Marathas of Maharashtra
The Government of Maharashtra issued two Ordinances on 09.07.2014. The Ordinance No. XIII of 2014 provided for 16% reservation in services to Marathas. Another Ordinance No. XIV of 2014 provided for 5% reservation to 52 Muslim communities. This had taken the total reservation in services in the State of Maharashtra to 68%, where the reservation already existing was to the extent of 52%. The Bombay High Court upheld the reservation for Marathas but reduced the percentage of reservation to 13. But the Supreme Court had, on 05.05.2021, set aside the order of the Bombay High Court and struck down the Maratha Quota declaring it as ultra vires and unconstitutional, observing that the reservation for Maratha community in addition to the 50% social reservation was not covered by the exceptional circumstances as contemplated by Constitution Bench in Indra Sawhney’s case.
Vanniars of Tamil Nadu
The Government of Tamil Nadu enacted a law, the Act 8 of 2021, on 26.02.2021 providing for internal reservation of 10.5% to the Vanniar community, within the already existing 20% reservation for MBCs and Denitrified Communities. But the Supreme Court had, on 31.03.2022, struck down that enactment observing that the grant of 10.5% internal reservation to Vanniyakula Kshatriya community violated the fundamental rights of equality, non-discrimination and equal opportunity of 115 other most backward communities (MBCs) and de-notified communities (DNCs) in Tamil Nadu.
Patidars of Gujarat
The Government of Gujarat issued an ordinance on 01.05.2016 to accommodate the plea of the agitating Patidars, who constitute about 14% of the population in Gujarat, for the benefits of reservation. Instead of treating them as backward classes, the ordinance provided for 10 per cent reservation for those with family income less than Rs 6 lakh per annum (EWS) in educational institutions and state government jobs. That was in addition to the already existing 49.5% reservation for the backward classes. Chief minister Anandiben Patel and the state BJP president Vijay Rupani said that, “after meeting with party national president Amit Shah today the party and the government has decided to announce 10% reservation Ordinance on May 1st on the Gujarat Foundation Day” (Times of India 29.04.2016). But that “Gujarat Ordinance No. 1 of 2016” was quashed and set aside by the Gujarat High Court on 04.08. 2016, stating that it had been notified “without carrying out any detailed scientific and technical impact assessment study by the experts and without collecting quantifiable and empirical data”. “Terming the ordinance “unconstitutional”, a division bench headed by then Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy observed that “it is not open for the State to make any reservation for section of citizens in unreserved category, only on the ground that section of such category of citizens belong to economically weak. As the economically weaker sections among unreserved category cannot constitute as homogeneous group for the purpose of reservation and such reservation will not withstand to the scrutiny of twin test under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Further, the economic criteria being fluctuating issue, the same cannot be the basis for any classification for the purpose of affirmative action for admission to educational institutions and while filling up the posts in the services under the State. Thus, such Ordinance which itself is issued based on economic criteria and as the same is in breach of equality clause under Article 14 of the Constitution, it is to be declared as void in view of the provision under Article 13(2) of the Constitution. …”.
The audacious two-days revolution of the ‘Forward’ castes
But the battle of ‘higher’ varna people for 10% reservation on economic basis alone, which had started with the silent insertion of Para 2(ii) in the DOPT, OM. No. 36012/31/90 -Estt (SCT) dated 25.09.1991, continued without fanfare but with more aggressiveness. The people at the top-rung of the society, who were the cause of the oppression of all the backward classes for centuries and centuries had different ideas. They did not give up their nefarious plea, in spite of repeated negative verdicts by the Supreme Court itself. If the Courts said that the Constitution did not permit reservation based on economic criterion, it is the Constitution which should be amended, they said. As they were already and predominantly occupying almost all the power centres under the Government of India and could easily manipulate matters, they used their lobby silently and performed a sudden and audacious revolution through both the Houses of Parliament and got a bill introduced and passed within two days (08 & 09.01.2019) to insert two new provisions in Art. 15 (6) & 16 (6) to facilitate the Economically Weaker Sections among the Brahmins and other castes and religions, which did not get the benefit of reservation under Art. 15 (4) &16 (4), to get reservation.
The reservation under Art. 15 (4) and Art. 16 (4) was intended to provide ameliorative measures to the oppressed people in the Hindu social and religious set up. But that was cited by the “Forward Castes” as a ruse to provide 10% reservation through Art. 15 (6) and Art. 16 (6) to the oppressors. They wanted the reasons and the history behind reservations to be ignored and forgotten. As a result, these new provisions have now become incentives to them to continue to remain oppressors forever with their perverse caste system. What is more? These oppressors were so powerful to use their lobby even to omit, in the newly inserted Art. 16 (6), the phrase “not adequately represented” which is available in Art. 16 (4) of the Constitution.
They did not leave their work and come to the streets to achieve their goal; they did not hold protests; they did not seek any fact-finding commissions to examine whether they needed reservation. They used their network to work silently and lobby for them. They spent days and weeks to prepare their Bill secretly to amend the Constitution in before it was officially introduced in the Parliament on 08.01.2019. They secured for them everything they wanted, just through desk work in the power centres, as those centres were functioning as their own for long, for all purposes.
Create allies by addressing the root cause
But the poor Marathas, Vanniars and Patidars do not have any such lobby. They are made to come the streets and protest every time for everything. The Marathas intensified their struggle for reservation in September 2023. Their leader “Manoj Jarange Patil continued his indefinite hunger strike”. (Indian Express - 20.09.2023). Their demand now is to bring the entire community under the OBC umbrella. But “such move was opposed by OBC groups and Kunbis — the subset of the Maratha community that is already classified as backward — who fear that the influential community that makes up roughly a third of the state’s population will eat into their share.” (Hindustan Times - 11.09.2023). Taking a cue from the latest Maratha action, Mr. Anbumani Ramadas, leader of the Pattali Makkal Katchi met the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, on 09.10.2023, and demanded steps to be taken for providing 10.5% reservation to Vanniar community in Tamil Nadu. But both are wrong. The leaders of Maratha community in Maharashtra and the leaders of Vanniar community in Tamil Nadu and the Patidars of Gujarat were and are, clearly, leading their followers in the wrong direction and are alienating the rest of the OBCs, who were also suffering from the racial crimes practised under the Varna system. These leaders do not want to address the real issues. They do not want to go to the root of problems to find the proper, real, equitable and just solution. They gather more opponents and not friends.
The reservation system in India, though in force for the past 70 years, has not really benefitted the suppressed classes to the extent to which it should have benefitted them. The tricks played by the Union bureaucrats in the maintenance of rosters, the ineffective method of appointment of Liaison Officers to monitor the enforcement of reservation system in every department and the abuse of power that was vested by the Supreme Court in the Executive (i.e., the DOPT’s bureaucrats) for enforcing the creamy-layer concept have all ensured that the STs, SCs and OBCs have not really got all the benefits that had been made available to them through Legislature. The very fact that there is inadequate and insignificant representation of the people of these suppressed classes in the top-level bureaucracy and higher judiciary (both in the High Courts and Supreme Court) would provide tell-tale evidence to the fact that the system of even the token reservation provided under Art. 16 (4) of the Constitution was not allowed to really benefit the suppressed classes to the extent to which it was intended.
The leaders of Marathas, Vanniyars and Patidars should know that (1) the concept of 50% ceiling on vertical reservation and (2) the concept of Creamy Layer were only the inventions of courts and not the mandate of the Constitution. These concepts have affected the OBCs, SCs and STs adversely no end for the past 60 years. That upper limit of 50% had been discussed elaborately and was used by the Supreme Court to strike down the reservation for Marathas on 05.05.2021. But the 10% EWS reservation brought in by the Union Government which carried the vertical reservation to 59.5% had been upheld by the Supreme Court on 07.11.2022.
As things stand, the only way through which the Marathas, the Vanniyars and the Patidars can get their legitimate share in the governance of the nation is only when there is law recognising the birth right of all sections of Indians to have their proportionate representation in services. International precedents legitimise and justify this demand. The leaders of the Maratha, the Vanniar and the Patidar communities should, instead of poaching on the meagre share of the rest of the OBCs, take a holistic view of the entire scenario and join hands with the representatives of all the subjugated communities of India and put forward their demand, in one voice, for Proportionate Representation for all.
Caste data of 2011 hidden by the rulers
Besides, they should insist on the union government to release the caste data collected during the SEC Census of 2011 immediately. The union bureaucrats had conspired and suppressed that data with mala fide intention. Economic Times of 12.07.2015 reported their underhand activities thus: “Well, the government circles are abuzz with a conspiracy theory of a different kind. Unlike the pundits who believe that the government has conspired to deny the backward masses a little more of their due, some top bureaucrats believe that the attempt is not to hide the OBC figures but to suppress the more dangerous upper caste numbers….The upper castes have been running governments at the Centre and the states for so long that they don’t want the caste census to finally proclaim that the Indian democracy is not really representative.” It is, therefore, in the interest of the entire oppressed section of the Indian population to get that SEC Census data of 2011 released first. That will provide enough authority to them to seek Proportionate Representation for all.
FCs attained equality in Reservation; retained superiority in Religion
The post-2019 law on reservation does not take into account the ill effects encountered by the OBCs because of the varna-based classification, which was the root cause of all the evils in India. It equates the OBCs with the Forward Castes, for the purpose of Art. 15 and Art. 16 of the Constitution. The OBCs below the Creamy Layer are treated on par with the Forward Castes below the creamy layer under Art. 16 (6). It does not give any weightage to the centuries old sufferings of the OBCs at the hands of the ‘Forward’ Castes. It refuses to recognise the fact that the people of the OBC category are still ill-treated by the Brahmins, as they cannot become priests in the temples in which Brahmins alone officiate as priests, while the Supreme Court itself has, repeatedly, held that the priesthood is a ‘public employment’. That social stigma cast on the OBCs by the apartheidistic varna system, in the name of religion and its nefarious custom is permitted to prevail.
Another anomaly is that the reservation for the unreserved category of pre-2019 era, i.e., the ‘Forward’ class, is made available forever, even though the said class of people are already occupying posts in the services much more than their proportionate share in the total population. On the other hand, the reservation for the OBCs is made available, only so long as the said class of people remain under-represented in the services with reference to their share in the population.
Insist on caste survey at all India level, through SEC Census
Bihar has conducted caste survey. All the other States should follow it up and conduct caste census immediately, although it wont help at national level, as it cannot be used at national level policy making. It would, to some extent, help expose the tricks played by the union bureaucrats to bring in the EWS reservation in 2019.
There should be no demand for census of only the OBCs. It is a trap. It is intended to set OBCs against OBCs, while the Oppressors would, in the guise of EWS reservation, continue to occupy the power centres cornering much more than their legitimate and proportionate share.
The Supreme Court which insists on “pro-rata reservation” for various scheduled castes “as per their numerical strength” will uphold the plea for Proportionate Representation, when the right facts, culled out from its own observations and findings in various judgments, are placed before it.
Problems like those in Manipur could be solved in minutes by applying the formula of Proportionate Representation. That formula alone will ensure equality, fraternity and unity to usher in an era of prosperity and justice for all Indians.
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(Note: Published in the magazine 'OBC Voice' of November 2013)
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