A key feature of the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) continued dominance in West Bengal politics is that it has been built on the foundation of support from women and the Muslim vote. However, months away from the Assembly elections, the TMC finds itself confronting brewing discontent among backward Muslims about changes in the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) list, keeping the Mamata Banerjee-led party on its toes.
On October 23, a few thousand Muslim youths organised a protest March in Murshidabad town, following a meeting at a local auditorium, marking the first protest by the minority community on this issue. The protesters, among whom are several Muslim intellectuals, allege that the new list, published in May and June this year following a fresh survey, has not only dropped several large Muslim groups but has also put in several Hindu sub-castes in the “OBC A” category (the most backward) that provides 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions and has pushed several Muslim groups in the “OBC B” category that allocates 7% reservation. The two lists earlier used to cater to around 80% of Muslims in the state, who comprise 27.1% of the state’s population, as per the 2011 Census. However, experts estimate that number has climbed in the last decade.
Progressive Intellectuals of Bengal president Manajat Biswas, whose outfit is spearheading the protests, said, “Thirty-seven Muslim groups have been removed, out of which 16 were from the old OBC A and 21 from old OBC B. Some of these are commonly known as extremely backward. Thirty-four Muslim and seven non-Muslim sub-castes have been moved from OBC A to OBC B. The problem is that prominent Muslim groups such as Shershabadia, Khotta, Mullick, and Rajmistry (mason) have been removed from OBC A, which is the most backward and placed in OBC B and non-Muslim groups with a large population and many sub castes have been placed in OBC A (from OBC B), such as Goala, Gope, Yadav, Kumbhakar, Yogi Nath, Tantubaya, and Chasatti. The Muslim Majhi community was removed, but the non-Muslim counterpart was moved from OBC B to OBC A.”
According to the protesters, this has led to Muslim youth in the state from backward communities to miss out on admissions to colleges and universities in the current academic calendar. For instance:
- Three Muslim candidates lost out in an English PhD interview in Cooch Behar’s Panchanan Barma University, as their communities are not in the OBC A category anymore.
- In Bankura University, subjects such as physics, mathematics, geography, history, philosophy, and journalism saw a negligible number of Muslim candidates apply under the OBC A category in postgraduate courses.
- Of the 87 candidates that the West Bengal College Service Commission selected for the recruitment of principals in colleges, there were no Muslim candidates.
The protesters said that if the problem is not addressed properly, it will impact the coming selection process of the School Service Commission that has to be completed by December 31, as per the Supreme Court order. The Registrar General of the Calcutta High Court has also directed the district and session judges to keep all ongoing recruitment processes in the OBC A and B categories in abeyance for now.
“It remains unclear why the government deemed 37 Muslim groups unfit for any reservation, 16 of which previously belonged to the OBC A category, while simultaneously considering another 34 Muslim groups so empowered that they were moved to OBC B,” said Anisur Rehman, a member of Progressive Intellectuals of Bengal.
What the protesters want
With its political base eroding, the Left Front government included 66 Muslim sub-castes in the OBC list in 2010, bringing around 87% of the state’s Muslims under the reservation umbrella in a desperate, last-ditch effort to stop the Muslim vote from shifting to the TMC. However, the executive order was never enacted into law and the following year, the Left government fell.
In 2012, the Mamata Banerjee government passed a Bill adding 35 more sub-castes, 33 of them Muslims. The same year, a petition challenging the law’s constitutional validity was filed in the Calcutta High Court. Things came to a head last year when the Calcutta High Court Bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajshekhar Mantha struck down the 2012 law and asked the state government to frame fresh rules in accordance with national norms before issuing OBC certificates again. However, the court did not extend this to the 66 communities that had been classified through the 2010 executive order. The matter is now pending in the Supreme Court, which is set to hear the matter next on November 6.
The resentment among Muslim groups that have been left out has been noted by the TMC, but the party pointed out that the matter was before the top court now. “Some Muslims are not happy with the list; we are aware of it. However, the survey done this time is fine and the Supreme Court will determine the case. Those who have grievances should approach the court,” said TMC MLA Mosharaf Hossain, a member of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes that oversaw the survey.
The Indian Express also reached out to TMC Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, who is a member of the Commission, but he refused to comment.
“We have received petitions from around 41 groups, a majority of them Muslims. We are reviewing them, but are now waiting for the Supreme Court hearing on the matter. The survey and the hearing happened according to norms,” said Commission member Moloy Krishna Dey.
“The question is not only about the Hindus and Muslims,” said a senior state government official. “It is about reaching the deserving sections of the backward classes with welfare support. For this, a rigorous ethnographic study of the communities is needed to see how the sample populations were selected, what was the basis of their selection, were qualitative and quantitative studies carried out by fieldworkers properly trained in handling ethnographic tools to collect primary data from the field, how the data was stored and analysed, etc. There may be scores for the determination of the criteria for inclusion or exclusion of a community in a particular category, but it has to be properly verified. The study should be backed by solid research.”
The protesters want the government to raise the OBC quota ceiling to 25% to make space for the groups that have been left out. “We want the balance restored. Those Muslim groups that have been dropped from OBC A have to be brought back. We want the state government to go for another survey, a proper survey, and then revert to the old list, which gave backward Muslims a chance,” said Biswas, pointing out that various states have 25% reservation for OBCs, where the system is divided into more categories.
Political anthropologist Adil Hossain, who teaches at the Azim Premji University, questioned the survey. “What the OBC Commission has done is a sample survey. They have not followed proper survey methodology. They should have done a comprehensive survey of all castes and found out their representation in public jobs and universities. They should have made the list based on that data.”
Hossain said the government appeared to have reworked the OBC list to “politically satisfy some groups”. “It was a random arrangement, excluding marginalised Muslim communities. A comprehensive survey was needed, as was done in Bihar, Telangana, and Karnataka.”
Kolkata-based researcher Sabir Ahamed, who is associated with the Pratichi India Trust, said Muslims had historically faced disadvantages in higher education and government employment. “The provision of OBC reservation for them as socially backward groups created some opportunities in these areas. However, the recent notification has pushed them further to the margins,” he said.