Discussion

‘Creamy Layer’ Principle:A Comment

Letters

Travails of Workers Today

The several political parties espousing the cause of the backwards in UP have played a part in reconfiguring the political agenda in the country and providing a platform for transformative politics. But on important issues, the performance of the backward movement in the state has been less than satisfactory. It has failed to address the issue of 'backward identity' and has been unable to develop a class politics.

The issue of reservation has more often than not formed an important electoral issue for every party, especially on election eve and the BJP has not been an exception to this. But its harping on the 'economically backward classes' has meant a complete about-turn from the politics of 'Kamandal vs Mandal' that it preached through most of the early 1990s.

The UP exercise of creating quotas among the backwards and the dalits may have been motivated by the election politics of the BJP trying to salvage its image in the state, but it nevertheless defines the new and important political trajectory that is likely to be drawn in other states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab, as well. The articulation of the interests of the dalit sub-castes, progressively marginalised is to be expected.