Now that Nitish is back in the NDA, the Justice Rohini panel report is being neglected

The highly regarded Rohini panel report on “revising the reservation percentage of OBCs” seems to have been shelved by the Narendra Modi administration now that the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government is back in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

It was generally assumed that the Center would use the sub-categorization of OBCs report by the Rohini panel to refute the caste survey results released in October of last year by the Bihar government.

The opposition once again demanded a countrywide caste census and a reassessment of reservations for the backward classes after the Bihar caste statistics revealed that 63% of people belonged to the backward caste.

Justice G. Rohini, Retd.
Bihar caste survey: April 16 is the last hearing date set by the Supreme Court
According to a source, the Union government was aiming to appease the most disadvantaged groups by putting the Rohini committee recommendations into practice and giving them certain privileges, even if it was hesitant to conduct a nationwide caste census.

The Rohini panel report, which was sent to the government in July of last year, has not yet been made public, nonetheless.

Justice G. Rohini, Retd.
Prashant Kishor claims that the economic study and Bihar caste would hurt Nitish politically.
Less than 1% of dominant backward castes are reportedly in control of 50% of the quota advantages when it comes to recruitment to government services and admission to central educational institutions. Ninety-three sub-castes out of the 2,600 groups on the central OBC list are not represented in the reserved seats. The panel has suggested splitting OBCs into categories with different reserve percentages in order to distribute benefits fairly.

Sources said that the BJP is confident in neutralizing the opposition’s caste issues in light of Nitish Kumar’s re-entry into the NDA.

The consolidation of the Extremely Backward Caste (EBC) voting bloc in Bihar was the primary concern of the BJP. The Kurmi leader Nitish is back in the NDA, so the party doesn’t have to worry about the caste census’s political fallout. Thus, for the time being, the government will store the Rohini panel report in cold storage. Because the Rohini panel report subcategorizes all OBC groups, the administration is aware that this would result in political realignments, a leader said.

In order to guarantee the fair transfer of the 27% quota advantages for the OBCs across all sub-communities, the Rohini commission was entrusted with compiling an extensive pool of scientific data on sub-categories.

Sources claim that the panel took a balanced approach in its recommendations to guarantee that quota benefits were distributed equitably among different castes.

The panel was supposed to turn in its findings by January 2, 2018, but there have been fourteen delays since then.

Conditions of reference

The Rohini committee’s mandate included assessing the degree of unequal reservation benefits distribution among OBCs on the Central List and developing a scientific framework, standards, and guidelines for subclassification within the OBC group.