Deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Monday took his political battle for the rights of other backward castes (OBCs) to Delhi, demanding their inclusion in the ongoing population Census under a separate category.
Bhujbal, who has been fighting for the OBCs, met Union home minister P Chidambaram, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union minister for social welfare justice Mukul Wasnik and Union law and judiciary minister Verrappa Moily and discussed the significance of having a separate population census for OBCs in the state and across the country.
Bhujbal has embarked on the mission single-handedly as the Congress and the NCP have left it to Centre’s discretion to take a final decision.
Bhujbal’s direct approach to the central government ministers on the OBC has created a lot of flutter within the state unit as they realise this move would help him consolidate his political clout across the state and outside. Some leaders in the organisation also wondered if this was the beginning of Bhujbal shifting his politics from state to centre.
Bhujbal said, “The purpose of my meeting with the central ministers was to pursue the agenda of inclusion of OBC in the population census. I placed my views before them and they were all very positive.”
During his argument with the union ministers, he pointed out the concerns of the Planning Commission on OBCs. The eleventh five-year plan sates that it is difficult to evolve a policy strategies for OBCs in the absence of statistics pertaining to their population, literary, economic status and jobs in government and private sectors.
Bhujbal said, “The demand for the OBC census comes from the Planning Commission. The experts in the Planning Commission have expressed their inability to ascertain the progress card on backwardness among the OBCs in absence of statistics.”
During the budget session of the parliament, prime minister Manmohan Singh had given a positive nod to the OBC leaders’ demand for allowing a separate column in the census form. However, differences within the UPA and the NDA saw the central leadership delaying the process.
