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Split
Game
By providing
quotas within quotas, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister hopes to divide
the backwards and wean away a sizeable section of the opposition votes.
INDIA TODAY Special Correspondent Subhash Mishra reports.
Two
months ago, when Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh announced
reservation for the Most Backward Castes (MBCS) through the implementation
of the Saathi Commission report which was lying dormant for 23 years,
there was a dual purpose behind the move. While on the one hand it helped
Rajnath establish that he was shaking himself out of the upper-caste mould
in keeping with the party's professed efforts at social engineering, it
also had a hidden motive. With dominant backward groups like the Yadavs
losing a sizeable percentage of their quotas to their less fortunate brethren,
the larger community of backwards, he knew, would become divided. And
this, the chief minister hoped, would stand him in good stead in the assembly
elections seven months away.
Rajnath's divide-and-rule aspirations became more apparent last week when
he endorsed the findings of a social justice committee he had appointed
earlier to identify those who were more equal among the backwards and
Dalits. The committee, headed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Hukum
Singh, toured the state extensively and collected data on 85 per cent
of the rural population and its representation in government services
and welfare schemes. It concluded that the Yadavs/Ahirs among the backwards
and Jatavs/Chamars among the Dalits enjoyed the lion's share of the quotas,
relegating the others to a deprived life.
The committee classified the backwards under three sections and recommended
quotas within the 27 per cent quota allotted to them. This was done largely
on the basis of the benefits they already enjoyed in proportion to their
strength in the backward population. The Yadavs/Ahirs who came under class
I category, it suggested, should be given a reservation of only 5 per
cent; the Kurmis, Jats and six other castes 8 per cent, while the remaining
70 backward castes 14 per cent. The second category will later get an
additional 1 per cent reservation taken from the 2 per cent Scheduled
Tribe (ST) quota which is being reduced since most of the sts are now
in Uttaranchal. Similarly, the Scheduled Castes were divided into two
sections—the Jatavs /Chamars and the others (comprising the remaining
65 castes) with a recommended reservation of 10 per cent and 11 per cent.
Among the points raised by the sjc report was the fact that the upwardly
mobile castes, especially the Yadavs and to some extent the Kurmis, Jats
and the Jatavs among the scs, were socially, economically and, more important,
politically dominant as a result of which they had reaped the quota harvest.
Comprising just 19 per cent of the backward population, the Yadavs held
35.12 per cent of the reserved government jobs while the Jatavs, who make
up for a larger 55.38 per cent of the total sc population, held 59.42
per cent of such jobs. On the other hand, those like the Kurmis, Jats
and Lodhs among the backwards and the Pasis, Dhobis and Valmikis had to
contend with jobs that were less than 30 per cent in proportion to their
strength in the deprived community.
Further, the report noted that the Yadavs and the Kurmis held 324 Class
I offices while the remaining 70 castes were represented in only 284 similar
posts. The Yadavs had also grabbed nearly 50 per cent of the total Class
II posts with 1,568 officers with the remaining 50 per cent being shared
by the other 78 castes. Among the scs too, the Chamars/Jatavs held more
than 50 per cent of the class I jobs with 906 officers out of the total
1,487 in the state.
"It is to remove this anomaly and to ensure justice to all that I
want to implement the sjc report at the earliest," says Rajnath.
"No one should read politics into my decision as I am really concerned
about the plight of the deprived classes." But even granting that
the chief minister intended well in providing the backward castes and
Dalits a level-playing field, the implications of the move make it difficult
to brush aside any political motive on the part of the chief minister,
especially in a state of caste regimes.
A known strategist, Rajnath's aim, say observers, is to divide the backward
votebank of the opposition Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party
by portraying the creamier layers like the Yadavs and Jatavs as villains
who have been thriving at the cost of the others. With statistics at their
fingertips, bjp leaders are now tom-tomming facts like how the Yadavs
managed to corner 2,472 police posts out of the 3,695 that were filled
during 1994-98. With such revelations, they hope sp chieftain Mulayam
Singh Yadav and Mayawati of the bsp would be left with the cause of only
the Yadavs and the Jatavs to champion while the other backward castes
and scs would rally behind the bjp. "Rajnath is trying to divide
the backwards," says Mulayam. "It will only trigger caste clashes."
But Rajnath is undetrred. He is banking on the support of the mbcs, easily
the most exploited classes in the state. There is a section which has
taken to occupations like rowing boats, pottery, selling vegetables, hair-cutting
and utensil cleaning but it is a class marked by its poor living conditions
and lack of social status.The implementation of the Saathi Commission
report, even the sp and bsp concede, would mean changes on the ground
for the mbcs. By taking the mbc campaign successfully to the grassroots
level, somewhat on the lines of the Ayodhya movement, Rajnath hopes to
win back those seats which the bjp lost by a narrow margin in 1996.
Backing up the reservation bait with speedy measures for upliftment, the
Government has already begun recruitment for the 50,000 job bonanza that
Rajnath recently announced for the weaker sections. Half a dozen chairmen
drawn from the deprived backward segments will be appointed in state public-sector
undertakings and corporations. In the offing are also scholarships, hostels
and leadership camps for the less equal among the backward students. At
the party level, the leadership has been asked to identify potential candidates
from these sections for the coming elections. "Rajnath must reveal
how many mbc candidates he will be fielding," says Mayawati, fully
aware of the impact of such a move.
There is one hitch though for Rajnath. The non-Yadav and non-Jatav castes
are socially, economically and politically too weak to take on the strongmen
in their brotherhood. It would, for instance, be a case of the landless
being pitched against the landowners. Further, the mbcs are a scattered
lot. The fact that there are no leaders from the community in the party
will make the bjp's grassroots campaign that much harder. But Rajnath
is a determined man. Having emerged as a strong Rajput leader in the bjp
by outdoing seniors like Kalraj Mishra, Om Prakash Singh and Lalji Tandon
and successfully bringing together the Thakurs, he is once again playing
the caste card. The den of the backwards may be entirely new to him but
that's precisely what the chief minister is hedging his bets on.
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