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The Hindu
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Tejashwi writes to Bihar CM demanding 85% reservation for all deprived classes
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday (June 5, 2025) demanded 85% reservation for all deprived classes in Bihar. In the two-page letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, he demanded that a special session of the Assembly be convened to pass a Bill providing 85% reservation for all deprived classes. A proposal to include it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution should then be sent to the Central government within three weeks, he said. (The laws included in the Ninth Schedule cannot be challenged in courts) Also read: Can Bihar increase its reservation pool? | Explained Mr. Yadav who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said that if these steps are not taken, the RJD will launch a massive mass movement across the State. The RJD leader reminded Mr. Kumar that he formed the government with the help of his party in August 2022 and due to his efforts, the work of caste-based census was completed in Bihar in 2023 by the Mahagathbandhan government. Following the caste-based survey report, the State government had taken the decision to increase the reservation for the Backward Classes (BCs), the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) from the existing 50% to 65%. Together with the 10% Economically Backward Class (EWS) quota, the Bill pushed the reservation in Bihar to 75%. Editorial | Equality and identity: On the findings of the Bihar caste count However, on June 20, 2024, the Patna High Court set aside the amendments passed by the Bihar Assembly to increase the reservation in educational institutions and government jobs. The High Court had said that this violated the 50% limit set by the Supreme Court. 'Historic move' 'That historic decision of the Mahagathbandhan government ensured that the people of Dalit-tribal, backward and extremely backward as well as economically weaker sections get the benefit of increased reservation. However, this law was set aside by the Patna High Court, saying that the reservation limit has been increased by limit has been increased without conducting a study of the representation of the people of these castes in government jobs and educational institutions of the State,' Mr. Yadav said in the letter. Also read | Limit and excess: On the Patna High Court judgment and enhanced reservation The former Deputy Chief Minister pointed out that, on the same lines, people of Tamil Nadu had been getting 69% reservation for the last 35 years. All-party committee He added, 'In this situation, it is now very important that the government constitutes an all-party committee after conducting a proper study and submits its report within a week. In light of the study done by the all-party committee, a one-day special session of the Bihar Legislative Assembly should be called and a new Bill providing for a total 85% reservation should be passed. A recommendation should be made to the Central government to include it in the Ninth Schedule.' He said that by doing so (including in the Ninth Schedule), the 'anti-reservation elements' and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will not get a chance to cancel it again through various means. He asked whether the NDA government wanted the current limit of reservation for the deprived classes to be increased to 85% or not. 'If you do not do this, then it will be understood that you and your government are deliberately avoiding this matter. The backward Dalit and tribal candidates are losing lakhs of jobs in the appointment process, which is a mockery of the concept of reservation and equality and the objectives of that Bill,' Mr. Yadav said.
India Today
02-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Why Modi govt's caste census decision feels like déjà vu to Bihar
In a masterstroke of political timing—just months before the Bihar assembly election—the Union government has decreed that the forthcoming decennial census will, for the first time since 1931, document every caste, beyond Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the ruling coalition in Bihar, led by Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) and the BJP, clearly hopes to blunt the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) caste-based mobilisation and defuse the PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) narrative that is thought to have unsettled the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha in Bihar, where a 2022 state survey already established that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) together constitute around 63 per cent of the population, fresh fieldwork is unlikely to yield startling new figures. More tellingly, these communities' aspirations for a 65 per cent reservation cap were dashed when the Patna High Court struck down the state's quota expansion in June the state heads for polls, one is left to wonder: will the national census genuinely change anything on the ground, creating social traction for the ruling alliance? Or is it simply a rerun of promises that founder beneath judicial scrutiny? PRELUDE TO A CENSUSDelayed from 2021 by the Covid pandemic, the next census will at last ask every household to declare its caste. Union information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw described the decision as a pledge to 'social justice and transparency'.advertisementUnder the current affirmative action measures, OBCs occupy 27 per cent of the 50 per cent reservation quota. In Bihar, however, the irony is inescapable. The 2022 survey found OBCs at 27.12 per cent and EBCs at 36.01 per cent of the state's populace. Armed with those numbers, the state legislature voted in November 2023 to raise the reservation cap to 65 per cent, only to see the Patna High Court quash the measure and reaffirm the Supreme Court's 50 per cent POLITICAL CALCULUSFor the BJP-JD(U) alliance, the caste census is being billed as a sweeping gesture of inclusion, a chance to cement their appeal among backward communities. Bihar's leaders have been quick to claim that this move vindicates their governance. Yet, it will be difficult to deny Congress leader Rahul Gandhi some credit, having launched a sustained campaign for a nationwide caste census over the past two beneath the triumphant rhetoric lies a more pointed strategy: by adopting the caste count pre-emptively, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) deprives the Opposition of its most potent critique. RJD and Congress figures have long accused the government of sidelining OBC and EBC interests—a charge NDA leaders hope will ring hollow once the administration officially embraces comprehensive caste enumeration. The jury is still out, DISTRUSTBihar's earlier experiment with caste data serves as a cautionary parable. The 2022 survey was intended to underpin a fairer reservation regime, prompting impassioned debates and the passage of the Reservation Amendment Bill—allocating 18 per cent of seats to OBCs and 25 per cent to EBCs. Yet in June 2024, the high court struck down those amendments as 'ultra vires'—a verdict that made both the Opposition and ruling alliances recalibrate their many backward class voters, the episode deepened a familiar mistrust: data may be collected and laws passed, but courts—or bureaucratic inertia—can still derail their quest for representation. Unless the forthcoming census is bolstered by constitutional reform or favourable judicial rulings, it may merely echo past the political theatre unfolds, Bihar's voters watch tentatively. Will the census translate into swift policy adjustments—additional quotas, redrawn constituencies or enhanced welfare projects? Or will it join the Bihar survey in gathering dust on bureaucratic shelves?Analysts caution that enumeration alone is unlikely to sway loyalties. With memories of the scuppered quota law still vivid, communities will demand more than statistics: they will insist on iron-clad legislation, rapid rollout of benefits and unequivocal guarantees of THE BALLOTWhile Bihar sits centre-stage, the census will reverberate nationwide. Detailed caste data will reignite debates over OBC quotas within the 50 per cent cap and may prompt calls to reassess reservation policies state by state. It will also guide future delimitation exercises, reshaping India's electoral the short term, however, the caste census performs two key functions: it disarms a formidable Opposition critique and affords the ruling alliance a fresh narrative of inclusivity. Whether that narrative resonates—or dissolves into another refrain of unfulfilled promise—will hinge on the government's willingness to turn numbers into meaningful to India Today MagazineTune InMust Watch
