Poorer backward castes may have to fight for the same job along with its richer and presumably better qualified caste brethren...

As the elections get nearer, the Other Backward castes (OBCs) are becoming more important. OBCs have always been significant in certain states though not always politically powerful. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, they have assumed power and called the political shots for many years; in Maharashtra no one party can claim their loyalty.

But with close political battles coming up, every vote counts and sensing this, OBCs and wannabe OBCs are staking their claim to a bigger share of the economic pie. And governments, aware of their clout, are listening.
The Union government has just announced the increase in the income limit for reservations among the “creamy layer” among OBC from Rs2.5 lakhs to Rs4.5 lakhs. The creamy layer is usually the second generation beneficiaries of reservations who, it is presumed, have benefited from quotas in government jobs and educational institutions.

This increases claimants to the benefits of reservations which should please many well-off OBCs, though it is also possible that it will affect the poorer Backward Castes who will have to fight for the same job along with their richer and presumably better qualified caste brethren.

More importantly, the government’s decision clearly bypasses the Supreme Court’s ruling of denying reservation benefits to the creamy layer. By simply raising the limit, the government has played a neat trick of not going against the verdict but simply moving the goal posts.