Modi government must check resentment over reservation before 2019 election
In a recent Supreme Court directive, the Modi government was requested to end reservations at all higher education institutions. It said that after 68 years of independence, some of the privileges have become redundant and reservation has taken priority over merit.
Over the past year, the issue of reservation gained national interest after the agitation by the affluent Patel (Patidar) community of Gujarat and the Jat community of Haryana, demanding inclusion in the category of OBC.
However, reservation has been a bone of contention since its inception and is mired in political complication, social ambition and lack of reform.
After Independence, special attention was placed on the rights and development of minorities due to the perceived oppression and thus lack of social, economic and intellectual development. The British-era equivalent of reservation was the provision of the independent electoral system (1909) for Muslims in accordance with their “divide and rule policy”.
However, the new government, after independence felt that a separate electorate would undermine the secular basis of the country and thus refused to accommodate the demand. But the debate continued for reservation for the section called Untouchables (sweepers, watchmen, farm workers, manual labourers etc.) and the argument was made that the section suffered decades of discrimination and was highly under-represented in senior positions of the government and administration.
Thus, Article 46 of the Constitution made provisions for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) and aimed towards providing educational and economic reforms to them. Many, however, still felt reservation should be based on classes such as fishermen, vegetable vendors etc. as they actually lacked representation and in the present format, the benefits of reservation would be limited to the upper echelons of the untouchable society, consisting of a particular individual or family.
Further amendment included recommendation to extend the reservation quota to sub-castes (other backward classes (OBC)) by the Kalekar commission, which the Mandal commission report of 1980 incorporated by declaring 1,257 communities as backward using 1930 Census data and increasing the existing reservation from 22 per cent to 49.5 per cent.
The policy of reservation was initially successful as Dalit representation in the administration rose to approximately 12 per cent by 2012 and the literacy rate also exhibited improvement.
However, it became an issue when it became a political tool to mobilise the electorate on caste basis, as caste is one of the most important vessels of self-identification in India after religion. The situation is dire in states such as Tamil Nadu as the total percentage of seats reserved is 69 per cent, which far exceeds the limit of 50 per cent reservation established by the Supreme Court.
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| The issue of reservation gained national interest after the agitation by the affluent Patel (Patidar) community of Gujarat and the Jat community of Haryana. Photo: Reuters |
While the benefit of reservation is evident, the lack of major revision and audit of the original provision of reservation to keep it updated with the changing demograph and economic conditions has made it redundant.
A wider impact is felt in the field of education as lower admission criteria for a backward applicant causes resentment among general applicants vying for the highly competitive fields of engineering, medical and colleges.
Many argue that caste-based reservation only reaffirms the notion of caste and is one of the major causes of brain drain in India. It is also argued that quotas are a form of discrimination which clash with the right of equality, with the irony evident.
Reservation was initially a tool for positive discrimination for the development of backward classes but the present form of reservation policy needs major social and political audit. The chief issue which needs immediate attention is the need of continuation of the reservation policy for the “creamy layer” or most affluent members of SC/ST/OBC but which can be tackled by repurposing the eligibility criteria with factors such as economic background, occupation, level of education, gender, etc.
Government plans such as setting up of Jan Shikshan Sansthan, a regulatory committee for reviewing the loan application of backward classes, identifying and implementing special programmes for minority concentration district in states such as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal etc. is more beneficial for social development when compared to reservation policy.
It is also evident from the rise in the number of honour killings that reservation in its current form is inefficient to address social issues which were one of the important concerns while formulating the policy.
The political factor needs to be isolated from the policy for properly amending the current provision. Successive governments neglected this issue due to potential backlash associated with such a move. The recently concluded Bihar election reaffirmed the significance of electoral clout derived from caste-based politics when Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad demanded religion-based reservation and registered a win for the mahagathbandhan.
It is highly unlikely that the Modi government would touch such a sensitive topic ahead of elections. But the resentment attached with the idea is growing as qualified people are passed over for growth and developmental opportunities. This may become a major issue for the 2019 general elections.