The reservations for this year's panchayat elections have kept the OBCs out of equation despite they forming a huge part of Goa's population. The community leaders of bygone era had struggled with government for their community to be included in other backward classes at the time when authorities were not ready to easily provide facilities to OBCs. The then local leaders had come face to face with the government and only then the OBC group was included in reservation system for education, jobs and even politics. This will be the first elections without OBC being given a reserved quota. Surprisingly, there was hardly any criticism towards the move on social media from the OBC people themselves. Either the young generation is under impression that the community's political backwardness has vanished or they are simply not interested in politics. The political reservation has a history of its own. In the beginning, Mahatma Phule, Dr B. R. Ambedkar, Ramasamy Periyar rebelled against the exploitation faced by lower castes and highlighted the caste system practiced in Hinduism. They also proved how the exploitation has continued in the modern times in various other ways. According to these rebellions, if the exploitation has to be stopped then the suppressed should be given political rights. When India was under foreign rule, all kinds of power was centralised in the hands of upper castes due to caste system's religious, cultural, economical and political impact. A concrete thought process which was accepted as a norm had kept those who sat at the lower rung of the caste system, away from this centralisation of power and Goa was no exception. This history is responsible for the majority's sensitivity towards upper castes. There came a wave of change in land related policies in the country in the 1950s. Goa too, after liberation, created laws which would give rights to original tenants but the execution was as shabby in the State as it was in the rest of the country. All the original tenants, Kul Mundakars as they are called, fall into the OBC group. But change in these policies raised their hopes regarding political ambitions. Later in 1978 a Mandal Commission was built with initiation from the then deputy prime minister Charan Singh, a person who was famously referred to as 'champion of India's peasants'. The Commission, which was established to survey the economical, social and educational status of the OBCs, made a huge impact in politics post-90s. In 1990, the then Prime Minister V. P. Singh decided to implement Commission's recommendation of OBC reservations which allowed people belonging to this group to have 27% of reservations in government jobs and education. The Commission's observation through survey was that 52% of total population belonged to the OBC section. The changes in social formation that came with reservations should be given a deeper thought too. A group of middle class have taken form within the OBC community that is for sure. This does not mean that this particular group can equally compete with upper castes but it has definitely forged and widened a gap between them and the rest of the lower castes at a 'class' level. The other factors such as gender, demographics and religious minorities also played a crucial role in defining the social backwardness which was not considered in the reservations. The survey which was conducted by Mandal Commission in the 1970s was not done at official level up until 2011. Now, the question is whether it will be conducted next year. It's vital to have such surveys after every few years but given the approach of this government, they don't seem to be in favor of doing so anytime soon. This exposes the hypocrisy of political elites. Member of Parliament Sameer Bhujbal had proposed to conduct OBC census way back in 2010. The political lobbying of Chhagan Bhujbal to gain backing from 100 OBC MPs including Gopinath Munde proved to be a grand success. The Socio Economic and Caste Census was done and dusted between 2011-2014. The process which could have been finished within six months took four long years. Meanwhile, Manmohan Singh government collapsed and the Modi government came to power. If the Centre had not informed the Supreme Court that it took a whopping 5,000 crore for the census work, OBC wouldn't have lost reservations for panchayat elections. Apex body of law was firm with their 'No data, no reservation' mantra. Should this be considered as the government's step towards reservation-free India? That's some food for thought for OBC leaders.