NEW DELHI: BJP’s OBC outreach will now take ministers hailing from these classes reach out to people to seek their votes and build a pro-party narrative in the run-up to Assembly elections next year.
While Union ministers from OBC ranks have been asked to seek blessings of the people after being denied introduction in both the Houses of Parliament, party MPs has also been given the task of highlighting the works done for the backward castes.
BJP chief JP Nadda on Wednesday held a felicitation of ministers inducted in the Union Cabinet from OBC backgrounds.
These ministers from different states have been asked by the party to take out ‘Ashirwad Yatra’ this month, said a senior party leader.
He added that the OBC outreach will be taken out after the Independence Day celebrations.
There are 27 ministers in the NDA government at the Centre from OBC ranks, including five of Cabinet ranks. Bhupender Yadav is one of them.
“The ministers from OBC ranks will take out the Ashirwad Yatra among the people in their respective states and sensitise the people about the works done by the NDA government, which include the recent initiatives of implementing the 27 per cent reservation in graduate and the post-graduate medical courses in the all India examinations along with the enactment of the Constitution (127) Amendment Bill. The new law will allow the inclusion of a number of OBC castes in the category to gain the benefits of reservation in education and employment,” added the BJP functionary.
The BJP has also asked state units to work closely with the ministers from OBC ranks.
“The state units will fully support the ministers from OBC ranks. The party MPs, who hail from OBC ranks, will also accompany the ministers,” said another BJP functionary.
BJP tried to corner the Congress in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday for allegedly not doing enough for the SCs, STs and OBCs despite ruling the country for decades, and claimed that it was only the governments of which the Jan Sangh or the Bharatiya Janata Party was a part that actually worked for the uplift of the deprived sections of the society.
The Upper House of Parliament was debating the Constitution (127th Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to restore the states' power to prepare their own OBC lists.
It has already been cleared by the Lok Sabha.
As on the other days of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, the House proceedings were disrupted in the opening hour due to an Opposition uproar over various issues, including the Pegasus snooping row and farm laws.
However, the logjam was ended and the House took up the key legislation.
"No one else except (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi will work for the SCs, STs and OBCs," senior BJP leader Sushil Modi said while participating in the discussion initiated by Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who blamed the government for the "delay" in bringing the key amendment bill in Parliament.
Countering Singhvi, Sushil Modi stressed that the government was quick to introduce the bill.
He said the Centre filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on May 13, within eight days of the decision on the matter by the apex court.
"How much faster can it be?" he quipped.
The Supreme Court dismissed the review petition on July 1.
The Centre, Sushil Modi said had made its intention clear in the Select Committee, the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, in the review petition and on other occasions as well that it does not want to deprive the states of the right to prepare their own OBC lists.
"Can any central government deprive the state governments of their rights?" he asked as he reeled out the steps taken by different BJP governments at the Centre.
Sushil Modi said the Centre's intention regarding the states' powers on OBC lists was always clear, yet there was a ruling by the Supreme Court.
The Constitution amendment bill has been brought to restore the states' powers to have their own lists of OBCs for providing reservation, the former deputy chief minister of Bihar said.
Hitting out at the grand old party for "not doing enough" for the backward classes despite ruling the country for years, he sought to know why the Congress government did not set up a backward classes commission under Article 340 of the Constitution and rejected the report of the Kaka Kalelkar Commission submitted in 1955.
"If there were gaps in the Kaka Kalelkar report, why didn't you set up a new commission?" he asked.
Sushil Modi said it was during Moraji Desai's government, when the Jan Sangh was a part of it, that the B P Mandal Commission was formed in 1979.
But the commission submitted its report in 1980, when the Congress was in power.
"You kept the Kaka Kalelkar report in the cold storage and did not even implement the Mandal Commission report for nine years," he said, adding that it was implemented during the V P Singh government of which the BJP was a part.
"In this country, the backward classes have been given their rights by those governments of which the Jan Sangh or the BJP was a part," Sushil Modi asserted.
He also criticised the Congress for not providing constitutional status to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) and the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).
The NCST was accorded the constitutional status by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and in case of the NCBC, it was the Narendra Modi government that did the needful, he pointed out.
The BJP leader credited the current government for ensuring reservation for the economically weaker sections among the upper castes.
He also sought to corner the Congress for not installing a portrait of B R Ambedkar in the Central Hall of Parliament and not conferring Bharat Ratna on him.
Union minister Bhupender Yadav attacked the Congress, saying it did nothing for the welfare of the socially and educationally backward classes.
He also pointed out that it was the BJP government that accorded the constitutional status to the NCBC through an amendment.
On the other hand, the Congress always tried to create confusion and avoid the implementation of the OBC reservation, he alleged.
"The OBCs have suffered a lot due to this attitude of the Congress party," the senior BJP leader said.
He made it clear that the government has no intention to take away the reservation of various communities such as the Gurjars, the Yadavs and the Kurmis.
Attacking Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ramgopal Yadav, who had earlier raised the issues, the minister said, "You said the government will take away the reservation of Gurjars, Yadavs and Kurmis, this is absolutely wrong. You should not talk like this in the House. It is not in the hands of the state governments to add or omit any caste, but the power of inclusion is in the hands of the commission."
To this, the SP leader clarified that he was not referring to the Centre, but his comments were based on some reports in Uttar Pradesh.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday said caste-based census is a "revolutionary" process and some states have already implemented it.
He also said that the parliament system is supreme and it has the right to decide on policies for the country and frame laws for the welfare of the people.
The minister was speaking during a debate in Rajya Sabha.
He accused the opposition of having "double standards" on OBC reservation and said there should be no confusion about the core policy and intention of the Centre.
The Upper House was debating the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to restore the states' power to prepare their own OBC lists.
The Bill has already been cleared by the Lok Sabha.
"Caste census is a revolutionary process in the country. It is not that caste census has not happened. Many states have considered it as the basis," the education minister noted.
The Modi government is trying to give all the castes their rights, he said.
"It is therefore, unnecessary to doubt our intention," he said.
Some Lok Sabha MPs from the DMK party had recently met him and raised the issue of reservation in higher education institutions such as IITs and central universities for SC, ST and OBCs.
"It was news for me," Pradhan said, adding that he enquired about the matter and found that the provision was there till 1989 that there will be reservation, but it will get lapsed if the vacancy was not filled up.
"If the desired candidate is not available, the quota will lapse the subsequent year. It was rectified by the prime minister in 2018-19, who ensured the reservation does not get lapsed," he said.
The present government has implemented 27 per cent OBC reservation in NEET medical entrance examination.
Besides, it has also implemented reservations for OBCs in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and Kendriya Vidyalaya.
Pradhan added that the Opposition members were saying that "you have tied our hands by not exceeding over 50 per cent over the total reservation".
He said it was decided to prepare cast-based census list during the previous government.
"Socio economy cast survey census was drafted. But it was not implemented within the year 2004 to 2014. We have implemented it," the minister said.
He said the Centre used this list in schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.
Pradhan, former Union minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas said, also noted that during his tenure, 8 crore LPG connections were allotted based on the SC/ST list.
He also congratulated the current minister H S Puri for granting one crore new connections on Tuesday.
"The BJP government allotted 11,262 LPG distributorships when I was the petroleum minister. In this, it not only gave rights to the scheduled castes and tribes, but also gave LPG distributorship to provide employment to 2,852 OBC youth. At that time, no such demand was made from the government," he added.
(With PTI Inputs)