It is difficult to say whether the Bihar government’s proposal to amend its decision reserving 26 per cent of the jobs under its control for backward castes will pacify its critics. But on present reckoning this looks unlikely. The Chief minister Mr. Karpoori Thakur, has said that reports regarding the agitation are “highly exaggerated”, that it is limited to a few people in a few pockets and that it will soon peter out. If this is the case, why subject the reservation to an income ceiling as he himself appears to favour? After all the sole purpose of the proposed amendment can to be defuse a crisis of some magnitude. Mr. Thakur has also cited the examples of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in support of the contention that his government’s decision is not without precedents in other states of the union. But that cannot possibly clinch the issue. For nowhere else in the country is the caste so important a factor in political life as in Bihar, not even UP. Mr. Thakur should know it as well as anyone else. Indeed, this fact is so well known that it is truly extraordinary that not only Mr. Thakur and his cabinet colleagues, who have been supporting him, but also members of the Janata’s Central Parliamentary Board should have failed to take it into consideration and think of the possible reaction of the adversely affected castes to the reservation decision. That the party’s election manifesto contained a promise to this effect could not absolve them of the responsibility of making sure that the move would not aggravate caste tensions.
Since the situation in the Bihar Janata itself is rather confused, it is difficult to be quite sure that the opposition to the decision within the party is as fierce as the seven legislators, who held a press conference in Patna last Monday, have made it out to be and that 94 MLAs have already signed a memorandum which is to be submitted to the party’s central leadership. But there cannot be much doubt that the reservation has provoked considerable resentment within the Janata and that this is likely to persist even if the proposed amendment is adopted and implemented which, incidentally, is not an easy task. For if caste Hindus can get themselves certified as belonging to scheduled castes and tribes for purposes of admission to schools and colleges and getting jobs, it should be relatively easy for any backward caste boy or girl to obtain a certificate that his or her father’s income does not exceed the stipulated sum. Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan’s reluctance to endorse the decision is also bound to strengthen the opposition to it. In this regard Mr. Thakur has said that if Mr. Narayan was opposed to the move, he (the Sarvodaya leader) would have told him (the chief minister). But Mr. Thakur has not been able to claim Mr. Narayan’s support for his action and in Bihar this means a great deal.