‘Govts change, BC & Muslim share remains unchanged’

Metro India News | Hyderabad

Governments may change in Andhra Pradesh, but the political representation of Backward Classes (BCs) and Muslims in the Legislative Assembly has remained largely unchanged, former Director General of Police and All India Bahujan Samaj Party National Coordinator J. Purnachandra Rao said on Tuesday.

Addressing the ‘Bahujan Maata–Paata’ programme organized to mark B.P. Mandal Jayanti, Rao said BCs, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Muslims and Christians had not secured political representation commensurate with their population despite decades of Independence.

He recalled the role of B.P. Mandal, Sharad Yadav, Kanshi Ram and others in the movement that led to the implementation of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs during the V.P. Singh government. The Mandal Commission, he said, had laid the foundation for greater access to education and public employment for OBC communities.

“Reservation is not a concession or a privilege. It is a constitutional process intended to ensure a fair share for communities inadequately represented in public institutions,” Rao said. He called for a transparent caste enumeration and demanded that every BC community be given a unique caste code, on the lines of the identification of individual SC and ST communities. Caste-wise population figures should subsequently be placed in the public domain, he said.

Rao said BCs constituted more than half of Andhra Pradesh’s population but remained under-represented in the Assembly. Several BC communities and BC Muslim groups, he added, were yet to find representation in the legislature. He also called for greater attention to women, Adivasis and Dalit Christians.

The real issue for Bahujan politics, Rao said, was not whether Jagan Mohan Reddy or N. Chandrababu Naidu formed the government, but whether the political share of Bahujans increased.