Signs of OBC revolt against Hindutva

OBC leaders have belatedly awakened to the BJP’s ploy of dividing and ruling over them, a ploy that dates back to 2001

The departure of Other Backward Class leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh has the makings of an OBC revolt against the domination of Hindutva. At the root of their unrest is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s opposition to casteism but not the caste system, which it hails as a testament to India’s genius.  

This is what Adityanath said in 2017: “Castes play the same role in Hindu society that furrows play in farms, and help in keeping it organised and orderly.” A hierarchical social order based on hereditary principle thrives on symbolism. So it was that priests conducted purification rituals at the chief ministerial residence after its occupant Akhilesh Yadav, an OBC, moved out—and before Adityanath shifted there.

The hierarchical order also demands to be preserved. An example of preservation tactics was the Adityanath government conducting an examination to appoint 69,000 assistant teachers. However, only 3.86 per cent of the 69,000 assistant teachers were inducted through the OBC reserved category, instead of the statutory 27 per cent. When candidates protested early December, the police indiscriminately lathi-charged them.  

Another example is Allahabad’s Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute which, during its recruitment of different faculty positions, did not find a single candidate suitable for vacancies reserved for OBCs. This, an official of the National Commission for Backward Classes said, was “nothing more than a joke”. Social media users ascribed discrimination to the caste identity of Badri Narayan, the institute’s director, who does not use his surname Tiwari for writing newspaper columns. Deep runs the caste divide!  

OBC leaders have belatedly awakened to the BJP’s ploy of dividing and ruling over them. This ploy dates to 2001, when the then BJP government of Uttar Pradesh appointed Hukum Singh to equitably distribute government jobs among different castes comprising the OBCs. He divided the OBCs into Backward, More Backward and Most Backward. Linking each caste’s share in the OBC population to the percentage of jobs it had, Singh slotted only the Yadav caste in the Backward category and granted it 5 per cent reservation. This was a mechanism for checking the Yadav from grabbing the largest slice of OBC reserved posts.

The Yadav caste, no doubt, had 33 per cent of jobs against its 19.40 per cent share in the OBC population. But the phenomenon of castes having jobs in excess of their population share was also true of the Kurmi, Jat, Sonar and Gujar. Yet they were clubbed in the More Backward category, which was given 9 per cent reservation. This scheme could not be implemented as the then BJP government in the state fell.  

Yet Singh’s exercise, even though flawed, enabled the BJP to spin the narrative that the Samajwadi Party’s Yadav leadership gathered OBC votes to come to power but patronised only their caste members. This narrative gathered momentum when, in 2018, Adityanath appointed the Raghavendra Committee, which clubbed groups such as the Yadav, Kurmi, Jat and Sonar in the Backward category—and assigned it 7 per cent reservation. The More Backward and Most Backward classes together had 20 per cent reservation. Jubilant that they would not have to compete with dominant castes for reserved jobs, they consolidated behind the BJP in 2019. 

Savvy analysts never thought Adityanath would implement Raghavendra’s proposal, for no government can alienate three dominant castes—Yadav, Kurmi and Jat—and yet govern. They would not have been reconciled to competing for 7 per cent instead of 27 per cent of jobs. Nor would the BJP have wanted to annoy the Jat and Kurmi, the party’s staunch supporters in 2019.  

Adityanath’s failure to implement Raghavendra’s report has had the More Backward and Most Backward feel betrayed, further accentuated by the BJP’s discriminatory policies in appointments to government jobs and its callous mishandling of the farmer movement. Agriculture is the principal occupation of several OBC communities, which have also felt the sharp edge of a shrinking job market, sharp price rise and the COVID-19 mishandling.  

No wonder, most leaders who have deserted the BJP belong to More and Most Backward OBCs. Akhilesh has also entered into an alliance with six parties representing different OBC segments. The emerging OBC consolidation in Uttar Pradesh has employment as its principal driver. It is impossible for Akhilesh to satisfy their demand for jobs through the 27 per cent quota, which he cannot split as it would adversely impact his Yadav caste.  

This is why Akhilesh has been vocal for holding a caste-based census and allocating jobs in proportion to the share the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and upper castes have in India’s population. This demand can no longer be stonewalled by citing the Supreme Court mandated 50 per cent cap on reservation, for the Modi government removed this cap to grant 10 per cent quota to the Economically Weaker Section. The support of the upper castes for this measure will now come to haunt them.  

The BJP’s enormous base and its Hindutva campaign can still see it winning Uttar Pradesh. Yet the demand for distribution of government jobs based on the population of different categories of castes will likely turn the unrest among the OBCs into a revolt. Should Akhilesh win, he would, as he said in 2017, use the fire brigade to spray Ganga Jal on the chief ministerial residence. That would be some symbolism.

The writer is a senior journalist

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