Bihar: Ruling NDA Divided Over Apex Court's Verdict on SC/ST Sub-Categorisation

Patna: The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar is divided over the Supreme Court’s verdict in favour of sub- categorisation of Schedule Castes (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST). This was evident by the comments of two Union ministers who have taken different stands on the apex court’s ruling.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) two allies – Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ramvilas) chief Chirag Paswan, who is also Union minister, has opposed the court’s verdict and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) founder-chief and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has supported it. Both Paswan and Manjhi are Dalit leaders.

A day after Paswan announced that his party would file a review petition against the court’s judgement, Manjhi opposed his move, saying that he was in favour of the judgement.

“Some people have been questioning the court verdict and opposing it for self-interest, not in the interest of the Dalit Samaj. Only four Dalit castes have benefited from reservation in the last 76 years. Dalit icon Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar has also stressed for the need for review of reservation after 10 years. The review will reveal who have benefited and who have not from reservation,” Manji was quoted as saying.
 

Paswan, who belongs to Dusadh or Paswan, a militant Dalit caste, said that reservation was given to Dalits on the basis of untouchability, not educational and economic status. There is no basis to apply the ‘creamy layer’ factor for this.

Son of former Union minister late Ram Vilas Paswan, the LJP said Dalits were still being discriminated against on the basis of untouchability, whether they held a high position, were rich and resourceful. Paswan was elected from Hajipur (reserved seat) in Bihar in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Manjhi, who was elected from Gaya (reserved seat) said the verdict had come as a “gift” for those communities within Dalits who had been lagging and remained poor, marginalised and backward. “Such a court judgement should have come 10 years ago”, he added.

Manjhi, who is former Bihar chief minister, said some Dalit communities, including Musahar, Bhuiyan, Dom and Mehtar, were struggling for survival, as they had failed to get benefits of reservation for SCs.

“How many IAS, IPS, chief engineers, Class I officers are from these backward Dalit castes? Only four dominant Dalit castes have benefited from the reservation policy and they are opposing the latest court’s judgement”, he said.

The HAM leader said the literacy rate of SCs was 30% but the literacy rate of Musahar, Bhuiyan, Dom and Mehtar was less than 10%.

The other allies of BJP, including Janata Dal- United leader and  Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have come out in support of the court’s verdict.

It appears that Manjhi’s stand is based on real data. The socio-economic data of the Bihar caste survey report, which was made public in November last year, highlighted that one-third of Bihar’s families were poor and living in abject poverty, with their monthly income at a mere Rs 6,000. Most of such families belong to the SCs or Salits, STs or adivasis, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs).

According to the socio-economic data of the report, poverty is rampant in Bihar, with 34.13% of all families in the state classified as “poor”. But the number of poor families is highest among SCs and STs followed by OBCs and EBCs.

As per the data, 42.93% SC families and 42.70% ST families are poor, while 33.16% OBC families and 33.58% EBC families are also poor.

Among the SCs, poverty is highest among the Musahar community, known as one of India's most marginalised in the caste hierarchy. About 54% of Musahar families are poverty-stricken, followed by 53% among Bhuiyan and 42% among Chamar or Mochi.

Among the OBCs, 35.87% families of Yadavs are poor followed by 34.32% Kushwahas and 29.9% Kurmis.

The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal has opposed the court’s verdict. “We are against the sub-categorisation of SCs and STs for reservation. This is against the spirit of the Constitution, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said.