New Delhi: National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) chairperson Hansraj Gangaram Ahir has called for OBCs to vote, in “national interest,” with the appeal made on a letterhead which The Hindu notes after looking at all documents by the commission since 2019, “has been used by the Commission only in proceedings with respect to investigations, hearings, or inquiries it is conducting as per its Constitutional mandate. None of these records show a press note being issued on this particular letterhead.”
The polls have been seeing low turnouts which has been analysed as pointing to voters’ lack of interest and apathy.
Commission (NCBC) chairperson, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, said that OBCs must exercise their right to vote “for the future of the current and coming generations, for the national interest, and to strengthen democracy”, The Hindu has reported.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Ahir also told The Hindu, “OBCs form one of the largest groups of voters across the country. As the Chairperson of the National Commission for OBCs, I have appealed to all of them to come out and vote.”
The report notes that Ahir issued this appeal in the form of an NCBC press note “which issued it on a letterhead that asserted its status as a “Constitutional Body exercising powers of a Civil Court under Article 338B of the Constitution of India”.”
Ahir in his press release highlights the 102nd Constitution Amendment which allows the commission it to protect and promote the constitutional rights of the backward classes.
NCBC officials said the appeal was not issued in the commission’s capacity to act as a civil court, stressing it is a simple appeal.
The report observes that this particular letterhead has been used by the Commission since 2019 only in proceedings with respect to investigations, hearings, or inquiries it is conducting as per its Constitutional mandate.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his election speeches has claimed repeatedly and falsely that the Congress is trying to take away reservation allocations for the Dalit, Adivasi and OBC population and give it to Muslims.
Ahir on April 24 had said the Commission is going to summon the Chief Secretary of the Karnataka government over the State’s categorisation of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota, which provides for what he termed, “blanket reservation” to Muslims under Category II-B. Gangaram Ahir’s statements had come under scrutiny as they seemed to chime with Modi and the BJP’s remarks on creating a wedge between backward castes in Hindu and Muslim castes. Earlier too, Ahir had last year raised a similar problem with the OBC list of West Bengal, said, “In Bengal too, a majority of the communities included in the OBC list happen to be Muslim. How is that possible?”
