Bengal Removes 77 Muslim Communities From OBC List, Shrinks Quota

Two bills were passed in the West Bengal assembly on Monday, formally altering the reservation laws on the Other Backward Classes or OBCs. Under the new law, 77 Muslim communities have been excluded from the OBC list, in keeping with an order from the Calcutta High Court passed in May 2024. The reservation quota for OBCs has also been reduced from 10 per cent to 7 per cent, and changes have been made to the OBC classification. At the same time, the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission Act, 1993, has also been amended.

Bengal's Backward Classes Welfare Minister Gourishankar Ghosh said in the assembly that the inclusion of certain communities in the OBC list - done by the previous Trinamool Congress government solely "to grant special benefits to Muslims without conducting any survey" - has been cancelled in accordance with the High Court's directive.

"The 66 communities included on basis of surveys have been retained," he said. "The West Bengal Backward Classes Commission will now assess the actual socio-economic status of the OBC communities. The previous government had acted by completely bypassing the Commission. The new legislation will also help curb the issuance of fake OBC certificates," he added.

After the BJP government came to power in May, it said it would revoke the recognition of 77 Muslim communities that were given OBC status during the Trinamool rule. At the same time, OBC reservation would be reduced from 10 per cent to 7 per cent.

"We had pledged in our manifesto that if we formed government, we would reinstate the original OBC list from 1993, a list that the Trinamool government had scrapped without any proper inquiry," said state minister Gouri Shankar Ghosh. 

"Today, our bill on that was passed with 186 votes and the 'Goonda Daman' (Anti-Social Activity) Bill was also passed... it is an excellent bill... Our Chief Minister also announced that the UCC (Uniform Civil Code) will be implemented in Bengal next month, in August. We believe the UCC should be implemented, which is why our people voted for the BJP this time," he added.

Opposing the bill, Indian Secular Front MLA Nawshad Siddiqui said: "According to the Supreme Court's directions, any change in reservation limits requires specific empirical data or scientific assessment. However, the state government, without proper data, is moving towards reducing OBC reservation, and this issue has not been addressed in the bill".

"We fear that reducing the reservation will deprive this community of opportunities in higher education and government jobs. The recommendations of the Mandal Commission have been disregarded. This bill will also undermine the very concept of social justice," Siddiqui added.