DNA Edit: Master stroke - The BJP has pulled a caste rabbit out of the hat

Credit needs to be given to the ruling BJP government for being politically incorrect. While reservations for upper caste Hindus has been debated since the Mandal Commission came up with its reservation formula for Other Backward Castes (OBC) in 1990, changing politics for ever in North India, no one ever contemplated that such a step could ever be taken.

In a major decision on Monday, the Union Cabinet approved 10 percent reservation for the economically backward (EB) members of the upper castes in government jobs. Reservation benefits will be given to those earning less than Rs 8 lakh per year.

The Modi-led government will now move to amend the Constitution in order to grant 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker upper castes. The government is likely to bring a constitutional amendment bill on quotas for economically weaker sections in Parliament this week.

The decision effectively means that those who are economically backward and fall under the general category, will now be able to enjoy the benefits of reservation in government jobs, an advantage unavailable to them previously.

The development also assumes significance as it comes months ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections. The decision is being viewed as a political masterstroke by the ruling BJP to consolidate its position among several disgruntled upper caste communities.

Several NDA allies, including Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP and RPI led by Ramdas Athawale, have in the past demanded reservation for the economically backward upper caste members in government jobs. The Supreme Court has capped at 50 per cent the quota for caste-based reservation for government jobs.

There are sound reasons for the BJP government to have gone ahead with what turns the entire logic of government job reservations on its head. Reservations - or affirmative action - was first started in 1950 with the logic of correcting historical wrongs meted to low castes by high caste Hindus in matters of education and other economic opportunities.

Job reservations really came to acquire a political logic of its own with the Mandal Commission, which recommended 27 per cent job reservations in government and public sector bodies. In effect, reservations were aimed at upper caste domination; now the Modi government has altered the paradigm by reserving jobs for the poor among the upper castes.

There are many, who rightly believed, that in the melee for reservations, deserving upper caste members without means, had got it on the neck. After all, can there by any doubt that the upper caste poor is worse off economically than those landed OBCs demanding reservations?

The immediate trigger, without doubt, are the recent assembly elections setbacks, particularly in MP, where upper castes voted against the BJP, annoyed with the ruling party for restoring provisions of the SC/ST Act that had been struck down by the SC.

In August, 2018, the Parliament passed a bill to overturn the SC order on safeguards against arrest under this particular law. Political logic says that the BJP can’t let down the upper castes, which has been their traditional constituency.