House panel chief says didn’t intend to question Modi government commitment to OBC welfare

BJP MP Ganesh Singh. File Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ganesh Singh, the chief of the Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), said on Saturday (August 29, 2026) that his statement on the issue of the OBC creamy layer income test and equivalence of posts was “at no point intended to question the commitment of the government led by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards the welfare and empowerment of the OBC community”.The clarification came a day after he told The Hindu that the issue of establishing equivalence of posts and the equal application of the income test for OBC reservation appeared to be stuck between two Union ministries, and that ideally, it would be the Union Social Justice Ministry’s role to formulate the necessary policy.On Saturday, Mr. Singh said his reference was to “seek clarity and uniformity on the technical and administrative aspects” of the issue so that eligible candidates do not face “avoidable difficulties”. He said it was “not a comment on the government’s commitment to OBC welfare”, and added that the “stalemate” between the two ministries had arisen because of a UPA-era letter that he claimed had obfuscated the issue, referring to the 2004 clarificatory letter issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) at the centre of the complications in the matter.Supreme Court decisionMr. Singh’s remarks that the issue appeared to be stuck between two ministries had come amid the recent furore over the Centre’s submissions to the Supreme Court that it was finding it “extremely difficult” to implement the court’s judgement settling the issue on March 11.In March this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the DoPT was practising “hostile discrimination” in applying the income test differently to OBC candidates with parents in government service and OBC candidates with parents in jobs where equivalence with government posts had not been established. It noted that for the latter category, income from salaries was being included, while this was not the case for the former category, and directed the government to create supernumerary posts for OBC candidates who were denied ‘non-creamy layer’ status based on such an application of the test in six months.In a statement issued by his office on Saturday, Mr. Singh said there was a need to contextualise his earlier remarks, adding that the committee’s views on the matter had already been placed on record and that the government and the concerned Ministry were considering the issue. The Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of OBCs, under Mr. Singh’s leadership, has consistently pointed out that the government was incorrectly applying the income test to OBC candidates of parents in jobs without equivalence with government posts, principally by interpreting a 2004 DoPT clarificatory letter that the House found was obfuscating the implementation of the creamy layer policy — a finding confirmed by the Supreme Court in its March 11 judgment.‘Largely resolved’In Saturday’s statement, Mr. Singh cited data from the DoPT and the Social Justice Ministry to point out that there had been a 370% increase in overall budget allocation for OBC welfare schemes between 2004-05 and 2024-25; an increase of over nine percentage points in the representation of OBCs in Central government services from 2014 to 2026; and the near-doubling of the cumulative number of beneficiaries of schemes. "The government's record over the past decade, reflected in increased allocations, expanded beneficiary coverage, and significantly improved OBC representation in Central government services, speaks clearly for itself,” he said.Mr. Singh added that while the issue began with the 2004 clarificatory letter, it has largely been resolved under the leadership of PM Modi, when the equivalence of posts was established for Central government PSUs in 2017. Mr. Singh also said that the committee went into the issue and has suggested measures to resolve it. Published - August 29, 2026 07:58 pm IST