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With the National Commission for Backward Classes reportedly having given its nod to a key recommendation of the B.P. Sharma committee, a large section of OBCs stands to forfeit eligibility for reservations. Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot’s casual remark that the recommendation is nothing new doesn’t help matters, reports Nawal Kishore Kumar

Since 2014, despite obtaining the requisite rank in the UPSC examination, as many as 55 OBC candidates have been denied appointment to the IAS and at least 15 OBC candidates have accepted appointment to lesser services under the general category

In the original advertisement issued by the university, none of the 44 posts of professors and associate professors was reserved for the OBCs. After protests, the university has issued an amended advertisement and the candidates can now apply up to 31 July 2019

The commission’s proposal to use the share of government benefits accrued to a community or a group as a criterion for ascertaining their sub-quota, without data on their relative populations, extent of backwardness and regional spread, makes little sense. The government has yet to consider the commission’s request for an all-India study of caste and socio-economic status

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has set aside a notification seeking to link OBC reservations to income. Relying on the Supreme Court verdict in the Indra Sawhney case, the court said that income can be one of the indicators of social upliftment but it cannot be the sole criterion

The results of the caste census carried out in 2011 has not yet been made public. OBCs count only in politics. The former chairman of the National Backward Classes Commission makes these observations in an interview with Nawal Kishore Kumar

OBCs have been given reservation in higher education but the conspiracy to limit its implementation is alive and kicking. Delhi University is a case in point. It has come up with a rule that will affect the enrolment of OBC students

The BJP won the Tripura Assembly Elections not merely because it stoked communal feelings. It promised reservations for the OBCs and criticized the Left for failing in its obligation to provide reservations for Dalits and Adivasis in proportion to their populations

If the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill becomes law of the land without further amendments, the states will be deprived of their Constitutional rights and power to declare any class as socially and educationally backward within the state

The students’ organizations on campuses have become articulate in discussing Dalit-OBC issues and are forging joint fronts against casteism. The brahmanical-casteist and social justice lobbies now stand face-to-face