Kapu leader Padmanabham arrested on first day of his hunger strike

Towards the end of a day of tension packed drama, Andhra Pradesh police stormed into the home of the veteran Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham at his native Kirlampudi in East Godavari district on Thursday and arrested him hours after he began a fast. His demand is recognition of the amorphous intermediate caste cohort, called Kapu, by including them among the Backward Classes (BCs) for reservations in education and employment as promised by chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in the run up to the May 2014 assembly elections.

Before beginning the fast he warned the government that in case the police tried to arrest him, he would consume poison. The police foiled Padmanabhams plan after chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu appealed to him earlier in the day to withdraw the fast keeping in mind the larger issues before the state. The immediate provocation for the fast was the arrest of seven persons, earlier in the week, who had allegedly set ablaze an express train and two police stations in Tuni town of the district during the Kapu reservation campaign on January 31. Padmanabham went on an indefinite fast at that time and was persuaded to withdraw it in a couple of days after Naidus emissaries met him and confirmed that the state had begun the process to consider reservation in education and employment and the launch of an exclusive finance corporation to provide Rs.1,000 crore to Kapus wanting to start an enterprise.

When Naidu wooed the Kapus promising their inclusion on the list of BCs in the state and successfully roped in popular Telugu film star and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan to join hands with the TDP - BJP alliance in the May 2014 assembly elections, he would not have imagined that they would get disillusioned so soon. Sensing their electoral significance the Kapus account for 27 per cent of the states population Naidu included five in his cabinet, including one as deputy chief minister. He has in all 18 MLAs and two MPs from among them. But this representation for them has failed to impress and enthuse the Kapus.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Though numerically strong, the Kapus are peeved that they have never commanded political power with none from among them becoming chief minister as it was most often held by those from among the Kamma and Reddy castes. This is also because the Kapus are an amalgam of four related castes Kapus, Telagas, Ontaris and Balijas. Another actor, K. Chiranjeevi, the eldest brother of Pawan Kalyan, tried to rally them under the banner of his Praja Rajyam Party but could not sustain it and, ultimately, merged the entity with the Congress after the 2009 polls. But that was in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh where Kapus accounted for about 17 per cent of the population.

Changed demographics, consequent to the bifurcation of the state, has worked to the advantage of the Kapus as their presence is largely in East and West Godavari districts and partly in Krishna, Guntur and Visakhapatnam districts. This was part of Naidus political calculations when he promised reservation and made it part of the TDP poll manifesto. Now, it has put Naidu in a fix. Granting reservations can trigger a backlash from the already listed BCs. They are justifiably apprehensive that fresh inclusions will be at their cost.

Those opposed to their inclusion point out that the Kapus are an amorphous intermediate caste cohort largely into farming, known by different names across the districts, and are better off than the economic and social criteria to determine their disadvantage and backwardness as a community. In public perception, the Kapus are not a socially, educationally and economically deprived community in need of encouragement through affirmative action by the government. If the Kapus are brought into the reservations list, it might trigger a division of the BCs vote, which accounts for about 48 per cent of the population leading to fission of the BCs vote bank.

Naidu is conscious of these contentious issues even though the Kapus have traditionally been backers of the TDP for more than three decades. And that Padmanabham did queer the pitch earlier by quitting the TDP ministry and going on a similar fast way back in 1993 in support of the demand. Further, in granting fresh reservations, he has also to contend with the Supreme Court verdict which limits reservations in education and employment to 50 per cent. To circumvent that hurdle, the way out is to include them in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution of India and safeguard the reservations for Kapus. However, the Supreme Court states that even a law included in the Ninth Schedule can also be subject of judicial review if it violates the basic structure of the Constitution. The apex court verdict in the Jats case has already stated that caste alone cannot be the criterion for reservation benefits. The Kapus must satisfy this condition.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS

This may deprive the Naidu government of the prospect of keeping reservations beyond 50 per cent even if he chooses to follow the Tamil Nadu example where 69 per cent reservation is allowed in education and employment through a Constitutional amendment. So, his pre poll promise was not a political priority for Naidu already enveloped by the challenges in developing and building the new state capital Amaravati and nudging faster economic growth with an eye on how to retain power by winning the next assembly elections in 2019.

Two earlier BCs Commissions over two decades failed to look into the status of the Kapus. Now, retired Karnataka High Court Justice K.L. Manjunath assumed office as chairman of the BCs Commission on January 29 just two days before Padmanabham rallied the Kapus at Tuni. What the Commission faces is an uphill task that will take longer than the nine month deadline set by Naidu on February 3 for its report and recommendations.

With the rival Congress, YSR Congress and some from the BJP in the state, already backing the reservation demand and the agitation of an impatient Padmanabham, political constraints will compound the legal ones in implementing the promised quota for Kapus. Following the veteran Kapu leaders earlier fast, in 1994, the Congress government issued two orders extending non statutory educational and economic support schemes to the poor among the Kapus as well as their inclusion in the BCs list. When it was challenged the Andhra Pradesh High Court upheld the decision of the state on April 7, 1996, adding a rider, directing the state to refer the issue to the BCs Commission and obtain its decision before extending reservations to the Kapus.

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