Political parties silence on creamy layer in reservation

Reservation is one such issue in the country, which is ready to grab every political party. Political parties feel that it is easier to gain power by advocating reservation rather than the issue of multi -dimensional development. For this, the leaders are ready to go to any extent. Even the courts do not lag behind in challenging the judges. Leaders are interested in increasing reservation. Whether or not reservation is needed or not, he is reluctant to discuss it. The eighth report of the Parliamentary Committee has recommended to increase the income limit in the eighth report of the Parliamentary Committee.

The committee report said that the amendment to increase the income limit from Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh per year was made in 2017. According to the rules of the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), this limit should be reviewed every three years or even before that if needed. The standing committee headed by BJP MP Ganesh Singh said that the current limit is low, under which only a small part of OBC comes. He said that due to inflation and increasing income of low income groups, it is the demand of time to increase it.

It is possible that the income limit should be increased by accepting the recommendation of this committee in Parliament. Hardly any political parties object to this. Political parties do not have enough courage to discuss the limit of reservation and any kind of discussion on its influences. In contrast, there is competition among political parties to increase the scope of reservation. This is the reason that whenever there is talk of identifying and separating the creamy in reservation, then political parties are killed. Discussion on the issue of creamy layer is frightened by all political parties that their vote may not move. Despite being in the interest of the reserved category, no political party is far ready to make the creamy layer out of the purview of reservation, but is ready to debate it publicly. Whereas if the creamy layer is identified and excluded from reservation, then people of the same class deprived of reservation will get the benefit.

The report of the Parliamentary Committee has been kept in Parliament, it has been recommended to increase the income limit of Other Backward Classes, but the creamy layer has not been mentioned. In the revival decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Supreme Court gave a historic verdict in August 2024, in which the states were empowered to sub-square reserved category groups such as Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) regarding reservation. At the same time, the court said that a category can be made in the reservation regarding ST-ST creamylair. This decision of the Supreme Court stated that the creamy layer principle, which previously applied only to other backward classes (OBCs) (as exposed in the Indra Sahni case) should now also apply to SC and ST. This means that states should identify the creamy layer within SC and ST. It should be excluded from the benefits of reservation. The court said that reservation should be limited to the first generation only. If a generation in the family has taken advantage of reservation and has gained high status, then the benefit of reservation will not be logically available to another generation. In this decision, the laws of various states were upheld, which were previously canceled, such as laws in Punjab and Tamil Nadu, which allow states to make sub-grains within SC and ST groups. That is, the states can identify the most backward and give it separate reservation within the scope of existing reservation. Most states are silent on this too. They feel that the class whose reservation has reduced, will not get angry and will not vote. By doing this, the vote bank of that class does not slip by hand, which is why even after one year the decision of the Supreme Court, most of the states did not even identify the most backward in the reserved range and did not even exercise to give them separate reservation.

No political parties and governments of the country even discussed this decision of the Supreme Court to exclude the creamy layer from the purview of reservation. While the court clearly said that by removing the creamy layer, the deprived people of the same class will get the benefit of reservation. Political parties have never even mentioned the creamy layer of OBC, the Supreme Court also included SC-ST in it. This issue became highly flammable for leaders. Removing the creamy layer, no one is ready to debate its scope. In contrast, political parties are ready to remove the 50 percent limit of reservation.

Leaders feel that their vote bank will be strengthened by including new sections in the reservation limit. It is a different matter that the Supreme Court did not allow his plans to remove the 50 percent limit of reservation. The Central Government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, announced on 30 April that caste census would be done along with the upcoming census. Soon after, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reiterated his demand to remove the 50 percent limit on quota in India. Rahul Gandhi said, “The 50 percent limit on reservation is hindering the progress of our country and the progress of backward castes, Dalits and tribals and we want this obstacle to be abolished.

Significantly, the Supreme Court has also rejected reservation efforts citing 50 percent quota limit. Rahul Gandhi, who advocated to increase the scope of reservation, did not talk about removing the creamy layer even once. Congress and regional parties feel that it is easier to increase the vote bank by increasing the scope of reservation. In contrast, winning elections on issues like development, unemployment and corruption in the country is not easy. This is the reason why political parties have been hesitant to exclude the reservation from many generations of reservation. Of course, part of the other reserved class continued to be grabbed.

– Yogendra Yogi