MAHA MVA GOVT SAT OVER CONDUCTING FRESH OBC CENSUS

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance government, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena, is not interested in conducting a census for the political emancipation of the OBC (other backward communities) in the state despite Supreme Court reprimands regarding flawed nature of available data in orders issued over the last two years.

Around 450 OBC communities enjoy reservations in the education and social sectors while this was sought to be consolidated at 27% for political representation in local self-bodies as well which was recently rejected by the apex court.

An analysis of the OBC political reservations status quo in Maharashtra clearly shows the MVA government in poor light. This sad state of affairs exists two days after the Supreme Court (SC) directed Maharashtra’s election department (ED) to issue notification for elections to local self-bodies like the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) within two weeks without political reservations for OBC communities, after an earlier reprieve and deferment of a similar order.

“A fresh census of the OBC communities--to replace the data obtained through a census back in 1931--could have been done in six months. The effort since over a year now has been to pick up data from multiple available sources which is fraught with obvious flaws,” a senior ED official said.

After the SC order issued on March 4, 2021, the state appointed the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes as the dedicated commission on OBC community on June 29, 2021, to carry out contemporaneous, rigorous and empirical inquiry to collate OBC data for (political) reservations in local bodies.

Then on March 8, 2022, the state issued another notification for setting up a new dedicated commission to exclusively carry out functions relating to the reservation in local bodies.

On April 18, the state-appointed the Dedicated Commission for Reservation for Backward Class of Citizens in Local Bodies of Maharashtra which has called for representations, suggestions from the general public, institutions, organizations and political parties on the issue of backwardness in local bodies by May 10. In over a year, different sets of members were drafted to the dedicated commission with no progress on commencing a fresh census.

BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal told First India, “As per the apex court order, the notification will have to be issued for elections within 45 days thereafter, in June end or first week of July in the thick of the monsoon. Conventionally, in India, elections are not held during the rainy season when flooding may create obstacles to holding free and fair elections. In Mumbai, for instance, a typical flood situation requires two to three days to dissipate.”

Chahal’s assessment (as applicable to the 22 other municipalities in Maharashtra currently under administrators since 2020 in five civic bodies and 2022 in 18 others where elections have been mandated ) would require a review petition before the SC to again defer elections till after the monsoon season is over by September-October.

Maharashtra’s minister for Public Works Chagan Bhujbal on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must resolve the political reservations crisis for the OBC community through a Parliamentary legislation.

However, Mahendra Jain a senior BJP leader and general secretary of the BJP Traders’ Cell says, “The MVA government is paralysed when it comes to making important decisions. This is the second time the SC has ordered the state to conduct elections to administrator-run municipalities (without OBC reservations) and, for over a year, censustaking has not even begun in earnest.”

According to former Union planning Commission member Hari Narke, “The Centre filed a review petition before the SC over a similar order in Madhya Pradesh and has sought a stay on the order till a fresh census is completed.”

The only way to appease OBCs and circumvent the SC’s diktat is for political parties to field OBC candidates from re-designated posts, even though they are designated as general category seats.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil said that the party would reserve 28% seats for OBC candidates in the upcoming polls to ensure adequate political representation for the community. This will be a tall ask at such short notice since finding winnable candidates will prove to be a daunting task.

It would have been simpler if Maharashtra had commenced a fresh census of OBC communities that would have concluded in six months, without finding itself in a political quagmire today.