Mamata's Minority Appeasement: 80 Of 87 Castes Recommended For OBC List By West Bengal Belong To Muslim Community

West Bengal has proposed the addition of 87 castes to the Central List of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), of which 80 belong to the Muslim community.

This initiative has prompted the National Commission of Backward Classes (NCBC) to initiate a historical examination, delving into records dating back to the Imperial Gazetteer period to verify the OBC status of these castes during British India.

Currently, there are 98 castes from West Bengal included in the Central OBC list. OBCs make up 16 per cent of the state's population.

Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, the Chairman of NCBC, shared in an interview with ET, "The state government has submitted recommendations for the inclusion of 87 additional castes to the NCBC. Among these, there are two corrections and 85 new inclusions that the state has requested."

"The Commission is in the process of reviewing these proposals. It's noteworthy that out of the 87 proposals, 80 pertain to castes within the Muslim community," he further said.

According to NCBC data, there are a total of 179 castes listed in the state's OBC roster, comprising 61 Hindu OBCs and 118 Muslim OBCs. Ahir remarked, "This situation is unusual for a Hindu-majority state. In fact, we have not observed a similar situation in any other state except West Bengal."

Ahir stated that the Commission has urged the state to refer to historical records from British India to determine whether any of these castes were previously categorized as OBCs before their conversion to Islam.

"We have requested the state government to provide us with information regarding their status in the Imperial Gazetteer, Mandal list, and the State OBC list," Ahir explained.

NCBC has been consistently highlighting irregularities in the implementation of reservation policies in West Bengal. Following a field investigation in February, NCBC discovered instances where Rohingyas and Bangladeshi immigrants had obtained OBC certificates and availed themselves of reservation benefits.

In accordance with government guidelines, while states have the authority to include castes in the State List, they are required to forward their recommendations to the Centre for the inclusion of castes in the Central List of OBCs.