Union Government Urged to Exclude 35 Muslim Communities from OBC List in West Bengal

Recommendation to Exclude Communities

The National Commission for Backward Classes has advised the Union government to remove 35 communities, predominantly Muslim, from the Central Other Backward Classes (OBC) list of West Bengal, as reported on Wednesday.

This recommendation was confirmed by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment during a parliamentary session on Tuesday. It followed a review of 37 communities that were added to the list in 2014, just before the Lok Sabha elections, with 35 of them being Muslim.

Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, who chaired the commission, stated that the recommendation arose from the commission's examination of the OBC list in West Bengal, highlighting the significant number of Muslim communities included.

Ahir, whose term as chairperson ended on December 1, mentioned that the majority of the communities proposed for removal were Muslim, with only one or two possibly being non-Muslim, as quoted by the media.

He refrained from disclosing the names of the communities, indicating that it was a decision for the government to make.

The commission's recommendation must be submitted to Parliament under the 102nd Constitutional Amendment, which requires legislative approval and presidential notification for any modifications to the Central OBC list to take effect.

However, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has not indicated when this recommendation will be presented to Parliament for final approval, according to reports.

Amit Malviya, head of the Bharatiya Janata Party's social media cell, criticized the classification by the West Bengal government, claiming it was a strategy to group religious communities into OBC quotas for political advantage, while neglecting genuinely backward Hindu communities.

He asserted that the Union government was rectifying years of politically motivated distortions and striving for genuine social justice based on backwardness rather than electoral considerations.

This recommendation comes as the Supreme Court is reviewing a petition challenging a Calcutta High Court ruling that annulled the classification of 77 communities, most of which are Muslim, under the state OBC category.

In May 2024, the High Court invalidated all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal post-2010, stating that “religion appears to have been the sole criterion” for granting OBC status to the 77 communities.

The High Court's ruling is anticipated to impact nearly five lakh certificates.

In May, the state government informed the Supreme Court that it would conduct a fresh survey to identify OBCs in West Bengal within three months.