Bihar Caste Survey: Speculation Rife About Nitish Kumar’s Plans To Hike Reservations Quota Limit To 70 Per Cent

The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar may hike the reservation limit (for SCs, STs and backward classes) from the existing 50 per cent to 70 per cent.

Speculation is rife in political circles in Bihar that a bill to hike the quota will be introduced in the five-day winter session of the assembly beginning 6 November.

The winter session of the state assembly is usually held in December, but has been brought forward this time without any convincing explanation.

That has triggered this speculation. The session will start a day prior to the first phase of assembly polls in five states on 7 November.

If such a bill is introduced in the assembly on 6 November, it will definitely affect the outcome of the polls in those states, say political analysts.

The reported move to hike reservations in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions is a natural corollary of the caste survey that was conducted in the state. 

The survey, whose findings were released 2 October, revealed that the backward classes account for 63 per cent of Bihar’s population. 

At present, Bihar has 50 per cent reservations in jobs and admissions, a limit set by the Supreme Court in 1992.

Sixteen per cent of state government jobs and seats in educational institutions (including medical and engineering colleges) are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), 1 per cent for Scheduled Tribes (STs), 18 per cent for Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), 12 per cent for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 3 per cent for women from backward classes. 

The ruling alliance in Bihar wants to hike this limit to accommodate the large number of backward classes who form a bulk of the state’s population. 

At the all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on 3 October to discuss the findings of the caste survey, all constituents of the ruling mahagathbandhan had advocated hiking the reservation quota to provide for representation of all caste groups in the state as per their numerical strength. 

Though spokespersons of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) declined to speak on the issue, they did not dismiss the speculations about the government’s plans to hike reservation quota. 

JD(U) legislator Rabindra Prasad Singh, the coordinator of the party’s ‘Karpoori pe charcha’ programme that has been launched to tell the backward classes about the benefits of the caste survey, told Swarajya that it is natural for the government to “widen the scope of affirmative action in accordance with the findings of the caste survey”. 

That in itself is an indication that the speculation on the government’s plans to hike the quota limit may be true. 

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary acknowledged that there is speculation about such a move, but declined to comment on it. “Whatever has to be said on the matter will be declared by the Chief Minister,” he told Swarajya.

But senior RJD leaders said that such a bill is indeed in the offing. A senior RJD leader told Swarajya: “Of what use is a caste survey if we don’t act on its findings? The logical action is to increase the reservation quota”. 

The leader, who is also a cabinet minister and is close to RJD chief Lalu Yadav, said other major parties in the INDI Alliance have been taken into confidence. 

Once the state government introduces the bill, the demand to hike reservation limits across the country will be taken up by the alliance which is keen on caste polarisation to counter the BJP’s Hindu consolidation, said the RJD leader.

The BJP has adopted a ‘wait and watch’ stance. “Let the government present such a bill and we will examine it,” said former deputy chief minister and BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi. 

Modi pointed out that the BJP government in Karnataka had increased the reservation quota for SCs and STs to beyond 50 per cent and has done the same in Maharashtra. 

“The BJP is the only party that is genuinely concerned about improving the socio-economic plight of the backward classes. What the Bihar government and other opposition parties are doing is simply political gimmickry,” said Modi.