Rahul's 'Caste Aspersions' on Modi Govt: Fact-checking His 'OBC Secretaries' Remark And BJP's Retort

“Leader ko leader banna padega, Twitter se nahi chalega kaam,” were a rather furious JP Nadda’s words for Rahul Gandhi’s allegations on Wednesday inside Parliament when the Congress MP claimed a lack of government secretaries from the Other Backward Class (OBC) while speaking on the Women’s Reservation Bill. It was seen as Gandhi’s OBC outreach moment. But within 24 hours, the ruling BJP hit back in the same Parliament House as Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge sat mum.

Making a direct charge at the Centre of ignoring the OBC community while selecting secretaries in the union government, Gandhi said, “I asked myself how many of these secretaries are from the OBC community, and was shocked and shattered to find out the answer. Only 3 of them are from the OBC community.”

Calling the BJP “anti-OBC”, Rahul Gandhi alleged, “These three secretaries together control just 5 per cent of the Indian budget. The Indian budget is Rs 44 lakh crore while these secretaries control just Rs 2.47 lakh crore. You don’t want to listen to OBCs. You are against OBCs”.

Within 24 hours, the BJP president “fact-checked” Gandhi on why he was wrong. He claimed that in 1995-96, the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and OBC categories joined all-India services, while currently, the cut-off year for empanelment of secretaries is 1992.

“The Secretaries are from the 1992 batch or before. Now I want to ask you how many OBC secretaries were there and where were they between 2004 and 2014, let us know,” asked Nadda. The Congress-led UPA ruled the Centre in this period.

It was at this moment that Nadda took a sharp dig at Rahul Gandhi, claiming he runs his politics through “Twitter statements”, and is less of a leader and more akin to an NGO.

But beyond the political barbs, the question is, was Rahul Gandhi factually right? It boils down to an RTI reply from the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions on March 16, 2011, when the Congress was in power. The query was about the number of SC, ST, and OBC officers on higher posts. It clearly stated back then that “as regards the numbers of OBC officers, it is stated that data regarding OBC status of the officers was not being obtained at the time of appointment of officers prior to 1994 and is therefore not available”.

In other words, data on pre-1994 officers was not there. Meanwhile, Nadda’s logic is clear: the current officers are pre-1992 empanelled, and hence the question of OBC categorisation doesn’t arise.

On November 16, 1992, the Supreme Court’s nine-judge constitutional bench affirmed the government decision by a 6:3 majority in its ruling and, thus, the recommendation of reservations for OBCs in central government services was finally implemented that year.

Data from 2021 shows that of an estimated 17.24 crore rural households, 44.4 per cent were OBCs, making them a sought-after slice of the voting pie.