Lok Sabha passes constitutional amendment to give statutory status to NCBC

As BJP stitches together its OBC-Dalit outreach for 2019, the Maratha challenge could open a Pandora's box

The Lok Sabha on Thursday unanimously passed a constitutional amendment to give statutory status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). With all parties supporting the Bill, the government could push it for passage in the Rajya Sabha next week.

With the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha, the Narendra Modi government has reached out to the Other Backward Classes, or OBCs, as well as the Dalit communities in the last 48-hours. On Wednesday, the union cabinet had approved a Bill to restore stringent provisions of a law related to preventing atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Tribes. It is likely to be introduced in Parliament before August 9, when Dalit groups plan to hold a protest in New Delhi.

Hours before the Lok Sabha passed the NCBC constitution amendment, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who leads the BJP government in the state, promised to provide reservation for the Maratha community.

With these steps, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stitched together its political narrative for Dalits and OBCs for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and also hoped to quell the protests on August 9. If the Dalit community and farmers have planned a protest in New Delhi on that day, the Maratha community has proposed to do the same in Mumbai. The Marathas have threatened to block highways and roads, and six pro-quota activists have committed suicide and the agitation has turned violent in several places in recent weeks.

The promise of reservation to Marathas will not only pose legal hurdles, but also open a Pandora’s Box. Not just the Marathas, several other land owning communities across India have demanded such job and educational quotas – Patidars in Gujarat, Kapus in Andhra Pradesh, the Gujjar community in Rajasthan and Jats in more than one north Indian state.

The BJP hopes to consolidate its OBC outreach by introducing sub-categorization of quotas for extremely backward classes, or EBCs, within the larger 27 per cent OBC reservation. It remains to be seen if it would include such land owning castes as Marathas in the existing 27 per cent quota for OBCs, or propose an amendment to the Constitution to allow for reservations beyond 50 per cent - both moves fraught with political challenges.

In the Lok Sabha, union minister for social justice and empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot said a committee under Justice G Rohini was looking into the question of sub-categorisation of OBC quota. Such sub-categorisation, already in place in states like Bihar, could help BJP consolidate its support base among non-Yadav OBC castes, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

As for the NCBC Bill, the Lok Sabha had passed it on April 10, 2017. On July 31, 2017, the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill but with amendments and returned it to the Lok Sabha for ratification of the amendments. The Lok Sabha on Thursday unanimously passed it by accommodating two of the amendments of the Rajya Sabha. The government accepted the Rajya Sabha’s amendment that the three-member NCBC should comprise at least a woman member, and that states should have a voice in inclusion of castes into the OBC list.

Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant asked the Centre to intervene in the Maratha quota stir in Maharashtra, saying the state government, even after giving assurance, had not acted on its promise. Several members demanded a census to ascertain the population of OBCs, while some others pressed for making public the socio-economic survey of 2014. Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda said the House needed to explore the possibility of whether the government can provide reservation exceeding the ceiling of 50 per cent to all backward communities, including SCs, STs and OBCs.