BJP accuses MVA of dragging its foot over OBC reservation after SC quashes Maha govt. petition for SECC 2011 raw data

Devendra Fadnavis says Maharashtra govt.’s inefficiency and lack of willpower cost community reservation quota

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Pune: In the aftermath of the Supreme Court of India dismissing the Maharashtra government’s writ petition that sought the Centre to make public the raw data gathered in the 2011 socio-economic caste census (SECC-2011), the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) leaders from Maharashtra have blamed the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of “delaying tactics” and alleged that its “inefficiency” having cost the reservation quota to the OBC in forthcoming local body polls.

The Maharashtra government in its writ petition had sought the SECC 2011 data from the Centre for implementing reservation quota for the OBC community in local body polls. However, the apex court quashed the plea on grounds that the Centre had already submitted that the SECC 2011 data was riddled with mistakes.

While posting the next hearing of the petition for January 17, 2022, the SC directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to re-notify the 27% seats that were until now reserved for OBC category as ‘general category’ seats and commence the election process for them along with the remaining 73% seats. 

Lambasting the MVA over its alleged “negligence” in the OBC quota issue, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis remarked that the government’s inefficiency had cost the OBC community dearly.  

The state government had sought that the elections to local bodies be stopped completely. The government had also sought three months’ time for the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission (MSBCC), which was declared as a dedicated commission for OBC reservation four months ago, to finish the collection of empirical data required for the determining political reservation quota for the OBC community. 

Fadnavis remarked, “The OBC community has already suffered as five Zilla Parishad were held earlier. Now, the SC’s quashing of the State government’s writ means that elections to two more ZPs (Bhandara and Gondia) and 105 panchayat elections will take place without OBC reserved seats. The Centre clearly has said today that it had only socio-economic backwardness data and not any political backwardness data on the community which is required for political reservation. Even if the Centre gives, it won’t fit into the triple test as mandated by the apex court in 2019. But the State had not done the triple test and wasted time instead.” 

A dedicated commission is set up to conduct an empirical investigation to determine the backwardness of the community in the local bodies as a first step, while the second step concerns the panel’s recommendations specifying the proportion of reservation needed for the local body and the third step ensures that the reservation does not go over the 50% aggregate of the total seats reserved jointly for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs. 

The BJP leader further said that the Maharashtra government had committed a blunder by issuing an ordinance without carrying out the triple test mandated by the SC in 2019. 

“Despite the State Backward Classes Commission telling the State government that it could have completed the data collection within a month, the MVA leadership kept on dragging its feet. Now, the State government is saying it will work speedily to ensure reservation for the OBC,” Fadnavis added. 

Remarking there was no coordination between the three-party coalition government, Fadnavis said that it was still possible to work towards ensuring political reservation for the OBCs within three months, or else it would be evident that the MVA government had no intention of giving reservation to the community. 

“At least after this setback, this (MVA) government must stop pointing fingers at the Centre. If henceforth the MVA holds the civic elections without granting reservation to the OBCs, the BJP will hit the streets in protest,” further warned Fadnavis. 

BJP leader Chandrashekhar Bawankule who is also an important OBC leader from the Vidarbha region, accused the State government of deliberately constraining the MSBCC by not giving it adequate funds to complete its survey to prove the political backwardness of the OBCs.  

“The State government purposely did not give adequate funds to the backward classes commission it set up to collect the empirical data on OBCs as the main architects of the MVA coalition are against OBC reservation…this government merely killed time for the last ten months,” he said. 

Bawankule further alleged that the OBC reservation was sacrificed amidst political battle between the NCP, which held the Finance portfolio, and the Congress, whose leader Vijay Wadettiwar was in charge of OBC affairs. 

He further alleged, “Despite the MVA having influential OBC leaders like Chhagan Bhujbal, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Nana Patole and Vijay Wadettiwar, they remain silent on the question of OBC reservation. The MVA has essentially played a game with the OBC on the issue of reservation despite the fact that it is not hard to garner empirical data. Gram panchayats have said they were ready to give the OBC data within eight days while civic bodies have said they could submit theirs in a month, but this government does not want the OBCs to get reservation.” 

In damage control mode, senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal – an influential leader in the State’s OBC community – said that attempts were on to collect data by January 17 (before the next SC hearing on the issue) and urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to personally take the matter into his own hands. He said that the onus was on the State Backward Classes Commission (SBCC) to do its job quickly. 

“Everyone should come and work together. We will have to sit night and day to carry out the data collection process. The CM has to take the question in his hands,” said Bhujbal while expressing confidence that OBCs would get reservation in the next local bodies elections.