New Delhi: At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to counter the combined opposition’s attack on its government for disqualifying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from parliament by projecting his remarks as an insult directed at Other Backward Classes (OBCs), data provided by the Narendra Modi government to the Rajya Sabha has shown that in the last five years, representation of OBCs, Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs) in All India Services has been low.
In a written reply to a question by Kerala MP John Brittas, Jitendra Singh, minister of state for personnel, provided the year-wise break-up – between 2018 and 2022 – on how many OBC, ST and SC candidates were given jobs in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IoFS).
A perusal of the figures showed that of the total 4,365 appointment made to IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service between 2018 and 2022, only 695 candidates from OBC, 334 from SC and 166 from ST communities were appointed.
While in 2018, 464 IAS officers were hired in total, only 54 from them were from OBC, 29 from SC and 14 from ST communities. Between 2019 and 2022 too, a close look at the numbers showed that the candidates hired for the IAS category of government jobs never crossed the hundred mark in total (OBC, SC and ST taken together). As per the minister’s reply, of the 371 IAS officers hired in 2019 and 478 in 2020, only 61 were from OBC groups in both the years. While 28 IAS officers from the SC category and 14 from the ST communities were hired in 2019, 25 from the SC and 14 from ST groups were appointed as IAS officers in 2020.
In 2021, while 54 OBC persons were hired as IAS officers and 58 in 2022, 30 persons from SCs were appointed in the IAS from SC and 13 from STs. In 2022, 28 SC candidates and 14 from STs were picked for IAS.
In the IPS and IFoS categories too, the last five years had seen a low rate of appointment from OBC, SC and ST communities. Of the 337 IPS officers, only 49 were from OBC groups and 25 from SC and 20 from ST. In 2021, among 339 IPS officers, only 57 were from OBC communities while 28 were from SC and 14 from ST categories.
From 190 IFoS officers in 2021, only 40 belonged to OBC groups, 16 from SC and eight from ST.
Reacting to the reply from the government, Brittas, an Upper House MP from CPI(M), called it “an alarmingly low rate” of appointment from these communities. “Out of the total figure of appointments to IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service during the last five years (both direct and promotional appointments), persons belonging to OBC secured only 15.92 per cent jobs while SC a dismal 7.65 percent and ST 3.80 per cent.” He said, “The real malfeasance behind these numbers could be unearthed when these numbers are correlated with the representation of OBC, SC and ST in the total population of the country.” While OBCs roughly constitute between 41-52% of the country’s total population, SC and ST communities constitute about 16.6% and 8.6% respectively, as per the 2011 Census.
Brittas, in a press note, said he has urged the central government to take action “on war footing to rectify this significant underrepresentation” of these communities in the All India Services.
The Opposition MP’s plea is in contrast to the ruling BJP being seen lately particularly wooing the OBC communities, keeping an eye on several crucial assembly polls slated later this year. While in 2022, the party appointed an OBC to head the state unit of Uttar Pradesh, Bhupendra Chaudhary, to deflect the Adityanath government from being termed as a ‘Thakur-Brahmin’ combine, in poll-bound Karnataka, it changed the chief minister, B. Bommai, an OBC. This past week, the party also appointed OBC leaders as their state unit chiefs in Bihar and Odisha.