Uttar Pradesh: 17 MBCs set to rally against Samajwadi Party

The ruling Samajwadi Party is caught in a web of its own making over the issue of inclusion of 17 Most Backward Castes (MBCs) in the Scheduled Caste list.

Upset over the delay, the 17 MBCs, under the leadership of the Nishad community, will be taking out a Rath Yatra in June to create awareness on the issue and ‘expose the political parties’.

The 17 most backward castes (MBCs) have been lobbying for inclusion in the Scheduled Castes category since the past one decade and the Samajwadi Party, despite making promises, has not taken sufficient interest to ensure their inclusion in the scheduled caste list.

The 17 MBCs that include Rajbhar, Nishad, Prajapati, Mallah, Kahar, Kashyap, Kumhar, Dhimar, Bind, Bhar, Kevat, Dhivar, Batham, Machua, Manjhi, Turha and Gaur now blame the Samajwadi Party for their plight.

It may be recalled that the Mulayam Singh government in 2004 had amended the UP Public Services Act, 1994, to include as many as 17 castes from the OBC list in the SC category. The state government also removed these caste groups from the OBC list. But since the power to include any caste in the SC list rests with the Centre, the state government’s decision taken without the Centre’s consent, proved in fructuous and the Allahabad high court later quashed the decision, leaving these castes in the lurch. Since the past one decade, these 17 caste groups are neither getting the benefits of the OBC group nor those of the SC group.

The Rashtriya Nishad Sangh secretary Lautan Ram Nishad said that the Samajwadi Party’s intentions on the issue were not above suspicion.

“Whenever elections are round the corner, SP rakes up the issue and blames the centre but what has this government done in the past four years This was a promise they had made to us in the election manifesto but they have conveniently forgotten about it. Every six month, the Samajwadi government sends a reminder to the centre but never pursues the issue”, he said. He said that SP and BSP had been playing politics on the issue because it suited them. If the 17 MBC sub-castes move to the SC category, the SP benefits from votes of both the OBCs, whose space within the reservation system increases, and the sub-castes, who get more opportunities as SCs. The BSP is not keen because of its own political reasons. If the 17 MBCs get included in the SC list, the share of other Dalit sub castes will get eaten into. While the OBCs have 27 per cent reservation, the SC/ST category has 22.5 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.