Why Gehlot played OBC card at Rahul’s tribal rally

It was meant to be Rahul Gandhi’s tribal outreach rally that many considered as the launch of the Congress campaign for the upcoming Rajasthan assembly election, but chief minister Ashok Gehlot made it more about wooing the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) with reservation.

On August 9, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Rahul, after making his no-confidence motion speech in the Lok Sabha, flew down to Mangarh Dham in Banswara, where a good turnout of people awaited him. While Rahul focused more on what he termed as the BJP’s tendency to keep tribal communities confined to forest land instead of ensuring their education and economic prosperity, Gehlot fired a different salvo.

Gehlot said he agreed with Rahul’s suggestion of a caste-based census for Rajasthan. Then, he announced that his government will provide the most marginalised sections among the state’s OBCs 6 per cent quota in government jobs and higher education, which will be in addition to the 21 per cent reservation for OBCs. It was Gehlot’s first major election-focused declaration that goes beyond the Congress government’s current focus on delivery of existing social welfare schemes in the state.

There is a background to this special quota for OBCs. During his first chief ministerial tenure (1998-2003), Gehlot was under tremendous pressure to grant OBC status to Jats. He was reluctant because it meant Jats—broadly a prosperous caste in the state—benefitting from reservations in jobs as also elections to panchayat and local bodies at the cost of the OBCs, referred to as the ‘original backward castes’ and including Gehlot’s own Mali caste.

But once the Union government declared reservation for Jats under the OBC category for central jobs, the Congress high command nudged Gehlot to include Jats among OBCs in his state. Since then, there have been demands to protect the rights of the ‘original’ and deserving backward castes since Jats were seen to be cornering most of the reserved jobs and election seats meant for OBCs.

The ‘original’ OBCs have been demanding two lists within the existing 21 per cent reservation for them—about 12 per cent for the ‘original backward castes’ and 9 per cent for the rest. However, the Jats object to this. The reservation for Jats made the Gurjars launch an agitation for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. However, the Meena community, which is seen to benefit the most from ST reservation the way Jats do from OBC quota, did not let Gurjars be included. Eventually, Gurjars were accorded most backward class (MBC) reservation of 5 per cent, but this has been under judicial scrutiny since it increases the caste quote net in Rajasthan to way above the Supreme Court-mandated ceiling of 50 per cent.

Now, the 6 per cent additional quota that Gehlot has announced for OBCs takes the total reservation to 70 per cent—including 16 per cent for Scheduled Castes, 12 per cent for STs, 21 per cent for OBCs, 5 per cent for MBCs, and 10 per cent for the economically weaker sections (EWS).

Gehlot also said he will get a survey done to identify the most backward among the OBCs. His statement that he will examine the demand for reservation on the basis of population has various implications. It indicates he will go for a caste census in the state, besides furthering caste politics. The political impact/ backlash of this will be evident in the days to come. Jats, for example, have been demanding an even larger share in quota and thus seeking to raise the OBC quota limit to 27 per cent without any segregation for the most backward lots. The upper castes, though somewhat content with the EWS quota, will be further deprived of their share in education, jobs and politics.

“Gehlot cannot extend reservation without following the constitutional provisions. There is no category of ‘original’ OBCs, and to identify the most backward among them, the government will have to take the route of a full-fledged commission,” said Rajendra Rathore, leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly. “If Gehlot is serious about the issue, he must appoint a full commission first.” However, given all the indications, trust Gehlot to quickly finish such formalities and set the ball rolling for a survey.

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