May 2019

www.theasianindependent.co.uk ASIA May 2019 9
Narendra Modi’s Backward Class
Credentials – Renewal of Controversy:
Authentic Facts and Real Challenge before Parties after Lok Sabha Elections of 2019
The issue of Prime Minister Shri
Narendra Modi’s “Backward Class”
credentials has become the subject of
active controversy. This controversy
arose on a lower key in 2014 during the
run-up to the Lok Sabha elections
2014. At that time I wrote an article
titled “Narendra Modi’s BC Caste
Credentials – Authentic Facts” and sent
it on 10.05.2014 to one of the prominent
national dailies for publication. In
keeping with the lack of interest of
national print and electronic media in
matters, especially in-depth matters,
pertaining to Socially and
Educationally Backward Classes
(SEdBCs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs)
and Scheduled Tribes (STs), that daily
did not publish it. As the controversy
has recurred more strongly now, I am
writing this Paper, updating my Paper
of 2014, and placing it in the public
domain in order to provide authentic
information on this, as the present and
the past controversy suffer from inadequate
information.
Those attributing fakeness to Shri
Narendra Modi’s Backward Class credentials
base their allegation on the fact
that his caste was not originally included
in the list of SEdBCs, and it was
later got included. It is alleged that his
later inclusion was got done by him
using his influence as Chief Minister.
In the entire controversy, the name of
his caste is not mentioned, which is
“Ghanchi”. Ghanchi is the Gujarati
name for Teli, which is the Hindi name
of a caste, known by different names in
different States and languages, linked,
according to the caste system, with the
traditional occupation of oil-pressing
and vending.
The caste, with oil-pressing and
vending as the traditional occupation,
has always been in the list of SEdBCs
in every unit of India – well before
Independence in Southern States and
later in Northern States and the Centre
–, entered by their local name(s), “Teli”
in most States. In Gujarat they are
known as Ghanchi, Teli and, in some
parts, also as Ghancha.
This community was included in the
List of BCs for Gujarat (then divided
into Saurashtra, Kutch and partly
Bombay) by the first Central Backward
Classes (Kaka Kalelkar) Commission
(1953-55), as “Ganika, Ghanchi, Teli”
with the traditional occupation of “Oil
pressing” under Bombay, “Ghanchi,
Ghancha” with the traditional occupation
of “Oil pressers and sellers” under
Saurashtra, and “Ghancha” with the
traditional occupation of “Oil pressesrs”
under Kutch. The Second
Backward Classes (Mandal)
Commission (1979-80) included this
community in its Gujarat BC list as
“Teli, Modh Ghanchi”. After the
Supreme Court’s Mandal judgement
upheld Central Government’s OM of
13-08-1990 providing for 27% reservation
for BCs, a first-phase Central List
of BCs was prepared by the Expert
Committee on BCs, of which I was a
Member, and notified States-wise by
the Central Government in 1993 based
on the criterion of “commonality”, i.e.,
inclusion in the first-phase Central List
(CL) only of those castes present both
in the State List (SL) and the Mandal
List (ML) for that State. In this firstphase
CL, only “Ghanchi (Muslim)”
was included and not “Teli,
Modh Ghanchi” because
the latter, though in the
ML, was not in the SL. The
Gujarat State BC List at
that time, based on the
Bakshi Commission’s recommendations,
contained
only “Ghanchi (Muslims)”.
The criterion of “commonality”
was suggested by me
in 1990 when I was
Secretary, Ministry of
Welfare, in which capacity
I processed the long-pending
recommendations of
the Mandal Commission
and prepared the Note,
which was the basis for the
then Government’s decision
to provide 27% reservation
for the SEdBCs. My
suggestion of the principle
of “commonality” was
agreed to by the then
Minister and Prime
Minister and was followed
by the succeeding
Government also.
Later, Shri N. S. Chaudhari, General
Secretary, Gujarat State Tailik Sahu
Mahasabha, made Request to the
National Commission for Backward
Classes (NCBC) for inclusion in the
CL of “Teli” and its 16 sub-castes/synonyms,
among them “Modh Ghanchi
Teli” and “Ghanchi Teli”. A 2-Member
Bench of the NCBC held a Public
Hearing on 28. 8. 1997 at Ahmedabad
to examine this Request, in accordance
with the transparent procedure evolved
at the outset by the NCBC. By then,
“Teli, Modh Ghanchi” had been included
in the SL. The Bench found “Teli,
Modh Ghanchi” to be socially and educationally
backward with the traditional
occupation of “Tel Ghani” or oilextraction
by traditional crushing
device, and to be inadequately represented
in services. Those present –
who were from different sections of
society and State Government representatives
– not only did not oppose,
but supported the inclusion of “Teli,
Modh Ghanchi” in the CL. The Full 5-
Member Commission of which I was
Member-Secretary, and the Chairman
was a retired and reputed High Court
judge, considered the Bench Findings
and tendered Advice to the Central
Government, communicated by my
DO letter Advice No. Gujarat 4-5/97
dated 15.11.1997, to include “Teli,
Modh Ghanchi” as synonyms of
Central List entry No. “23. Ghanchi
(Muslim)”. Accordingly, the Central
Government, in 1999, notified inclusion
of “Teli, Modh Ghanchi” in the
CL of BCs.
“Modh” is the prefix added to their
caste name by castes who are followers
of Modheshwari Devi, a popular
Gujarat deity. Modh is not a caste or
caste name, but denotes a religious sect
across different castes.
When the Kaka Kalelkar
Commission included this community
in the BC list, Shri Narendra Modi was
P. S. Krishnan
a child of about 5 years. When the
Mandal Commission included it with
the name “Modh Ghanchi”, Shri Modi
must have been about 30 years old and
could not have been in a position to
“influence” the Mandal Commission.
The subsequent stages of NCBC’s
Examination and Advice and Central
Government’s inclusion of “Modh
Ghanchi” in the CL of SEdBCs all
occurred before he became the Chief
Minister. I am also in a position to
make it clear from my personal experience
of the period when I was
Member-Secretary of the NCBC from
its inception in 1993 till 2000, that the
NCBC formulated its statutory Advices
objectively on the basis of facts and the
primary criterion of “social backwardness”,
after a pre-advertised transparent
public enquiry in every case, without
allowing any Chief Minister’s,
Union Minister’s or Prime Minister’s
personal preference to intrude. Even
after I left the NCBC, in 2013-14 when
the leaders of the then Union
Government wanted to include a certain
community in the CL for a number
of States where it is not socially backward,
for extraneous reasons, apparently
with an eye on the impending Lok
Sabha elections of 2014, the NCBC
under the Chairmanship of another
retired High Court judge, gave its
detailed Findings and Advice against
the inclusion of that community in the
CL of SEdBCs. The Government overruled
it and issued orders in March
2014 including that community in the
CL for a number of States.
Organizations of genuine SEdBCs
challenged the Government’s order in
the Supreme Court, and the
Supreme Court struck
down the Government’s
order in 2015.
Thus, there is no reason
for questioning the inclusion
of “Modh Ghanchi” in
the list of SEdBCs or suspecting
manipulation or
questioning Shri Modi’s
BC credentials.
While controverting the
allegation of manipulation,
Shri Modi has claimed that
he belongs to a Most
Backward Class. In support
of this he has said that
members of his caste are
very few in numbers in
each village. The population
of a caste is not a criterion
to decide whether it
is More Backward or Most
Backward or Extremely
Backward. This is a matter
of categorization of
SEdBCs, with sub-quotas,
in order to ensure that there
is no unequal competition between
backward castes at different levels of
backwardness. This task has not been
completed at the Centre and in most of
the States of the North, including
Gujarat, and East, while it has been
existing since long in the Peninsular
States. The Rohini Commission which
was appointed by the Government of
India in 2018 for categorisation of
SEdBCs has not completed its task and
the latest extended date for its Report is
31st May 2019.. At this stage, it will
not be possible to say whether the
Ghanchi or Teli community will be categorized
as Backward, or More
Backward or Most Backward, in the
CL for Gujarat or in the SL of Gujarat.
It is a happy situation that in
Gujarat, this community has both
Hindu and Muslim wings. One hopes
this is a harbinger of future harmony
based on justice, resolving of their
common socio-economic deprivations
covering both wings of the community
as well as all other SEdBCs and SCs
and STs of all religions, helping them
to reach Constitutionally mandated
Equality through Constitutionally mandated
comprehensive Social Justice
measures, including, but not only,
Reservation.
I have set out the above facts, with
my good wishes to all Parties, and the
same Social Justice expectation from
all of them, only so that this pointless
dispute about one leader’s BC caste
credentials does not continue. In 2014,
when the election results was still
awaited, I pointed out that, what is
important was whether the post-election
Government and Prime Minister
would take comprehensive Social
Justice measures for SCs, STs and
SEdBCs including SEdBCs of minorities
to achieve the above goal of
Equality. I had already given my Road-
Map of comprehensive Social Justice
measures required for SCs, STs and
SEdBCs to S/Shri Modi, Rahul
Gandhi, and other leaders of their
Parties as well as a number of other
Parties. The alibi of ignorance was not
available. In January-February 2019, I
have sent to all of them the same Road-
Map, updated on the basis of subsequent
developments, for inclusion in
their respective Party Manifestos and
implementation after the elections of
2019. Now too, the alibi of ignorance
is not available.
In early 2014, before he was nominated
as the BJP’s PM candidate, Shri
Modi had declared on 9.2.2014 that the
coming decade will be the decade of
Dalits, Adivasis and Picchade Varg
(SEdBCs). He had also said that in the
six decades after Independence, the
SCs, STs and SEdBCs had not got their
due and it was for him to fulfil the task.
Similarly, Dr Manmohan Singh, as
Prime Minister, in his Address to the
51st meeting of the National
Development Council (NDC) on
27.7.2005 laid down the task that the
gap between the SCs and STs and others
should removed within 10 years.
Shri Modi had, in his speeches of 2014,
outlined what he would do for weavers
(who are Muslim SEdBC in Varanasi
and most of North India, Hindu SEdBC
in Peninsula, SCs in the West and
North-West, Hindu and Muslim
SEdBCs in the East and STs in the
Northeast) and fisher-folk (Hindu,
Christian and Muslim SEdBCs in
Peninsula and SCs in the East and
North East). Similar economic measures
have to be actually taken for each
and every SEdBC caste and for SCs
and STs, apart from educational and
other measures.
The question now is how far these
tasks well-enunciated by the two leaders,
who were successive Prime
Ministers, have been fulfilled and what
they and their Parties and Government
will do to complete the long-overdue
and long-neglected unfinished tasks if
they come to power at the Centre after
the elections of 2019 and in the States
where they are in/will come to power.
The same question arises in respect of
other Parties also. This was the real
post-May 2014 challenge. I had suggested
to Parties and leaders of the ruling
Coalition and of the Oppositon to
take interest in and focus on that challenge.
That continues to be the real post-
May 2019 challenge for the future for
all Parties and leaders of ruling
Coalition as well as the Opposition in
the Centre as well as each State. The
Road-Map which I have communicated
to them in updated form early in 2019
will of help to them in doing their duty
for SCs, STs and SEdBCs, comprehensively
and holistically without losing
sight of crucial issues. My Road-Map
is in the public domain. Copy can be
furnished to anyone who is interested.