Over the weekend, after multiple days of attempting to dig in their heels at Jantar Mantar, what started as the ‘Reservation Hatao Andolan (RHA)’ has now solidified into the “RHA Reservation Reforms Movement” accruing demands that have described to be in the interest of the “general” category communities — or communities that are not classified as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, or Other Backward Classes.
The movement, which attempted to organise anger against reservation amongst the general category students in a Cockroach Janta Party-like Instagram page-style mobilisation, has now prepared a charter of demands put out on Tuesday (August 25, 2026) that calls for a National Commission for the General Category, the complete rollback of the University Grants Commission’s 2026 caste-equity rules, and a review of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) that provides for preliminary inquiries, bail in non-serious offences, and safeguards against false cases.
Creamy layer for SCs/STs
Among its latest charter of demands are also proposals for the introduction of the creamy layer exclusion concept in reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as well (as it is used for OBC quotas) and assurances that there will be no discussion or exploration of introducing reservations in the private sector.
Compared to this, the first list of five demands that were posted by the Reservation Hatao Andolan’s page during its inception earlier this year included the removal of all caste-based reservations and the introduction of reservations that are allotted based on income criteria alone, “one family, one reservation”, unalterable minimum qualification standards and de-reservation of unfilled reserved seats, a ban on political rhetoric on quota percentages, and sunset clause for ending reservation, including a mechanism that updates the lists of communities entitled to quotas regularly.
While these demands remain part of what is now being called the RHA Reservation Reforms Movement, leaders associated with this mobilisation of upset sentiments of the general category communities across the country told The Hindu that the movement they had been building for years started gathering steam early this year and has been naturally morphing and solidifying into a larger cause for “serious reforms in reservations”.
On Tuesday, in a press conference with students who had attended the protests on August 21, one of the activists leading the mobilisation, Anuradha Tiwari, announced the charter of demands. “This is a movement built from public anger and feedback. We will soon also be writing to the Prime Minister and all Chief Ministers about these demands,” she told The Hindu.
Discrimination against general category
She added that the efforts will now be focused towards expanding each of the demands in the charter. For instance, on Wednesday, some of the demands articulated under the need to set up a commission for general category communities included demands to phase out caste-based reservation and phase in income-based reservation, ensuring EWS and other categories have equal criteria for admissions, recruitment, etc. “including general category as beneficiaries of government welfare schemes”, and that the commission should address discrimination against the general category, their grievances and policy matters concerning EWS and general category communities.
Ms. Tiwari explained that the anger was visible on the streets even when the UGC’s caste-equity rules were brought out in January, which many felt assumed general category people to be caste-oppressors on campus by leaving them out of the definition of who is discriminated against on the basis of caste. In January, several campuses in North India reported protests by students over the rules, and students approached the Supreme Court, which stayed the rules. The Centre has now said it is reconsidering the rules.
“It was this anger that also contributed to the large participation of the youth in the CJP protests that had eventually secured the resignation of erstwhile Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan,” Ms. Tiwari has argued, adding, “We were the ones who first raised the demand for Mr. Pradhan to resign as Education Minister. But the government did not listen to us when we raised it.”
On August 21, the RHA movement applied for permission to protest at Jantar Mantar, which the Delhi Police said it had denied. This was the second attempt by the movement’s participants to secure permission to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar. However, the call for the August 21 protest remained, and thousands of students and people mobilised by community associations like the Ranbir Sena, Kali Sena, and Karni Sena showed up at Jantar Mantar. They chanted slogans even as the Delhi Police issued permission for the protest to be held at Ramlila Maidan in an attempt to divert the protesters who were being kept from entering Jantar Mantar.
Even as leaders of the movement like YouTuber Ajeet Bharti, Ms. Tiwari, and Kali Sena leader Swami Anand Swaroop and others posted statements about how denying them permission was unfair while the CJP was granted it, the Delhi Police allowed them to protest for an afternoon inside Jantar Mantar, after which the security personnel vacated them and bussed them out of the site. At the protest, the demands had already expanded to include the introduction of a creamy layer in SC/ST reservations and the rollback of UGC equity rules. Mr. Bharti had also participated in the protest that day.
Restriction for protests
In the days since, protesters have been trying to gather at Jantar Mantar on multiple occasions, reporting that they were being prevented by Delhi Police from even gathering around or walking towards the Jantar Mantar protest site. This was coming even as Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak had met with one of the students, Harsh Dubey, who was trying to organise protest permissions with the Delhi Police. Mr. Pathak assured the attention of the Central leadership to their concerns in a Lucknow press conference. This angered other activists leading the movement, like Ms. Tiwari and Mr. Bharti, who issued statements distancing the movement from Mr. Dubey’s actions.
Meanwhile, on August 23, activists close to Azad Samaj Party leader and Nagina MP Chandrasekhar Azad filed a police complaint under the SC/ST Act with the Delhi Police, which was registered as an FIR at the North Avenue police station. The complaint was filed over remarks that Mr. Bharti had made allegedly targeting women in Mr. Azad’s family and other SC women. Mr. Bharti has already approached a local court for anticipatory bail and argued that his remarks do not merit action under the SC/ST Act.
The press conference with Mr. Pathak had also led to political leaders from across Uttar Pradesh, headed to polls next year, issuing strong statements against the RHA movement. Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav said the protests were a “conspiracy” and a “deep plot against Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) society” to remove reservation. “Reservation is the right of PDA, not the subject of anyone’s whim,” he said. Bahujan Samaj Party chief and former U.P. Chief Minister Mayawati also issued a statement saying that the demands of the RHA movement were neither “appropriate” nor “in the interest of the nation”.
She also went on to say that despite the introduction of EWS reservation, there were poorer upper-caste people who were not able to avail of this new reservation, adding, “there is more deception in it”. However, Ms. Mayawti did end up accusing the Congress of not caring about the interests of the people participating in the RHA movement.
However, the movement and its messaging in public continue to juxtapose itself against the larger movement of the CJP that eventually secured Mr. Pradhan’s resignation as a Cabinet Minister. In a post on Wednesday, Ms. Tiwari posted on social media, “No ex-Chief Minister is mentoring, no political party is funding, no mainstream media is covering. This is a movement born out of public anger & feedback. Keep supporting and we will WIN!”
Meanwhile, Om Prakash Rajbhar, chief of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) in U.P., an NDA ally, supported some form of reservation reform that involves excluding people who had availed reservation benefits and already socially advanced themselves and their family members.
Published – August 26, 2026 10:12 pm IST
