New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday appointed a five-member commission headed by Delhi High Court’s former Chief Justice G. Rohini to examine sub categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) under Article 340 of the Constitution.
This is a move that may have far reaching impact on national politics, especially in the run-up to the 2019 election. Over the years, there has been a systemic failure to effectively prevent large sections of the creamy layer from taking advantage of the quota system to the detriment of the poorer sections among their own caste groups.
In effect, the Union government is now seeking to ensure a more equitable distribution of reservation benefits by further differentiating caste groups coming under backward classes on the basis of their levels of social and economic backwardness. If the categorisation of the creamy layer had been done consistently and uniformly, there would not have been any need to differentiate among the caste groups.
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The stratification of the OBC quota could, however, lead to a quota within quota in OBC reservations. The Commission will have as its members J. K. Bajaj, the Director of Centre for Policy Studies, and the Director, Anthropological Survey of India, and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, while Joint Secretary in the Ministry will be its Secretary. Significantly the decision has been taken on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Cabinet had recently increased the ‘creamy layer’ ceiling for the OBC category to Rs 8 lakh per annum from the existing Rs 6 lakh for central government jobs. Those in the OBC category earning up to Rs 8 lakh per annum are now entitled to reservation benefits.
Twenty Seven percent seats in central government jobs and educational institutions were reserved for the backward classes after Mandal Commission recommendations were implemented by the VP Singh government in 1990, resulting in a paradigm shift in the national polity. The decision was later upheld by the Supreme Court. The latest decision could be the Mandal moment for the BJP.
