The new Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal announced on Monday that it would scrap the state’s list of Other Backward Classes and reduce the OBC reservations of jobs in educational institutions and government jobs from 17% to 7%. The decision was made in keeping with a Calcutta High Court judgement from May 2024, minister Agnimitra Paul said at a news conference.
The move in effect reverts the state’s list of OBCs to its composition in 2010, nullifying the OBC status of as many as 76 caste groups. Most of those adversely affected by this development are Muslims.
Monday’s announcement came days after the state government said it would re-verify about 48 lakh OBC certificates issued in the 15 years during which the Trinamool Congress was in power. The two decisions dismantle OBC reservations as Bengal has known them in recent years.
This is in line with one of the BJP’s long-held criticisms of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The Hindutva party alleges that Banerjee’s OBC reservation policy was aimed at what it calls the appeasement of Muslims, and not the upliftment of genuinely backward groups.
But Bengali Muslim academics worry that the sweeping changes will undo the little upward mobility that their otherwise marginalised community has experienced of late.
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