“Huge defeat for Bengal govt”: BJP’s Nalin Kohli hails Calcutta HC order scrapping OBC certificates

New Delhi [India], May 23 (ANI): Tearing into the ruling TMC in West Bengal after the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday cancelled all OBC certificates issued in the state after 2010, BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli said the judgment was proof that the government ‘flouted’ all norms in issuing such certificates and pointed to its ‘huge defeat’ in court.

Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Kohli said, “Certainly, it is a very strong comment, coming in the form of a judgement by the Calcutta High Court against the West Bengal government.”

“The manner in which the West Bengal government has been making its decisions, some or the other, confirms that they are flouting all norms and rules (in issuing OBC certificates) and are coming out with matters that are not legally sustainable. This is a huge defeat for the West Bengal government in court,” Kohli said.

The Calcutta High Court earlier cancelled all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010.

The court directed the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission to prepare a new list of OBCs under the 1993 Act. Those who were on the OBC list before 2010 will remain. However, all OBC nominations after 2010 were cancelled.

About 5 lakh OBC certificates are set to be cancelled.

After 2010, those who have jobs under the OBC quota or are in the process of getting them cannot be excluded from the quota. There will be no impact on their job and they cannot be excluded from the quota.

The order sparked reactions from several leaders across the political spectrum in the state.

In her first response to the high court judgment, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would not accept the ruling, saying, “OBC reservation continues and will always continue.”

“Even today I heard a judge passing an order, who has been very famous. The Prime Minister is saying that minorities will take away the Tapasheeli reservation, can this ever happen? Minorities can never touch the Tapasheeli or tribal reservation, but these mischievous people (BJP) get their work done through agencies. They have got the order through someone but I will not accept this,” she said while addressing a poll rally at Khardah under the Dumdum Lok Sabha constituency.

“Those who have given the order should keep it to themselves, we will not accept the opinion of the BJP. OBC reservation continues and will always continue,” she added.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah welcomed the decision of the Calcutta High Court saying that the chief minister wants “to rob the reservation of backward classes for her vote bank and give it to her minority vote bank”.

Shah also came down heavily on Mamata over her remark that she would not accept the High Court judgement.

“I want to ask the people of Bengal, can there be such a chief minister, who brazenly defies a court order and says she wouldn’t obey it?” he asked.

The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) chairman Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Wednesday also hailed the verdict, saying it was right and “we welcome it”.

Polling in West Bengal is being held in seven phases of Lok Sabha polls. Polling has already been done in five phases and the voting for the remaining two phases will be held on May 25 and June 1.

All the votes in the state and elsewhere will be counted on June 4.