EWS quota: Ruling affirms BJP push for its labharthi politics that goes beyond Mandal

One constant refrain of the party and the government, when questioned on the lack of minorities in public affairs, has been that all its schemes cut across religion and caste lines. Be it Ujjwala with 9 crore customers until April 1 this year or the PM Jan Dhan Yojna with 47.28 crore account holders until October 26; the 3.35 crore houses sanctioned under Prime Minister Awas Yojna (both Urban and Gramin) to the 5 kg free ration per month to over 80 crore people in the wake of the pandemic. In the BJP’s calculation, these benefits counter identity politics by crossing the boundaries of caste and religion, in some cases even the jurisdictions of state and Centre.

In principle, this isn’t new. The BJP has been advocating reservation for upper castes since the Mandal Commission. In June 1993, at its national council in Bangalore, the party passed a resolution to support reservation for SC, ST and OBCs and demanded that 10% reservation should be given to poor among General category candidates as well.

In parallel, the BJP is also focused on splitting communities in groups of those who are considered empowered and those who are not. This social engineering once again has the labharthi as its ostensible focus. Consider the following:

* In October 2017, a Commission for sub-categorisation of OBCs was constituted headed by Justice G Rohini, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, and the National OBC Commission was given constitutional status (though the posts of chairman and members are vacant since February). The Rohini commission has found that 97% of all jobs and educational seats have gone to just 25% of all sub-castes classified as OBCs. As many as 983 OBC communities — 37% of the total — have zero representation in jobs and educational institutions.

* In August 2018, the government passed a bill to nullify the Supreme Court ruling on SC/ST Atrocities Act and to rollback what SC/ST groups called its dilution.

* The Lok Sabha polls were due in mid-2019 and on January 12 that year, the 103rd Amendment was notified codifying EWS quota.

* In February that year, the Centre brought an ordinance to nullify Supreme Court judgment on making departments as units while deciding reserved category seats in universities and educational institutions.

* Last month, the Centre constituted a commission headed by former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan to look into pending demands of Dalits who have converted themselves to Islam or Christianity, to provide them benefits of on par with those who are Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.

* In July this year, addressing the BJP national executive meeting in Hyderabad, Modi asked his party to reach out to “deprived and downtrodden sections” in communities other than Hindus, which was understood as a message to the party to focus on groups such as Pasmanda Muslims in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Electorally, too, this finds an echo.

In the last UP elections, leaders of smaller parties representing the most backward communities among the OBCs were given priority in Assembly polls. The focus, therefore, is on bringing the new needy into the welfare net rather than focus on those who already avail of reservation benefits with the creamy layer as the cut-off.

On what this layer should be, income is one criteria and while the DoPT had stipulated that it would be revised every three years, it has not been changed since September 13, 2017, when it was increased from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh annual income. That could very well frame the next challenge.