Is the 10% reservation for the economically weak a quota to end caste discrimination in India?
Now we have a quota based on economic criteria rather than the caste-based ones that, up until now, dominated the political narrative of social justice.
So, is this the first signs of a break-away from caste and religion-based appeasement politics? Can economic well-being be the defining base for reservations? Will this move end caste discrimination ultimately?
Will it even work?
Difficult to say. Considering the move is unlikely to make it past legal scrutiny, dubbing it as a move to end caste-based politics will be premature.
Of course, the government hopes it will be a game-changer in terms of reservation policy – and in terms of votes. But does it put too much emphasis on economic criteria rather than batting for ‘equality of status and opportunity’? Probably. This may not be the best way to ensure it, but if caste-based reservations were a success, backwardness would not have been an issue after seven odd decades of independence.
The premises of this argument is that while this may not be the fairest criteria of quotas, neither is the other.
It is a historic amendment. Is the government junking caste-based appeasement? Unlikely. It is probably a move to project a pro-upper caste image. The SC-ST amendment act has already junked any safeguard in the draconian law as proposed and mandated by the apex court. The RSS had been apprehensive about the backlash.
The results in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are a reflection of upper caste sentiments - not entirely, but substantially. The BJP knows they are no longer assured of upper caste support. So before 2019, some big-ticket, high-risk, high-return policy reform will be on the agenda. This is probably one of those.
The alacrity with this amendment was moved demonstrated the urgency in the ruling front and the political compulsion of the opposition, not to mention the political potential of the issue.
Does the traditional system of reservation ensure social equality and justice? It is supposed to, but huge gaps remain. Has the socio-economic status of SCs and STs and OBC groups improved dramatically in the 70-odd years that have followed since independence? Has it changed noticeably even?
What reservation has done is create another privileged class within the classes.
That is mostly an implementation issue. It does not mean the entire traditional reservation method is useless. But a relook at the guiding principles can be part of a wider public debate.
The first tool in social equality is education. Once compulsory educational targets are met, a big step in the direction of social equality would be taken. Electoral politics would rule the roost but frankly, some of the outlandish reservation proposals leave a lot to be desired. Tamil Nadu has 69%, Haryana proposed 67%, Maharashtra sought a 21% increase in quotas. Where does it end?
The reality is that there is no end in sight in the near future.
While the central government was the first to push this through Parliament, the idea of an EWS quota is not new. The Congress, which helped the government push through the amendment in the Upper House, had pitched for an income-based quota earlier. The PV Narasimha Rao-led government had proposed a 10 percent reservation for the economically backward sections while implementing the Mandal Commission report.
It found mention in the party's 2014 manifesto; Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot attempted it too. Former Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati had reportedly also supported such an idea in 2007 and the SP promised a commission to look into the problems facing upper castes. Way back in 1978, Karpoori Thakur had introduced a three per cent reservation for the poor but upper caste population.
Caste-based politics will ensure that quotas continue to limp along the way they are. The only vexing issue with the current quota is that it makes over 90 per cent people of the land eligible. The keenness to somehow rope in the tax-paying middle class is understandable. After four and a half years of almost nothing for the middle class, it is a pity this is the only placebo that the government could come up with.
Creating opportunities for education and employment is the responsibility of the government. Masking their own failures behind ever-expanding quotas is not going to work.
The new-age politician, bluster and rhetoric apart, must apply their minds to this facet. It would be nice if the guardians of the Constitution nudge them along this road.