‘Encourages conversions': BJP slams Mamata government's stand on OBC list; calls it ‘dangerous precedent'

Time of India

a day ago

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday upped the ante against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and accused her government of encouraging religious conversions in the state in the guise of "social inclusion.
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BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya, in a social media post on X, cited the state OBC list which stated that "those who convert to Christianity will automatically be considered OBC."
"This is Mamata Banerjee's idea of 'social inclusion' — one that openly encourages religious conversions!" the BJP leader said.
"So now, conversion from Hinduism is being rewarded with OBC status and lifelong reservation benefits! A dangerous precedent.
A clear abuse of social justice for vote-bank politics," he added.
Malviya also said that, before 2010, that is during the previous Left Front regime, of the total 66 OBC classes, only 11 classes were from the Muslim community, while the remaining 55 classes were from the non-Muslim community, with Muslim share being just at 20 per cent.
The BJP leader said that in the new additions for 2025, of the 51 new additional classes in Part 1, 46 (or 90 per cent) were Muslims, while of 25 new additions in Part-2 a total 21 (or 84 per cent) were Muslims.
"If this isn't religion-based appeasement, what is? On June 3, 2025, the West Bengal government increased the OBC reservation in State Services to 17 per cent (from seven per cent) -- clearly to benefit these newly included Muslim groups. But here's the catch: On December 9, 2024, the Supreme Court said -- Reservation can't be based on religion. Earlier, Calcutta High Court had struck down this exact list for doing just that.
The new list is nothing but a blatant contempt of court and an insult to the principles of social justice," Malviya said.
This comes a day after Mamata, while addressing the Monsoon session of the Assembly, said that religion has no connection with the fresh OBC survey while tabling the report which has identified 140 communities in the OBC category.
She also claimed that there were 49 castes in the OBC-A category, while there were 91 castes in the OBC-B category and 50 more castes will soon be included.
Meanwhile, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh backed Mamata and said accused BJP of confusing the public.
"This is absolutely false. Mamata Banerjee has made things clear about the OBC list. She has explained everything," Ghosh said.
"What Amit Malviya and LoP of the state are doing is distorting (things) and wanting to confuse the public. But Mamata Banerjee has made everything clear," he added.
What is the issue?
Earlier in May 2024, a division bench of the Calcutta high court cancelled all the OBC certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010, which ideally meant that all such certificates issued during the current Trinamool Congress government in the state since 2011 stood null.
Following this order from the division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, more than 5,00,000 OBC certificates issued during that period stood cancelled and could not be used for enjoying the reservation for jobs.
The West Bengal government moved the Supreme Court based on the Calcutta High Court order, and in March this year, the apex court allowed the state government to conduct a fresh survey to identify the OBCs in the state.
However, since the beginning of the survey, the BJP has questioned the style and format of conducting the fresh survey by the state government.
Leader of the Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the state government's fresh survey was being conducted in the same manner, which did not hold ground in the Supreme Court and was scrapped by the Calcutta high court.