Keeping up with UP | SC ruling ‘vindicates’ Rajnath’s 2001 stand on quota within quota
The intent behind his political move was to divide the homogenous groups of OBCs and Dalits, which largely supported the Opposition parties.
Defence minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh must be all smiles as, after 23 years, the Supreme Court has virtually vindicated his ‘quota within quota’ policy, founded on the sub-classification of SCs/STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) over two decades ago.
The intent behind his brilliant political move was to divide the homogenous groups of OBCs and Dalits, which largely supported the Opposition parties — the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
After a major poll setback in Uttar Pradesh in 2024, largely due to the consolidation of the backwards and Dalits in favour of the Opposition bloc, the strategists in the BJP may have a relook at Singh's policy.
As chief minister of the state in 2001, Rajnath Singh constituted a three-member social justice committee, headed by parliamentary affairs minister Hukum Singh, to look into the existing government schemes, programmes and facilities for the welfare of SCs, STs and OBCs.
It had generated a lot of heat in the state’s political circles as assembly elections were due in early 2002. While some of his own party leaders were circumspect about Singh’s political gamble, as it apparently violated the Constitution, Rajnath had consistently held the view: “Let them go to court. I am fighting to give justice to the deprived lot. I am confident of getting success in my mission. God will support me as I am trying to do justice with the deprived lot.” He had planned public rallies after the Cabinet approved the recommendations.
The committee, constituted on June 28 that year, submitted the 200-page report to the state government in a record two months’ time on August 31. The recommendations were implemented in October 2021, stayed by the Supreme Court in December 2021 and scrapped by the Mayawati government in May 2003. It found the Yadavs and the Jatavs grabbing a lion’s share of the quota, depriving the poorer castes of its benefits.
Singh’s trump card had failed him in the elections as the BJP won 88 assembly seats in a house of 403, much below the majority mark. Mayawati became the chief minister of a BSP-BJP coalition government after a brief spell of President’s rule. No party had won a majority.
The BJP failed to divide or damage the backwards Dalit-dominated Opposition parties.
Much to the political discomfiture of Singh, Mayawati scrapped the much-hyped “quota within quota” policy with the support of BJP ministers. She had even spilled the beans, telling one and all about her one-on-one meeting with the then irrigation minister Om Prakash Singh who requested her to look into the new reservation policy. Mayawati said she had frankly asked OP Singh if Rajnath Singh would not feel offended if she withdrew the “quota within quota” policy, OP Singh’s curt reply was: “We have to watch the interest of the schedule castes and backwards and not one person.”
She, thereafter, consulted Lalji Tandon before moving the proposal to the cabinet, of which the creator of the social justice report, Hukum Singh, was a member.
The committee had received and considered 3,233 representations from various interested groups in the state. It also looked into both the employment and education levels of various OBCs and Scheduled Castes. The committee not only toured the state extensively but also studied the caste arrangements in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. It also analysed SC, ST and OBC groups in 11,27,311 government posts in UP.
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet accepted the report on September 13, 2001, and on September 15, 2001, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (Reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs (Amendment Ordinance 2001) was accepted by the governor.
According to its report, there were 66 SC groups and 79 OBC groups in Uttar Pradesh. It found the Chamars/Jatavs among SCs and Yadavs among OBCs occupying the maximum share of government jobs. In higher education also among SCs, Jatavs occupied 49.54% of reserved seats followed by Koris (12.04%), Pasis (10.04%) and Dhobis (10.04%), Among the OBCs, Yadavs occupied 32.37% followed by Kurmis 11.24%.
The findings were on the expected lines. Chamars (a Scheduled Caste) formed the largest population of 1.58 crore, followed by 1.46 crore Yadav and 1.38 crore Brahmins and 1 crore Thakurs. The population of others like Kurmi, Jat, Pasi, Kevat, Kumhar, and Gurjar ranged from 10 lakh to 54 lakh.
The government had then recommended sub-classification of OBCs and SCs to ensure social justice: 10% SC reservation for Jatavs and 11% reservation for the remaining 65 castes. The OBCs were to be divided into three schedules, namely backward castes, most backward castes and extremely backward castes. Yadavs/Ahirs were to get 5% of the 27% quota, eight B castes (including Kurmi, Jat, Gujar etc) to get 9% and 70 extremely backward castes to get 14%.
This was not the first time that an effort was made to spread social justice within deprived communities. The then Uttar Pradesh chief minister HN Bahuguna had also established a three-member committee in 1975 to do a deep survey of backward classes. Headed by Chhedi Lal Sathi, the committee, in its report, had found 41 most backward castes, with a wide difference in their social and economic status, accounting for 26% of the population. They had suggested a 17% reservation for them.
Sunita Aron is a consulting editor with the HT based in Lucknow. You can find her on X as @overto. The weekly column, Keeping up with UP tackles everything from politics to social and cultural mores in the country's most populous state. The views expressed are personal.
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