Populist bravado on quotas

Quotas and queues have always been the bane of Indian politics. Whereby our netagan are busy in one-upmanship, populist bravado and mindlessness. Doling out reservations like moongphalis to pander to their vote-banks. No longer, as the Supreme Court has its say and way.

Hurrah!In a landmark judgment, the apex court struck down the Centre’s last March’s notification to include Jats in the Central list of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in nine States last week.

Stating that “caste” and “historical injustice” cannot blind a State in according backward status to a community, it added that new emerging groups such as transgenders and other socially backwards must be identified for quota benefits which should be a “continuous evolution.”

This is not all. Asserting that “self-proclaimed” backwardness would no longer be the yardstick, it laid down new norms for identification of backward classes for reservation and redefined the concept of affirmative action by the government and held the principle of reservation under the Constitution obligated it “to reach out to the most deserving” class.

Stuck in a quagmire, the Modi Sarkar has two options: Filing a review petition or issue a fresh notification. Towards that end the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) would have to conduct a fresh survey as it had argued against reservation for Jats.

Unfortunately, ground realities and make-believes sociology do not always correspond. Reservations by themselves will not transform the village society whose social structure is built upon an edifice of illiteracy and ignorance which in turn perpetuates an iniquitous caste system.True, many backward castes families are poverty-stricken. But it needs to be remembered that poverty exists in a family unit and not at the caste level per se.

If one has to eradicate poverty, then all poor families belonging to a caste should be eligible for State privileges. But at the same time this would not ostracise those poor families belonging to castes not listed as ST, SC or OBC. Pertinently, reservation is not the sole panacea for eradicating poverty, nor is it a guarantee that members of castes will get Government jobs or seats in Parliament and State Assemblies.

How will the government respond if each caste begins to complain of non-representation in parties or government departments? Unsurprisingly, merit has been replaced by casteism and by domicile. Forget government jobs, demands have now come up for quotas in private and public sector employment too.

First things first. Questionably, is reservation an end in itself? Not at all.

The scepter that haunts the nation is not that of class struggle but of caste struggle. Backwards and forwards have become more meaningful than the Left and the Right in politics. With everyone propounding their own recipe of a communal harmony, the nation is getting sucked into the vortex of centrifugal bickering.

Will the Court’s order stop this vote-bank politics? Time alone will tell. The need of the hour is to provide quality education to all as reservations are no answer to fulfilling the people’s aspirations. By cramming down quotas in jobs is like putting the cart before the horse.

By Poonam I Kaushish