Caste politics should not affect the assembly elections also, BJP is ready to tackle every issue of the opposition

New Delhi: Right now, there are assembly elections in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. Maharashtra and Jharkhand are also going to go through the electoral process this year. Then next year it will be the turn of Delhi and Bihar. In such a situation, parties and alliances have started setting their own narratives. BJP, which suffered a setback on the issue of reservation in the Lok Sabha elections, is moving cautiously, while parties like Congress-SP, which benefited, are busy giving it as much air as possible. This is the reason why the BJP coalition government at the Center withdrew the lateral entry scheme in the bureaucracy as soon as a finger was raised. Earlier, the government also immediately clarified its stand on the Supreme Court’s directive to decide the ‘creamy layer’ within the quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC-ST). Now BJP is planning to propagate among the SC-ST voters how it did not delay even a bit in taking a stand on the issue of sub-classification.

BJP entered the election field with a new pension scheme

The Lok Sabha election results also indicated that to some extent the families of government employees have also turned their back on the BJP. The government has found a solution for this as well for the upcoming elections. The Modi government has announced the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) for central employees. Now the BJP has got a solution to calm the anger created in the electoral states due to inflation and lack of tax relief for the middle class in the budget.

An effort to keep SC-ST voters connected

Sub-categorisation of SCs and STs is a highly contentious issue. SCs constitute 17% of the population and STs 9%. Senior BJP leaders said they expect the issue to dominate the upcoming elections in Haryana in October followed by Maharashtra and Jharkhand. According to the 2011 census, Haryana has the fifth-highest SC population in the country at 19.35%. Jharkhand has 26.2% STs while Maharashtra has 11.81% STs and STs 9.35%. “The opposition will make rhetoric on the issue of sub-categorisation in castes and SC-STs as such issues have an immediate response at the ground level, but the central government is adamant that it will not dilute the quota,” said a senior party functionary.

Modi government’s decision on lateral entry will be publicised

According to a report published on the Hindustan Times website, a BJP official said that the party will inform the voters of the concerned class about the withdrawal of the advertisement issued for lateral entry. The official said, ‘The opposition had tried to politicise the issue while the Manmohan Singh government had also made recruitments through lateral entry. But the Modi government paid heed to the concerns of SC-ST and cancelled the advertisement and assured that it would draft a more inclusive policy for recruitments in the bureaucracy.’

The government reacted immediately to the Supreme Court’s decision

The Supreme Court had said in a majority verdict that states have the right to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes providing quota within the reserved category. A seven-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, by a 6:1 majority, said states can be allowed to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 9 made it clear that there is no provision for fixing a creamy layer within the SC-ST community. It said this government is committed to the welfare of socially and economically marginalised people.

The Supreme Court order has left many in the BJP in a quandary. A BJP functionary said, “There is a demand for sub-categorisation in many states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Telangana and the BJP was not opposed to it. There are differences on the issue in states like Bihar, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. In such a situation, the party will have to consider its options before making any sweeping announcement. The focus will be on major policy decisions that have benefited the SC-ST and OBC classes.”

BJP allies in states like Bihar are divided over the suggestion. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has opposed sub-categorisation, while the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) is in favour of the court’s decision. The JD(U) is not pressing for sub-categorisation but wants the government to take cues from how the state has helped the Mahadalits, the most disadvantaged section among the Scheduled Castes, by implementing affirmative action.

The BJP government of Haryana has accepted the recommendations of the State Commission for SC to sub-classify the Scheduled Castes. Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini said that the commission has recommended that for the purpose of reservation in government jobs, there should be sub-classification into two categories – Deprived Scheduled Castes (DSC), and Other Scheduled Castes (OSC). DSC includes 36 castes like Balmiki, Dhanak, Mazhabi Sikh, Khatik. OSC includes castes like Chamar, Jatiya Chamar, Rehgar, Regar, Ramdas and Ravidas.

After losing votes of SC-ST communities in states like Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 general elections, BJP is keen to ensure that the opposition does not get a chance to hit the government on caste-based reservation issues. When BJP gave the slogan of ‘Abki Baar 400 Paar’ in the Lok Sabha elections, the opposition gave it a different color. The opposition campaigned among the reserved category communities that BJP wants 400 seats so that it can change the Constitution and end reservation.

… so that the opposition does not take advantage again

Hindustan Times has published a statement of Lal Singh Arya, head of BJP’s Scheduled Caste Front. Arya said that the government is working for the upliftment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the party will highlight it. he/she said, ‘For the first time, seats have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir where elections are due next month. In every public meeting, the PM has said that he/she is committed to the welfare of the deprived and oppressed… The opposition wants to mislead the public and create fear.’

However, Lal did not comment on the issue of sub-categorisation. Former Rajya Sabha MP Bhalchandra Mungekar said that no state has been able to prove that some castes have benefited more and the process of sub-categorisation is difficult to carry out. he/she said, ‘My suggestion is that reservation should be limited to two generations. But people of the third generation should not be discriminated against.’

The party is also confident that the government has taken the wind out of the Opposition’s sails by bringing in the UPS. In the state elections held in Himachal, Karnataka and Telangana, the Congress had specifically promised to bring back the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). The Congress has accused the Modi government of taking a U-turn. On this, the BJP retorted that this has made the Modi government aware of the ground realities, due to which this decision has been taken.

Reacting to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remark that the ‘U’ in UPS stands for the Modi government’s U-turn, former minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “The Narendra Modi government takes decisions based on its understanding… it does not believe in ad hocism. The PM listens, understands and is sensitive.” Prasad asked the Congress why it did not implement OPS as promised by the Congress governments in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.