total 496 vice chancellors in the country only 36 are from the OBC. This amply says that, representation of OBC continues to be way below the 27 per cent benchmark in government jobs even at the entry level despite the 27 per cent reservation  being in existence for the last two and half decades.

The Congress and BJP governments, which were in power at centre are responsible for not ensuring the mandatory participation of backward communities in employment at central government departments and public sector undertakings.

In another report in July 2020, the committee on OBCs, has recommended that an individual’s salary should not be included while calculating the annual household income that decides eligibility of family members for reservation benefits. The committee also recommended increasing the annual income ceiling for creamy layer category of the OBCs from the current Rs 8 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. Currently, OBCs, barring the creamy layer, whose annual income is less than Rs 8 lakhs are entitled to 27 per cent reservation in central government jobs and admission to educational institutions. The committee has put on record that any effort to include salary in income calculations “leads to the inference and also apprehension that when stringent conditions are imposed for determining the creamy layer, the directive of the government to fill up 27 per cent of the vacancies by OBCs may not be achieved.”

In 1979, the Janata Party government formed the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission headed by B P Mandal to look into the status of social and educational backwardness of the OBCs. The commission determined that the OBCs – 52 per cent of the Indian population – were socially and educationally backward and recommended a 27 per cent quota for government sector jobs for them.

In fact, as per a 1993 union government document, the concept of creamy layer was introduced to exclude children of those who are in constitutional posts (such as the President of India), elite officers in government or military service, elite private professions (such as doctors), major property owners and people with high income, from the reservations, subject to the realistic considerations.

Surprisingly, despite strong and logical stance taken by the Parliamentary Committee on Other Backward Classes, led by an MP from ruling BJP, the social justice ministry instead of considering the recommendations of the report of the committee, constituted an ‘expert committee’ led by a retired bureaucrat to look into the reservations for OBCs! Surprisingly on such an important matter affecting the OBCs, social justice ministry did not include even a single OBC member in the ‘expert committee’!

There are also other challenges for employment for the candidates from the OBCs as many of the current PSUs are rapidly being sold off in haste by the centre to private players that post the privatisation, the current job reservations for OBCs would also be a matter of yore!

The committee had strong criticisms against the centre that till date there is no provision for reservation of OBCs in admission to kendriya vidyalayas/navodaya vidyalayas even when the same is being provided to SC/ST students. The committee had also found that the KVS and NVS have not amended their admission policy by incorporating OBC reservations in the last thirteen years since the Central Educational Institution (Reservations in Admissions) Act, 2006 was enacted by the government.

In view of the aforesaid facts, the last Committee on OBCs strongly recommended that 27 per cent reservation in admission to socially and educationally backward classes of citizens in all private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state as well as affiliated by CBSE and other authorities other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of Article 30 should be provided.

Recently, it is reported that the centre gave its ninth extension — until January 31, 2021 — to the Justice G Rohini Commission, set up in October 2017 to “examine the issue of sub-categorisation” of OBCs in the central list to benefit the marginalised sections of the backward castes “who have not been able to get any major benefit” of reservation in jobs and education. When the commission was set up in October 2017, it was to submit its report in 12 weeks — by January 2, 2018. The sub-categorisation, if implemented scientifically would make the OBC reservations more effective. However, it should not be used as a political vendetta to woo a section of voters.

There are examples from states such as Kerala, which is successfully ensuring that the OBC reservation in the state government jobs by benefiting all sub-categories within OBCs. Besides this, the government of Kerala has also ensured 10 per cent reservations to the economically weaker sections (EWS) making reservations as a comprehensive tool for social and economic empowerment.

There is a contemporary political and economic dimension as well to this ‘reengineer’ the OBC reservations. Sangh Parivar and BJP are aiming to bring the remains of OBC awakening and the resultant political upsurge of the backward communities, inspired by the implementation of the Mandal Commission report, to dust.

The BJP thinks that Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs)by virtue of its objective to “examine the measures taken by the union government to secure the representation of the backward classes” shouldn’t come in its way to this caste/reservation engineering aimed at political vendetta.

Frankly, if the BJP was so keen on empowering the socially and economically marginalized sections of the population including the OBCs, it would have considered reconstitution of the Parliamentary Committee on Backward Classes with immediate effect. Further the party wouldn’t have bided to dilute the current OBC employment reservation policy including the proposal of the Centre to include salary as a factor to calculate the creamy layer. It would have also considered enactment legislation to ensure reservation to OBCs, SC and ST communities in the private sector.

Above all, the concept of creamy layer OBCs in context of reservations shall be the mean for empowerment. Unfortunately, BJPs intention is to use it as dubious political vendetta aimed at electoral gains. Therefore Sangh Parivar-BJP combine’s reservation engineering, aimed at toppling OBC reservations is just mischievous.