Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “backward class” credentials have become the subject of active controversy. This first arose, albeit not as widely, during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2014.
At that time, I wrote an article titled ‘Narendra Modi’s BC Caste Credentials – Authentic Facts’ and sent it to a prominent national daily for publication. In keeping with the big media’s lack of interest in matters pertaining to socially and educationally backward classes (SEdBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), the daily did not publish it.
As the controversy is back – and louder this time – I am updating that article and placing it in the public domain, to try and combat the inadequate information that is out there.
Those saying Modi’s backward class credentials are ‘fake’ base their allegations on the fact that his caste was not originally included in the list of SEdBCs, and was added later. According to his critics, this inclusion was ordered by Modi himself, 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 the caste known as ‘Teli’ in Hindi, and by different names in other states and languages. It is linked to the traditional occupation of oil-pressing and vending.
The caste has been on the list of SEdBCs in every part of India – since well before independence in the southern states, and later in the northern states and the Centre – but by its local name. In Gujarat, it is known as Ghanchi, Teli and, in some parts, 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” in Bombay;
- “Ghanchi, Ghancha” with the traditional occupation of “oil pressers and sellers” in Saurashtra; and
- “Ghancha” with the traditional occupation of “oil pressers” in 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 the Central government’s decision to provide 27% reservation for BCs, a first-phase central list of BCs was prepared by an expert committee of which I was a member. The list was notified state-wise by the Centre in 1993 based on the criterion of “commonality”– which means only castes present both in the state list) and the Mandal list (ML) made it to the Central list.
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In this first-phase Central list, only “Ghanchi (Muslim)” was included and not “Teli, Modh Ghanchi” because the latter was in the Mandal list but not the state list. 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. A note I prepared was the basis of the then government’s decision to provide 27% reservation for 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 as well.
Later, N.S. Chaudhari, general secretary of the Gujarat State Tailik Sahu Mahasabha, made a request to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) for the inclusion of “Teli” and its 16 sub-castes/synonyms, including “Modh Ghanchi Teli” and “Ghanchi Teli”, in the Central list. A two-member bench of the NCBC held a public hearing on August 28, 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 state list.
The bench found “Teli, Modh Ghanchi” to be socially and educationally backward with the traditional occupation of “Tel Ghani” or oil-extraction using a traditional crushing device, and to be inadequately represented in the services. Those present – people from different sections of society and state government representatives – not only did not oppose this, but supported the inclusion of “Teli, Modh Ghanchi” in the Central list.
The full five-member commission of which I was member-secretary, and the chairman was a retired and reputed high court judge, considered the bench findings and advised the Central government to include “Teli, Modh Ghanchi” as synonyms of Central list entry number “23. Ghanchi (Muslim)”. Accordingly, the Central government in 1999 notified the inclusion of “Teli, Modh Ghanchi” in the Central list 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, Narendra Modi was a child, about five years old. When the Mandal Commission included it with the name “Modh Ghanchi”, 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 the Central government’s inclusion of “Modh Ghanchi” in the Central list, all occurred before he became the chief minister.
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I am also in a position to make it clear from my personal experience as member-secretary of the NCBC from its inception in 1993 till 2000, that the NCBC formulated its statutory advise objectively, without allowing any chief minister, Union minister or prime minister’s personal preferences taken into account.
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 Central list, apparently with an eye on the impending Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the NCBC under the chairmanship of another retired high court judge, advised against it. The government overruled it and issued orders in March 2014 including that community in the Central list for a number of states. Organisations 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 to question the inclusion of “Modh Ghanchi” in the list of SEdBCs or suspect manipulation or question Modi’s BC credentials.
While controverting the allegation of manipulation, 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 number in each village. The population of a caste is not a criterion to decide whether how backward it is. This is a matter of categorisation 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 for a while in the peninsular states. The Rohini Commission which was appointed by the government in 2018 for the categorisation of SEdBCs has not completed its task, and the latest extended date for its report was May 31, 2019. At this stage, it will not be possible to say whether the Ghanchi or Teli community will be categorised as Backward, More Backward or Most Backward in the Central list or Gujarat’s state list.
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 their common socio-economic deprivations covering both wings of the community as well as all other SEdBCs and SCs and STs of all religions. The aim is for them to reach constitutionally mandated equality through comprehensive social justice measures, including, but not only, reservation.
I have set out the above facts only so that this pointless dispute about one leader’s BC caste credentials does not continue. In 2014, when the election results were still awaited, I pointed out that what is important is whether the post-election government and prime minister take comprehensive social justice measures for SCs, STs and SEdBCs, including SEdBCs of minorities.
I had already given my road-map for equality Modi, Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders. The alibi of ignorance was not available. In January-February 2019, I sent 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 the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Modi had declared that the coming decade will be the decade of Dalits, Adivasis and the 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, Manmohan Singh, as prime minister, in his address to the 51st meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in 2005, laid down the task that the gap between the SCs and STs and others should removed within ten years.
Modi had, in his speeches of 2014, outlined what he would do for weavers (who are Muslim SEdBCs in Varanasi and most of north India, Hindu SEdBCs in the south, 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 the south 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 successive prime ministers, have been fulfilled and what they and their parties and governments will do to complete the long-overdue and long-neglected unfinished tasks if they come to power. The same question arises about other parties as well. This was the real post-May 2014 challenge – and continues to be the real post-May 2019 challenge.
P.S. Krishnan is a former Secretary to Government of India and has been in the field of social justice, as member, expert committee on BCs and member-secretary, NCBC, and member, National Commission for SCs and STs, for more than seven decades. He can be contacted at 9810109596 or pskrishnan63@yahoo.com.