OBC ministry to caste census to private sector quota: Congress unveils new social justice roadmap for 2024

In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the grand old party has to make an electoral impact in Assembly elections in five states – Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka – which together account for 262 SC/ST-reserved seats. The minorities would also play a significant role in determining the outcome of these polls.

The Congress is working on a plan which has several facets, opening up the party’s leadership positions to SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities, targeted outreach in the 262 Assembly seats – as well as in 56 reserved Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 10 states – and unveiling a new social justice architecture to back these plans.

So the All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary at Raipur saw the party deciding to reserve 50 per cent of the positions in all committees – from the block level to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) – to the SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities. “The decision to expand the space for SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities will stimulate a whole lot of politics. Because these leaders will get their due space, their voice will be heard at all levels. The dynamics of the Congress party’s politics will change,” K Raju, the Congress’s national coordinator for the SC, OBC, Minority and Adivasi Departments said.

The party’s new social justice architecture is especially remarkable as it has proposed a basket of entitlements for social security.

The resolution passed at the plenary Sunday says there is a need to ensure that the judiciary is reflective of the social diversity of the country, and hence the party “shall consider reservations for SCs-STs-OBCs in the higher judiciary”. Reforms will also be undertaken to create an Indian Judicial Service, it says.

The Congress said at the plenary that if voted back to power, it would enact a special Act named after Rohith Vemula to protect and safeguard the right to education and dignity of the SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities besides promising the SCs, STs and OBCs equal access to jobs in the private organised sector.

The Congress said a National Council for Social Justice would be set up on the lines of the National Development Council to review the progress and gaps in implementing India’s social justice policies and legislations, and to strengthen the rights and entitlements meant for the SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities.

“The BJP government has been destroying the social justice architecture built by the Congress governments from time to time and are neglecting the enabling provisions that we had brought in various sectors. For example, the closure of PSUs and the lack of initiative to fill the backlog vacancies meant that jobs available in the public sector have come down. So on the reservation, there is a huge setback for weaker sections. That has prompted us to think of this resolution to promise reservation in the private sector,” Raju said.

As a debate rages over conducting a caste census, with the Modi government resisting calls for the same by regional parties with OBC vote banks, the Congress also proposed a Socio-Economic Caste Census, along with the decennial Census. The party has earlier supported a caste census.

The Congress resolution also says that the SCs, STs and OBCs cannot be excluded from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota, adding that the party would ensure that the EWS students are given age relaxation on par with that given to the SC/STs for government services. Several parties have similarly argued that the EWS quota cannot be restricted to upper castes, and should have a separate provision for the SC/STs and OBCs.

“Every commitment we have made has a background to it. It is based on our analysis of the years of the BJP’s government’s approach to this sector,” Raju said.

The Congress has been trying hard to regain its support base among the marginalised communities. Congress leaders grudgingly acknowledge that the BJP is ahead in the game, and that while the choice of Ram Nath Kovind (a Dalit) and Droupadi Murmu (a tribal) as the President was largely “symbolic”, it had sent a powerful political message to the communities.

In Telangana, the Congress could win only 7 of the 31 reserved seats in the 2018 Assemby polls. In Karnataka, it won 18 of the 51 reserved seats in 2018. The numbers were much better in Chhattisgarh since the party had clinched the state polls by a landslide. In Madhya Pradesh, the party still has half of the 82 reserved seats despite some desertions. In Rajasthan, it won 30 of the 59 reserved seats. The party is now preparing to appoint coordinators for all the 262 reserved seats in the five states.

“We have seen that unless the Congress expands its outreach among SC, ST, OBC and minority communities we will not be able to improve our vote share. For expanding our vote share among these communities, we need to address their current concerns. For example, the OBC communities have been demanding a caste census. If there is no census, their reservation will also be at stake. So we have openly and unequivocally demanded caste census,” Raju said.

The Congress is going to run its leadership development missions in the identified 56 parliamentary constituencies, where the party had finished runner-up in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The idea is to develop its new leadership from the SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities in all these seats.

The AICC resolution talks of undertaking countrywide surveys to study inequalities and to “comprehensively” map the socio-economic and political status of the SC/STs, OBCs and minorities, with a State of Social Justice Report to be published annually along the lines of the National Economic Survey. Further, the party promised a national law to ensure that a portion of the Union Budget is earmarked in proportion to the population of the SCs and STs in the country and to provide special budgetary allocation to accelerate the development of the OBCs.

The party promises a dedicated ministry for the empowerment of the OBCs, stating it would give a constitutional status to the National Commission for Minorities and the National Commission for Women. Acknowledging a “high sense of insecurity and agony” among the minorities and SC/STs, the Congress also talked of strengthening the legal mechanism for ensuring protection of their rights.

The resolution also talks about enacting a legislation to guarantee the right to work for urban poor on the lines of the MGNREGA.