Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two cabinet colleagues, Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and RPI chief Ramdas Athawale, who does Dalit politics in Maharashtra, are not happy with the Supreme Court decision on Dalit sub-quota. Both the ministers are calling this decision as a conspiracy to divide the Dalits and end the reservation. On the other hand, most of the NDA allies are happy with this decision and are also supporting it.
Telugudesam Party is at the top among the supporters. President of HAM Party in Bihar and Minister at the Center Jitan Ram Manjhi has not said anything yet but it is believed that he is happy with this decision. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been a supporter of all quotas for Dalit reservation for a long time. The concept of separate reservation for Mahadalit among Dalits has been his only. The difficulty before BJP is whether to support or oppose this decision.
The way the parties are taking stand one by one against the decision of the Supreme Court, it seems that BJP will have to clear its stand soon. If this does not happen then BJP voters will once again be confused. Due to BJP not yet taking a clear stand on this issue, it may have to face a two-pronged attack. On one hand, Dalits will feel that BJP is standing behind this decision, on the other hand, taking advantage of the silence of Samajwadi Party and Congress, the party may also be deprived.
1-BJP’s compulsion to support sub-quota in Telangana and Andhra.
The situation is emerging in Telangana that both Telangana Congress and BJP are supporting this decision. Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has already said that now reservation will be given on the basis of Dalit sub quota in all recruitments in his state.
BJP itself has been advocating such sub-quota in Telangana. BJP, which won eight out of 17 seats equal to Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, had supported the provision of Dalit sub-quota even before the 2023 assembly elections in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the formation of a committee to look into the long-standing demand of the Madiga community for sub-quota.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NDA colleague Chandra Babu Naidu says, we welcome the Supreme Court’s decision on the SC classification issue. Naidu’s son and Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh said in a post on
2-Everyone in Bihar is in protest except Chirag.
Till now, no official statement has come from BJP and Congress on the Supreme Court’s decision on Dalit sub-quota. But the message being sent among the general public is that both the major parties of the country are supporting the quota. However, the opinions of the allies of both the parties are different. Union Minister Chirag Paswan of BJP’s ally LJP (Paswan) in Bihar has decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the decision of sub-categorization among Dalits. . Chirag says that population and income have never been the basis of reservation for Scheduled Castes. According to the socio-economic survey, Chirag’s own caste Paswan has a population of 5.31% in Bihar, which is the largest caste group after Yadavs. Whereas Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar created a category of Mahadalit castes among the Dalits in the year 2008. In this, castes with small population of Dalits were kept, Paswan community was not given place in this. Nitish implemented many special schemes for the upliftment of Mahadalits. Obviously JDU is with this decision. Leader of another NDA ally Hindustan Awami Morcha and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has not yet kept his mouth shut on the latest decision of the Supreme Court. Has not opened. Actually Manjhi belongs to Musahar caste whose share in Bihar is 3%. Musahar community is Dalit among Dalits. Perhaps this was the reason why Nitish had also included Musahar caste in the list of Mahadalits. Obviously, Musahar people are expected to benefit a lot from this decision of the Supreme Court. The state’s main opposition party RJD is also opposing the decision of the Supreme Court. All these reasons together are creating a difficult situation for BJP in Bihar.
3- Akhilesh’s silence in UP, Mayawati’s trumpet
NDA’s two allies in Uttar Pradesh, Nishad Party and SubhaSP, have welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court. Nishad Party chief and minister in Yogi cabinet, Sanjay Nishad has demanded to include his caste in the SC list. Meanwhile, SubhaSP chief and minister in the Yogi government, OP Rajbhar, has said that a separate category should be created for the extremely backward class within the OBC reservation in Uttar Pradesh. Dalit leader and BSP chief Mayawati and rising Dalit leader MP Chandrashekhar are giving strong reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision every day.
4-Why is there confusion in BJP?
The problem for BJP is that the campaign to end reservation has helped BJP win 240 seats in this Lok Sabha election. Especially in Uttar Pradesh, BJP suffered the biggest blow where it was reduced from 62 to 33 seats. Congress and Samajwadi Party propagated Save Constitution, Save Reservation in such a way that the Dalit votes got polarized towards Congress and Samajwadi Party. Obviously the opposition will publicize this decision of the Supreme Court as a conspiracy of the BJP. Mayawati, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the most popular leader of Dalits, said similar things on Monday. He has said that actually there is a conspiracy to end reservation through the court. He directly took the name of BJP, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, behind this. Taking the name of BJP, he said that its intention is to end reservation, that is why the Central Government did not give arguments against sub-classification in the Supreme Court but supported it. Along with BJP, Mayawati also targeted her arch rival Samajwadi Party. Not only this, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party were also called anti-reservation. He says that Aam Aadmi Party is the ruling party of Punjab from where the matter had reached the Supreme Court. Said, BJP is bent on making reservation passive and ineffective and ultimately abolishing it. BJP is not taking any steps to include reservation in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution. Obviously, the same things that Mayawati is saying will be said tomorrow by the people of India Alliance also. Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh has also strongly opposed the Supreme Court’s decision.
Bharatiya Janata Party is probably confused about these things and till now is not giving any official statement on Dalit sub-quota. Congress is also probably waiting for BJP’s stance. Two Chief Ministers of Congress have welcomed the Dalit sub-quota. Telangana and Karnataka are preparing to implement it. Still Congress can oppose it. There is no uniformity among the pro-BJP Twitter handles. BJP supporters Dilip Mandal are continuously opposing the decision of the Supreme Court. The Twitter handle of RSS magazine Pochjanya is continuously supporting this decision.