Mandal 2.0: Actual concern or vote bank politics?

By Yash Shukla

Mandal politics, initiated by the VP Singh government in 1990, changed the politics of our country irrevocably, and the recent decision of the Modi government to form a commission to look into the subcategorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBC) is being seen as the beginning of Mandal 2.0.

Is it a masterstroke?

The decision, being hailed as a masterstroke by many, also poses some important questions: What are the repercussions of this move? What are the explicit and not so explicit motives of the government behind the move? These questions assume extreme significance as OBCs form the largest section of India’s population, comprising about 52 percent of the country’s population. The recent calls for reservation by various communities in different parts of the country—the Maratha movement in Maharashtra, the Patidar movement in Gujarat, or Jat movement in Rajasthan and Haryana—are also being associated with the decision. The process has been expedited by the government, with general elections just a year and a half away.

The official ‘welfare of the weaker’ narrative

The basic motive behind the decision is to ensure equitable distribution of the benefits of reservation among all castes which come under the OBC category. It has been observed by analysts and in various commissions that the politically and economically strong castes under the OBC get all the benefits of the reservation, while other economically weaker castes who need reservation more fail to reap benefits of the policy.

All government jobs and educational institutes in India reserve 27 percent of the seats for OBCs. What this move would do, is divide the whole block into various categories such as ‘More Backward Classes’ or ‘Extreme Backward Classes’. After the recommendations are transformed into law, the people from the weaker castes will compete among themselves, instead of competing with the people from the upper castes.

The idea of equitable distribution has been in the public domain for years now, and some of the state governments have been able to subcategorise the group in their states. States such as Bihar already have provisions for subcategorisation in place. The previous governments have also tried to implement a policy for the exclusion of the ‘creamy layer’ from the benefits of the reservation, but unsuccessfully so. Due to the large unorganised sector in India, it becomes increasingly tough to gauge and identify the rich and the poor. Differentiating on the basis of caste is far easier, but experts concede that this system has its own imperfections.

Political ploy?

Apart from giving benefits to small and weaker sections of the OBC, the move is also being seen as a masterstroke by the Modi government. However, it may find its first casualties in parties like Samajwadi Party or Rashtriya Janta Dal. Both these parties find their support in stronger castes like Yadavs and Kurmis, who are likely to oppose the subcategorisation move. Leaders like Akhilesh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav, who portray themselves as the leaders of all backward classes, will be rendered as leaders of a single caste- Yadavs. In order to consolidate their primary vote bank, they would criticise the move and in the process, lose the votes of other sections of the OBC.

This policy can also be seen as BJP’s ploy to divide and rule. It will divide the larger block into smaller blocs which might help the party in getting a stronghold among the people who belong to the category.The BJP has also been seen as a party of Brahmins and Baniyas and under the leadership of Amit Shah and PM Modi and has been vociferously asserting itself as a political party for the backward classes too. This strategy of the party also seems to have been successful so far, as it has helped them garner the votes of Dalits and OBCs in many states.

However, the party’s stand in states like Gujarat and Haryana, where it has supported the demands of the economically strong castes like Patidar and Jats for reservation, is in sharp contrast with its so-called policy of development of the weaker sections. This contrast leads one to wonder if the government’s motives are as innocent as they portray them to be.