During late 70s , the chief minister of Bihar Karpuri Thakur rose to the podium as the first backward face with such a large momentum and vote base . Thakur broke the logjam of upper caste dominance in politics and arguably is considered the first leader who united the backward vote bank . Though Lalu Prasad did the same in a better and more stable way with a guarantee of longer period sustainability until Nitish Kumar came out with a backward- forward handshake formulae using Advani's Ram mandir wave. However it was Thakur's 1977 ministry in which backwards surpassed forwards in cabinet roles , at least in number.
In Thakur's 1977 cabinet 42 % ministers were backwards compared to 29% forwards.
Thakur capitalised the momentum by bringing in the karpuri formulae of reservation. Thakur straight away allocated 26 % of reservation to OBCs in State government Jobs. And this was almost 12 years before V P Singh's OBC reservation in 1990. However Thakur had sense of economic status of different castes in Bihar , he realized that the Bhumihars , who contribute a good fraction of upper caste in Bihar, were largely in economic turmoil. Most of them were tenants , hardly able to generate something from soil. The prior belief of Bhumihars being the landlords was way diverted from realism. True , most of the landlords were Bhumihars and rajputs but most of the Bhumihars were not landlords. Under the suggestions and influence of given substance Thakur decided to bring Bhumihars in Other Backward Classes. And when Bhumihar leaders realized this is going to happen , they ran to Patna , argued and demanded that their forward status is their pride , it should not be challenged. And the chapter of extension of OBC status to Bhumihars closed forever.
Today when a 22 year lad with a little knowledge (p.s. little knowledge is a dangerous thing) takes the centre stage and demands reservation for such a caste which is known for its economic stability and quoted for its Iron man image and business etiquettes , I got reminded of this Bihar story. Every little kid in a Bhumihar family listens to this story from his grandparents , whenever the results of civil services , IIT and PMT exams flash on the front page of newspaper.
A demand for reservation from Patels/Patidars will be followed by a demand from lalas , a demand from Bhumihars( hope they are done with their pride thing and want their kids to be educated) , a demand from Brahmins , a demand from Rajputs .This story is never ending .
Thakur capitalised the momentum by bringing in the karpuri formulae of reservation. Thakur straight away allocated 26 % of reservation to OBCs in State government Jobs. And this was almost 12 years before V P Singh's OBC reservation in 1990. However Thakur had sense of economic status of different castes in Bihar , he realized that the Bhumihars , who contribute a good fraction of upper caste in Bihar, were largely in economic turmoil. Most of them were tenants , hardly able to generate something from soil. The prior belief of Bhumihars being the landlords was way diverted from realism. True , most of the landlords were Bhumihars and rajputs but most of the Bhumihars were not landlords. Under the suggestions and influence of given substance Thakur decided to bring Bhumihars in Other Backward Classes. And when Bhumihar leaders realized this is going to happen , they ran to Patna , argued and demanded that their forward status is their pride , it should not be challenged. And the chapter of extension of OBC status to Bhumihars closed forever.
Today when a 22 year lad with a little knowledge (p.s. little knowledge is a dangerous thing) takes the centre stage and demands reservation for such a caste which is known for its economic stability and quoted for its Iron man image and business etiquettes , I got reminded of this Bihar story. Every little kid in a Bhumihar family listens to this story from his grandparents , whenever the results of civil services , IIT and PMT exams flash on the front page of newspaper.
A demand for reservation from Patels/Patidars will be followed by a demand from lalas , a demand from Bhumihars( hope they are done with their pride thing and want their kids to be educated) , a demand from Brahmins , a demand from Rajputs .This story is never ending .
This will create a reverse caste system. Almost every caste/community is fighting to be called 'backward', to benefit.
After 50-60 years everyone except the top 0.1% will be backward. Then a special reservation for the 0.1% will be created to make them flourish re-creating the original problem that reservation was meant to solve. Sad, dismantling .
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