Chirag Paswan vs Jitan Manjhi in Bihar: SC 'creamy layer' debate divides NDA; will it open up a Pandora's box?

NEW DELHI: Could the open sparring over “quota within quota” between two prominent Dalit faces of Bihar last month open up a Pandora’s box for the BJP-led NDA government? Union ministers Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan engaged in an open war of words last week over a separate sub-category for the most deprived Dalit sections.Manjhi hails from the Musahar community and wants a sub-quota for the marginalised SC communities. Manjhi’s son Santosh Kumar Suman, who is the Bihar minor water resources minister, has demanded a review of the country’s reservation policy to assess which sections have benefited and which have remained deprived even after 79 years of independence. The father-son duo claims they are not against reservations but want either an increase in quota or separate arrangements for sections still deprived of its benefits after seven decades.Chirag Paswan, son of Late Ram Vilas Paswan, objected to calls to introduce the “creamy layer” provision in SC/ST reservations and insisted that those advocating such a move should first resign from their positions. He stressed that the reservation policy was not based on economic status but was designed to address centuries of social discrimination, exclusion and untouchability.Turf war for Dalit leadership in BiharThis is not the first time the two leaders have openly engaged in a war of words on issues. There have been instances in the past when the two Dalit leaders have openly taken diametrically opposite stands. The latest point of friction was the Bharat Tiwari encounter case of Bhojpur district. While Chirag Paswan vowed to prevail upon Bihar's BJP-led government to ensure that punishment was meted out to all police officials involved in his encounter, Manjhi asserted that police were justified in having opened fire on the 28-year-old man with an "unlicensed" weapon. Tiwari, a self-styled social and political activist, was shot dead following a heated exchange on June 17 when officials of the local administration and police visited his place to interrogate him in connection with incendiary social media posts.Political observers feel the open friction between the two leaders is more of a political fight for Dalit leadership in the state. Analyst Naval Kishore Choudhary, who has observed Bihar politics for decades, says Manjhi and Paswan are engaged in a turf war."The two leaders represent two different constituencies within the SC community and are in race to establish themselves as a bigger leader within the NDA in Bihar. By taking contradictory stands, they are catering to their own constituencies within the community. There perhaps is a tussle between them to prove who is more important for NDA in Bihar," Choudhary said.However, the current issue of their discord, “quota within quota”, is not just contentious but also politically sensitive. The BJP has strategically avoided a debate on the issue of sub-quota within the Dalits, perhaps realising the uncertain fallout of any such debate.Homogeneous group vs categorisationA Supreme Court judgment in August 2024, in a 6:1 majority ruling, had allowed states to sub-categorise castes within the Scheduled Castes (SC) based on socio-economic backwardness and degree of under-representation in govt jobs to ensure that the larger pie of 15% SC quota goes to the backwards among them.It had also asked governments to devise suitable criteria to bar the ‘creamy layer’ among SCs and STs from availing reservation. In the process, the SC overruled an earlier judgment of a five-judge bench in EV Chinnaiah case, which had said the SCs were a homogeneous group and could not be sub-categorised.The Modi government had in 2017 constituted a four-member Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) G. Rohini in October 2017 to examine the extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the OBCs and to work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for sub-categorisation within them. The Commission submitted its report to President Droupadi Murmu on July 21, 2023. However, the report has not been made public yet.Clearly, the government perhaps wants to avoid opening a Pandora’s box. More so at a time when it faces a competing challenge from the upper caste communities also. There were protests against reservations in the national capital last month, and the government engaged with the protesters. On August 21, several people held a protest in the national capital following a call by Reservation Hatao Andolan (Scrap Reservation), an Instagram-based page. The protesters are demanding the scrapping of quotas, saying that economic criteria should be given precedence over caste in determining eligibility for government support and reservation.Later, the representatives of the group held a meeting with Union minister J P Nadda and engaged in a "cordial discussion". "Following the movement that took place at Jantar Mantar on 21 August, cordial discussions were held, as per the pre-determined schedule, with Harsh Dubey, Ran Bahadur Singh Chauhan, and Mrityunjay Pathak, members of the team. In this connection, we will meet again soon," Nadda said in a post on X after the meeting.Nadda's meeting with Reservation Hatao Andolan representatives drew questions from opponents. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke asked Nadda to explain the Modi government's stand on the anti-reservation movement and questioned what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to say about the August 21 protest. AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj also sought clarity from Nadda on the government's position, referring to the demand for reconsideration of reservations.Two-fold challengeThese political attacks notwithstanding, the BJP has to keep in mind the upper-caste sentiments. The upper caste vote has largely been with the BJP barring some exceptions, but ahead of the crucial assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh there are reports of discontent in the community.For the BJP, the challenge is two-fold. On the one hand, it has to keep the anti-reservation protesters engaged without enraging the pro-reservation groups. On the other, it has to strike a balance between competing demands of allies on sub-categorisation within the SC community.The BJP already faces pressure from the marginalised groups after stay on University Grants Commission (UGC) rules calling out caste discrimination in universities. The saffron party is also battling opposition allegations that the 2027 caste census deliberately obscures caste data. The 40 questions which are part of the census ask for many personal details, which have not so far been required for any census. However, it does not have a drop-down box for caste, nor does it ask people to self-identify as OBC to allow for proper collation of caste data.Political analyst Uday Chandra says internal conflicts within the SC community is a reality. This is more so in Bihar where Dalit identity is not totally consolidated like in other states. “The “Jati” name takes precedence over the Dalit identity in Bihar and that explains why there is a competing interest between the two Dalit leaders in the state,” Uday Chandra says.“The BJP also faces the challenge of forming new social coalitions in the runup to 2029 Lok Sabha elections. The 2014 and 2019 social coalitions which helped the BJP electorally are starting to fray and may not be effective for electoral gains,” he adds.That perhaps explains why the BJP is treading cautiously and may not be averse to the idea of “quota within quota” like it exits within the OBCs. Nitish Kumar formed the group of EBCs in Bihar and they powered his politics for years.The BJP may also ponder at the prospect of making electoral gains by prioritising the deprived within the Dalits. No wonder, the opposition parties in Bihar are already accusing the BJP of using the two ministers to test people’s mood on the issue.'BJP testing people's mood'Bihar's leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav said: "The BJP is doing all this drama from behind. They are testing people's mood, putting pebbles in the water and seeing what happens." Referring to Majhi and Paswan, he said: "These people are merely characters. They only want posts. They are greedy for positions, chairs, bungalows and security, but have left society behind."Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said Union ministers making allegations against each other "goes against the Constitution". "Perhaps they do not realise that the principle of collective responsibility applies to the Council of Ministers. Whatever a minister says remains the government's position until it is contradicted," he said.But the BJP may not want to make any new experiment now as the very idea is fraught with huge political risks. Hence, to put the sparring Dalit leaders on the back foot, Bihar minister and senior BJP leader Lakhendra Paswan posed a pointed question to both the Union ministers. Without directly endorsing either position, he asked how many people from their respective communities, beyond their immediate families, they had actually helped advance. He reiterated what he described as the BJP’s position on reservation, declaring, “If there is BJP, there is reservation.” BJP national spokesperson Dr Guru Prakash Paswan also reiterated that the government has a clear stand regarding the reservation issue. "Reservation will exist till discrimination exists in society, and our government has strengthened this system. Whatever one says on this can be their personal opinion, but for social justice, the BJP is committed to fulfilling the vows of B.R. Ambedkar," he said.So, while the BJP watches its two allies in Bihar fight, it would hope that the issue does not snowball into a controversy that goes out of hand.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.