Vajpayee is OBC, so are Arjun Singh, Karat and Rajnath

That’s according to caste certificates, officially sealed and delivered to The Sunday Express for a “fee” ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 500. These certificates can now be used to get all benefits—from jobs to college admissions—available as per government policy.

The ease with which these certificates can be obtained tells a larger story: of how the Government’s reservation policy that looks at applicants purely through the caste prism can be subverted at any local collectorate. So as the Veerappa Moily panel works on how to upgrade seats and institutions to accommodate caste quotas, someone should be looking at reforms in the process itself by which individuals are categorized by caste.

For, this isn’t about one faceless babu of one mofussil office bending the rule once in a while—churning out these certificates is a huge racket in Uttar Pradesh, a state where caste is a key political category.

The Sunday Express travelled across three districts, Lucknow, Kanpur and Faizabad and obtained OBC certificates in the names of well-known public figures:

• Vajpayee was declared as an Ahir by the Faizabad collectorate, when he is a Brahmin.

• BJP president Rajnath Singh, a Rajput, is, on paper in Faizabad, now a Kurmi.

• Two OBC certificates, issued from two different places, declare Arjun Singh an Ahir in Faizabad and a Kahar in Kanpur.

• Deepak Kumar, a Rajput, former District Magistrate and present Vice-Chairman of Kanpur Development Authority, is now a Kahar.

• Prakash Karat’s certificate issued by the Lucknow office makes him a Garadia.

All these certificates can be obtained in a day and from one place but The Sunday Express team tested it for over a week obtaining one or two certificates on one day and tried the same the next day, and the next, to see how easy it is.

From Lucknow itself, the newspaper obtained a pile of blank but stamped certificates of “caste,” “domicile,” “character,” “birth,” “motor vehicles registration”

— you name it. On these blank forms, official signatures could be forged.

But The Sunday Express got the certificates duly issued by a proper authority with serial numbers and actual signatures. Names of high-caste prominent people were deliberately used to explain how vulnerable the system is and how blindly the certificates are signed.

Evidently, it didn’t occur to anyone how an Atal Behari Vajpayee can be an OBC.

Just contact the relevant tout, give them the name, the address, the caste and the cash. The certificates are home-delivered within three to five hours.

No questions asked, no one cares to check documents, no interviews as per due process. Nothing.

What should have been done

• Fill out an application form, available for Rs 5 at Tehsil Office.

• Attach passport-size picture, copy of ration card and an affidavit on a Rs-10 stamp paper

• An income certificate if caste falls in “creamy layer” category

• Lekhpal physically verifies the address mentioned in the application form.

• Sub-Divisional Magistrate or Deputy Tehsildar interviews the candidate

What was done

• Identify a tout, pay him average Rs 200-Rs 500

• No documentary evidence required

• No interviews, no physical checks

RAO JASWANT SINGH, ARSHAD AFZAL KHAN & VISHAL SRIVASTAVA