A year before assembly elections, the Mamata Banerjee government’s decision to raise the number of other backward classes groups in the state has, expectedly, led to sound and fury. Ms Banerjee’s government has been asked by the National Commission for Backward Classes to share the findings as well as the recommendations of the survey on the basis of which this decision was taken. The Bharatiya Janata Party has seen red — or should that be saffron? — alleging that Ms Banerjee has brought back a number of groups whose inclusion had been scrapped by the Calcutta High Court earlier, and that this measure is bound to benefit Muslims disproportionately. At present, among a total of 140 OBC groups, 80 are Muslim. The Bengal government has responded by saying that the additions had been made on the basis of the recommendations of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes and that social, economic and educational factors — not religion — had been used to determine their selection. A hearing on the matter is scheduled in the Supreme Court in July. In a country where reservation of social groups and classes has been turned — diminished — into a heavily politicised electoral sop, it is not surprising that decisions to add to Bengal’s OBC list, whether by the erstwhile Left Front government or its successor, Ms Banerjee’s party, have run into legal hurdles. In 2024, the Calcutta High Court had struck down the inclusion of as many 113 classes, stating that religion appeared to be the principal factor for their selection and that objective criterion had not been considered to determine the backwardness of the selected constituencies. Ms Banerjee’s dispensation moved the highest court in response to the high court’s order.
The political battle lines are clear. The Trinamool Congress would be hoping that the Supreme Court rules in its favour, enabling the party to reap electoral dividends — principally among its minority vote bank? — by using reservation as the proverbial golden goose. The BJP, in turn, would want to polarise the issue on religious grounds, hoping to benefit from a counter-consolidation among Hindus, especially among OBCs. That electoral compulsions and the spectre of competitive politics have combined to erode the emancipatory principle of reservation is not something that would bother Ms Banerjee or her rivals. That is the tragedy of reservation — in Bengal and in India.