Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre continues to maintain a silence on Supreme Court’s verdict on sub-classification Scheduled Castes (SCs) for the purpose of reservations possibly due to different views among its allies.
However, its newly appointed government in northern state of Haryana became the first province in the country to implement the court’s order allowing states to sub-categorise of Dalits for reservation.
Days after the BJP’s historic third consecutive win in the state elections in Haryana, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini announced to equally divide 20% reservation for Dalits in government jobs among two groups – Deprived Scheduled Castes (DSC) and Other Scheduled Castes (OSC) – during his first cabinet meeting held on October 18.
The state SC panel, whose report made the state government to implement the bifurcation, argued that the DSCs group consisting 36 castes remained underrepresented in Haryana’s government jobs, a direct consequence of their social, educational, and occupational backwardness
On the other hand, it was argued that OSC group, mostly 10 odd ‘dominant’ castes such as Chamar and Jatav, had more-than-adequate representation in state government jobs in comparison to the proportion of their population.
The state’s latest decision was also in line with the previous BJP government’s sub quota reservation move in higher education through Haryana Scheduled Castes (reservation in admission in educational institutions) Act cleared in 2020.
Several local Congress leaders and Dalit activists The Wire spoke to accused BJP of dividing the community for its political purpose.
On the contrary, a section of activists and political leaders belonging to BJP’s sub quota movement welcomed the decision as a historic move.
Local BJP leaders too claimed in their media statements that the move had restored historical injustice by mainstreaming all those Dalit communities in the DSC group, who did not get proper benefits of the reservation in the past.
BJP’s political calculation before Haryana elections
But behind this move, there was certainly a political calculation, which BJP seemed to have eyed in the run up to the Haryana polls and the same formula is in the making in Maharashtra as well.
Just as the BJP-led Maharashtra government on October 16 formed the SC panel to examine the issue hours before state assembly polls announcement, the party had made similar moves days before announcement of Haryana assembly polls as well.
The then BJP government issued directions to Haryana SC commission to prepare the report on sub-classification within six days after SC ruling on August 2.
Not longer than a week on August 17, the then council of ministers, also headed by current CM Nayab Singh Saini, even accepted the recommendations of the SC commission, sending a firm message that it was keen on implementing the report if returned to power.
Journalist Gaurav Kumar, who closely follows Dalit issues in the state, told The Wire that the decision certainly had a ripple effect on SC communities included in the DSC group during the run up to the state polls.
“I personally saw on ground how members of several SC groups like Valmikis – who remained loyal Congress voters for long – aggressively campaigned for BJP despite their ideological difference just because they were promised recognition in BJP’s new sub-quota reservation move,” he informed.
He said the issue certainly made a plausible political strategy for BJP since after its dull performance in LS polls, the party needed consolidation of several communities to counter resurgent Congress
DSC groups, which make up almost 11% of state’s total population and 52% of dalit population, did swing in favour of BJP due to subclassification issues as ground reports and surveys showed, he added.
Journalist Kumar also said that BJP also benefited from division of votes the OSC Group, who otherwise were opposed to BJP’s sub-classification move.
“Here, revolt by Congress Dalit leader Kumari Selja, who comes from chamar community now classified in OSC Group, played its part and further hampered Congress chances. Otherwise, there was no justification behind as many as five chamar leaders of BJP winning the election against Congress’s six,” he added.
The election research body CSDS-Lokniti post poll survey on Haryana also pointed out a similar analogy.
As per the survey, nearly half (45%) of non-jatav SC castes – which now represents DSC groups – ended up voting for BJP against 33% for Congress.
On the other hand, BJP managed to make inroads into the Jatav vote bank too – classified as OSC in Haryana’s sub-classification move – by getting 35% share against 50% to Congress.
This, many safely presumed, helped BJP winning eight out of 17 SC reserved constituencies in the state as well as decisive support of Dalits in non-reserved constituencies as well.
Gaurav Kumar said that both these groups had consolidated behind Congress during Lok Sabha polls, but fell apart due to BJP’s sub classification move as well as internal leadership conflict in Congress.
How BJP government bifurcated SC quota in Haryana
The Haryana SC commission panel, whose 83-page report became the basis of Dalit quota bifurcation in two groups mainly argued that the Deprived Scheduled Castes are not adequately represented in the state’s government services whereas Other Scheduled Castes are represented more-than-adequately despite the fact that the two groups have almost equal proportion in Haryana’s Dalit population.
The report while quoting the distribution of employment data in government jobs among the Scheduled Castes show that a majority of 60.30% of the total SC employees belong to the OSC comprising castes such as Chamar, Jatia Chamar, Rehgar, Raigar, Ramdasi, Ravidasi, Balahi, Batoi, Bhatoi, Bhambi, Chamar-Rohidas, Jatav, Jatava, Mochi, Ramdasia.
Only 39.70% remaining are the DSC employees consisting of as many as 36 SC communities. Within this category, the Balmiki and related castes make up 16% of the overall employees. Other prominent castes in Deprived Scheduled Caste include Dhanak caste (10%), Od. caste (2.2%), Bazigar caste (1.31%), Mazhabi and Mazhabi Sikh (0.74%) etc.
The report further analysed that OSC groups have major dominance in Group A, B and C jobs while Group D employment is skewed towards the DSC category, further showing stark difference of in posts occupied by them
As per the panel report, a reason for the systemic exclusion of DSC groups from top group jobs, and their concentration in Group D roles, is that entry into Group A, B, C posts typically require a minimum qualification, along with passing of competitive exams conducted by the Public Service Commission. In contrast, Group D jobs, being non-administrative and more operational, usually require qualification less than matriculation.
The report recommended that sub–classification by the state government is required to ensure the equality of opportunity and to ensure adequate representation in public employment among different caste groups
Opinion divided on sub-categorisation
Devi Das Valmiki, president of Deprived Scheduled Caste Association based in Haryana’s Jind, told The Wire, “We were fighting for the mainstreaming of non-Chamar SC communities for 18 years and are finally happy now that the demand is fructified in Haryana.”
He said these communities never got proper benefits of the reservation in government jobs and education.
“The country’s political system is responsible for this, which did not give us proper representation in power share, hence confined our socio-economic development,” he added
Valmiki said that there are Dalit communities who never got job reservation benefits, whereas several generations of other dominant SC castes made most out of the reservation.
Showing their political prowess, he said that it is now part of common knowledge that the support of their communities had a big role to play in BJP’s victory in Haryana.
“On an average, 10,000-12,000 votes of our communities were shifted to BJP candidates in every constituency, ” he claimed.
He said, “We now want BJP not to just make room for us in government jobs but promote our people in educational institutes as vice chancellors so that our youth is inspired to enter higher educational institutes, he added.
Valmiki said they also want tweaking in minimum merit qualification so that they could get proper benefit of sub-classification quota.
On the other hand, Dalit activist Vikram Dumolia, state president of Ambedkar Missionaries Vidyarthi Association, slammed BJP’s move, saying that the government did not make proper caste or job survey before implementing sub classification.
He said that data mentioned in the SC commission report which formed the basis of quota bifurcation was taken from Haryana Parivar Pehchan Patra Yojana, a government scheme launched during the previous BJP government to monitor seamless delivery and performance of several welfare schemes.
But data entry in the scheme was very arduous. Families belonging to Scheduled Castes suffered the most due to the discrepancies in making family ID cards, he claimed.
Dumolia said the move was politically motivated to divide the SCs on the lines of BJP’s Jat and non-Jat poll plank to get re-elected, which it eventually managed to do.
If the BJP had affirmative policy towards the welfare of dalits, it would have first filled the backlog in government jobs, which it did not do, he added.
Meanwhile, Jhajjar’s Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal has alleged that the Haryana government’s bifurcation decision was an attempt to divide the community
She said the BJP government should fill the SC community backlog in the government posts before taking any decision. No reservation is followed in recruiting youths in Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited and other contractual jobs.
“The BJP government has now bifurcated the SC quota and their next move will be to abolish the reservation system,” she said in an interview to Hindustan Times.
