The ruling Samajwadi party continued to flog the dead horse even as the Centre has rejected its proposal for including 17 most backward castes (MBCs) in the schedule caste list. In the last ten years, the Centre has rejected the UP government’s proposal thrice.
The process was initiated by the then CM Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2005 and the proposal was rejected by the Centre in 2006.
In anticipation of approval by the Centre, the state government had amended the UP Public Services (Reservation for Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward Castes) Act, 1994, to include these Most Backward Castes in the SC category.
The MBCs include Banjara, Kahar, Kashyap, Kewat, Nishad, Bind, Bhar, Prajapati, Rajbhar, Batham, Gaur, Tura, Majhi, Mallah, Kumhar, Dheemar and Machhua. The operation of the amended legislation was however stayed by the Allahabad High Court.
The Samajwadi Party also organised the RsSamajik Nyay Adhikar Yarta’ several times in the last eight years for mobilising popular support for its campaign.
The last such Yatra was taken out from November 2013 to March 2014 ahead of the Parliament polls and it was led by Mining minister Gayatri Prajapati.
The BSP has consistently opposed the SP proposal apprehending that it aimed at denting its vote bank rather than benefitting the 17 MBCs. The Mayawati-led BSP government had made the same recommendation to the Center in 2008. However the then Chief minister Mayawati added a condition that the 17 MBCs be added in SC list after the expansion of the quota for dalits and the constitution be amended.
After being voted to power in 2012, the Akhilesh Yadav government again pursued the matter with the Centre and he met then PM Manmohan Singh in November 2013 to reiterate UP’s stand on the issue. But citing the study undertaken by the office of the Registrar general and Census commissioner of India (ORGI), the outgoing UPA government rejected the proposal in March 2014.
With the NDA government taking over in May 2014, the UP government sent a fresh proposal to the Centre. It was again referred to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Home Ministry. The Registrar General sought a 17 point clarifications and ethnographic study data about the 17 castes. In its report of 2015, the ORGI said, “The proposal has been examined twice. The justification by the UP government is that 52 percent of the 17 castes were victims of tangible form of social disability. But the state government could not substantiate its claim on the basis of ethnographic sources.’’
The ORGI further said, “The historical ethnographic literature and contemporary study of Indian communities brought out by the Anthropological Survey of India do not corroborate the fact that castes like Kahar, Kewat and fisherman were subjected to any tangible form of untouchability.’’
Union minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thawar Chand Gehlot in a letter informed the UP chief minister that ORGI has rejected the proposal. Not to be cowed down, the CM has sent a third letter to the NDA government pressing for the issue.