Bengal CM Asks Ministers to Counter Disinformation by BJP on New OBC List

KOLKATA:
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked her Cabinet Ministers to launch a campaign in order to counter disinformation spread by the BJP over the new list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the state prepared by the Trinamool Congress-led state government following a directive from the Supreme Court.

At a meeting of the state Cabinet on Monday, the Chief Minister directed her Cabinet Ministers to start a large outreach programme explaining to common people about the preparation of the new OBC list.

Last week, while addressing the ongoing Monsoon session of the Assembly, CM Banerjee claimed that religion has no connection with the fresh survey on determining the people to be included in the OBC category.

She also claimed that there were 49 castes in the OBC-A category, while there were 91 castes in the OBC-B category and 50 more castes will be included soon.

According to the Chief Minister, the survey was based on economic backwardness and not on the basis of religion.

However, the BJP’s IT Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal Amit Malviya reacted to Chief Minister Banerjee’s claims and quoted the state government’s data to prove that people from the Muslim community were given “undue” preference regarding inclusion in the OBC list in the fresh survey.

Earlier in May 2024, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court had cancelled all the OBC certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010, which ideally meant that all such certificates issued during the current Trinamool Congress government in the state since 2011 stands void.

Following this order from the division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, more than 5,00,000 OBC certificates issued during that period stood cancelled and could not be used for availing benefits of the reservation in jobs.

The West Bengal government moved the Supreme Court following the Calcutta High Court’s order, and in March this year, the apex court allowed the state government to conduct a fresh survey to identify the OBCs in the state.

However, since the beginning of the survey, the BJP has questioned the style and format of conducting the fresh survey by the Trinamool Congress-led state government.

Leader of the Opposition and BJP leader, Suvendu Adhikari, has claimed that the state government’s fresh survey was being conducted in the same manner, which did not hold ground in the apex court and was scrapped by the Calcutta High Court.

The state Cabinet on Monday held a meeting in which also a proposal was passed for the creation of two vice-chairperson posts for the West Bengal Minorities’ Commission.

Last week, the West Bengal Minorities’ Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2025, was passed in the Assembly, thus enabling the appointment of two vice-chairpersons for the commission as against the earlier sanctioned post of one.