Ahead of 2019, BJP gets ready with pitch for biggest caste-based formation

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 27

Ahead of the 2019 general election the ruling BJP is getting ready with the  pitch for the biggest caste-based formation in the country—the OBCs which constitute 50 per cent of the population.

The Rajya Sabha Select Committee examining the Bill meant to provide Constitutional status to the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (NSEBC) is all set to submit its report in the upcoming Monsoon Session, beginning July 17.

BJP leaders say once the Bill is cleared by Parliament “in this session itself”, the process of forming the Constitutional body will begin. The party resolution at the last National Executive meeting in Bhubaneswar had resolved to accord Constitutional status to the Commission—viewed as a tacit acknowledgement by the saffron party of this huge social formation.

Observers see the politically vital move as one among the main thrusts by the saffron party in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Party leaders in the know of developments say the “last or last but one” meeting of the Select Committee examining the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017, is scheduled for July 3. For the report around 40 individuals and organisations have already deposed “positively” and there is “consensus” among members on most issues.

A Constitutional amendment requires two-thirds approval of both Houses of Parliament and subsequent ratification by 50 per cent of the states. BJP leaders say, most political parties, including those from Southern states like Tamil Nadu and Telangana where “OBCs constitute a sizeable number”, are on board. Those who oppose it will only “do themselves more political harm”, they add.

Approved by the Lok Sabha in the last session, the Bill was sent to the Select Committee after Opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling NDA is still short of numbers, voiced reservations. UP-based Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party saw it as an attempt by the Narendra Modi government to “nullify” reservation for OBCs as in the Mandal Commission report.

The decision to provide Constitutional backing to the OBC Commission followed the BJP’s landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh polls. While Opposition leaders read ulterior motives in it, BJP leaders claim the decision to replace the existing National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) was in response to a long-pending demand, including a petition of OBC MPs to the Prime Minister.