The BJP/RSS Government is trying to appease the backward classes and the bill to constitute NCBC as the constitutional body in the line of National Commission of Scheduled Caste (NCSC). The most important commission so far constituted for the OBCs was the Mandal Commission that batted for the representation of the OBCs in the Government and Educational Institutes.

The new crop of OBC officers in the Government is the result of Mandal Commission which was constituted after Kakasaheb Kalelkar Commission that came from Babasaheb Ambedkar’s plea to constitute a commission for the backward classes (OBCs) during the Constituent Assembly debates. The Article 340 of the Indian constitution recommended the commission.

The BJP/RSS Government asserted that the “commission” is not a “thank you” note to the backward classes in UP who alleged voted for the BJP, but it was the long standing wish of the BJP/RSS to grant privileges to India’s sleeping elephant (the OBCs).

The moment the OBCs wake up to their position in the Hindu religion, they will rebel against the religion that treated them like slaves and will destroy Brahminism. Tatyasaheb Phule, the greatest leader of the Non-Brahmin movement, made every effort to awaken the OBCs to their real status in the so-called Hindu religion. The OBCs only need to read the books written by the Brahmins against them. The great Shudra King, Shivaji, was forced to lick the toe of a Brahmin priest, Gagabhatta.

The proposed commission for the backward classes is toothless. It will not give them any rights and it is just a makeshift arrangement. The NCSC is the constitutional body and it has no teeth. It does not bite. The main role of the NCSC has been to address the cases of atrocities committed on the Scheduled Castes and because it is just a quasi-judicial body, it has no other powers than summoning the parties. Besides this NCSC is a useless bureaucratic showpiece.

What would the NCBC do?

The Governments have failed to address the problems of the Backward Classes since the power was transferred to Indians in 1947. It was Babasaheb Ambedkar, a true democrat, who wanted to ensure that the power is shared by all the citizens, not just a handful of Brahmins who benefited by kowtowing to the incumbent British power and sought privileges for them. The Indian National Congress founded in 1885 has this demand of inclusion of the Indian elites and upper castes in the Civil Services. Therefore, when Indian was constituted as People’s Republic, Babasaheb Ambedkar wanted to ensure that India is truly “people’s republic”. He resigned because his demand for the representation of the OBCs was not met. He encouraged partnership between the Scheduled Castes and the Backward classes: the political partnership that has a potential of ruling this country forever.

[irp]

What the OBCs need is not a commission at the top, but the grassroots level movement against their subjugation in the Brahmanical Social Order.

The organization of OBCs under the Satyashodhak Samaj by Tatyasaheb Phule really produced stalwarts who went on the declare Brahmins as the “enemies of the nation” and they went to Babasaheb Ambedkar to fight their legal case. Babasaheb Ambedkar won the legal case for the OBC leaders. But the OBC movement was co-opted by the Indian National Congress. The BJP/RSS is in the same course of action. They are up for co-opting the OBCs, but not as a community, but a few stooges among them who would keep them in their loop to get their votes.

The way out for the OBCs is to organize themselves nationally and demand their rights under the constitution of India for their equal representation. The OBC movement is running out of the stream as they do not have a national organization and therefore what they get is a tokenism in the form of NCBC what they really need is National Movement of the Backward Classes.

What do you think, is NCBC solution to the problems OBCs face? Let us know in the comments.

Author – Mangesh Dhaiwale

[irp]