A Fly In The Gravy

As both the BJP and Congress woo the upper castes with the promise of educational and job quotas for the poor among them, sociologists see the move as the final step towards the "subversion of reservation"—from an instrument of social justice into a tool of votebank politics. This will only deepen existing social divisions and further fragment the civil society, they say. Indeed, those critical of poverty-based reservation for upper castes give three broad reasons: it's unconstitutional, unimplementable and antithetical to the spirit of affirmative action.

The mooting of a quota for upper castes is in the same spirit as the Centre's decision last week to include more backward castes in the reserved category, says D.L. Sheth of the Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. The "gift" of reservation has become an accepted election-eve phenomenon. Says he: "The government sits on the recommendations of the permanent commission on backward castes until elections are due and then it accepts them."

It was precisely this kind of votebank politics that triggered off the agitation for upper caste quotas in Rajasthan, points out sociologist Yogendra Singh, who was on the technical committee of the Mandal Commission. Prior to the 1999 general elections, the BJP had included Jats in the reserved OBC category. A move that yielded significant short-term electoral gains, but sparked off agitations by virtually every other caste in the state. If a dominant caste like the Jats could get reservation, why not economically deprived Brahmins and Thakurs? "The logic of the Mandal Commission was lost," says Singh.

The Congress pipped the BJP to the post when Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot forwarded the proposal for upper caste quotas to the Centre. The BJP is now struggling to regain that initiative. Meanwhile, the NCP jumped on to the bandwagon, with Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chaggan Bhujbal echoing the demand. This has put Dalit chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde in a quandary because he can't openly back Bhujbal for fear of annoying his own constituency—despite his own party high command's vehement espousal of the quota proposal.

Some justification for an upper caste quota is sought in the studies on the "proletarianisation" of Brahmins and Thakurs in Rajasthan and elsewhere. Deprived of traditional sources of income, these two sections found it difficult to survive. Says All-India Brahmin Federation president K.P. Puthuraya: "Poverty has no caste. We do not choose to be born into a particular caste, so why should we be penalised for it? We are against any kind of reservation on caste basis." He is deeply sceptical of the government's move and says it smacks of a political agenda.

Dalit leader Udit Raj sees no merit in the economic criteria argument. "To equate a poor Brahmin with a poor Dalit is absurd," he says. "The premise is faulty. Poverty is intrinsically linked to caste. Is there social intercourse among poor Brahmins and Dalits? Do they have equal access to temples, wells and ponds? Do the upper castes face the danger of their homes getting torched?"

Sheth points out that the Constitution allows reservation, or positive discrimination, purely as a means to rectify centuries-old caste-based injustice, not as a method of eliminating poverty. Says he: "The government has or is supposed to have many schemes for addressing poverty." As the Constitution now stands, Article 15(4) allows reservation for "socially and educationally" backward groups alone. A quota for upper castes would entail two constitutional amendments: to allow reservation on the basis of economic criteria and to nullify the 50 per cent limit on quotas set by the Supreme Court.

Historian Bipan Chandra, who strongly opposed the Mandal Commission, is equally opposed to an upper caste quota and says it can't be implemented."How do you determine who's poor and who isn't? It will lead to more corruption. The whole thing is bogus. You are creating divisions in society to no purpose." The only solution, he maintains, is standardised, first-rate education for all.

Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra state planning commission chairman Ratnakar Mahajan agrees that such a proposal will only reinforce the dominance of the upper castes and defeat the very purpose of reservation. Says he: "In any case, since 1962, the state has provided reservations to the poor in the field of education."

Free education and quotas in educational institutions for the upper caste poor is, in fact, the main demand raised by pro-reservationists. Says H.N. Sharma of the Delhi Brahmin Vikas Manch: "We have demanded a 25 per cent quota for the upper castes in educational institutions on the grounds that learning is a traditional occupation for Brahmins of which we are being deprived because of our economic backwardness."

With the upper castes still dominating politics in north India, there is clearly no case for their political or social empowerment, as it was in the case of the backward castes. The proposed national commission will examine the feasibility of quotas for upper castes in education and jobs and not in local bodies like panchayats and municipalities. No easy task, given the hundreds of sub-castes among the Brahmins, Thakurs, Baniyas and Kayasthas.

Further justification for a quota based on economic criteria is sought in the inherent glitches in the implementation of existing quotas for SC/STs and OBCs. Quite often, admits Singh, it is the more forward 10 per cent among the SCs or OBCs who benefit from reservation, rather than the truly deprived. In Rajasthan, for example, the Meenas, who are the most forward among the STs, have benefited from reservation, while the backward Bhils, who are numerically larger, have not.

Likewise, after Jats were accorded OBC status in 1999, they began to corner quotas and dominate the local bodies to the exclusion of other, more backward, OBCs. This has led to two demands: categorisation within the backward castes and inclusion of the most marginal among the OBCs in the SC category. The logical culmination of the separate agitations for reservation in Rajasthan could well be "100 per cent reservation", as Udit Raj suggests. "Quotas could be fixed on the basis of population," he says.

Sheth believes the appointment (under a Supreme Court directive) of a permanent commission to monitor the status of backward castes and suggest their inclusion in the reserved category was

in itself a "piece of judicial folly". A commission, which met once every five years, would have sufficed. Says he: "By having permanent commissions at the Centre and in the states, you create a contentious situation, with deserving and undeserving groups representing before it. In every state, some undeserving groups, who are vocal, dominant and enjoy political clout, get in through the backdoor."

This kind of "dishonesty in implementation" of the Mandal Commission report, fosters resentment and leads to agitations by other groups. Singh feels the degeneration of the normative principle of reservation "from the Gandhian to the votebank ethos" was a consequence of the "intuitive rather than scientific" approach of the Mandal Commission. It relied on inadequate data, as no village-level socio-economic survey was conducted across the country to assess levels of backwardness, as had been suggested by the Commission's experts' committee.

That reservation has become a political tool is borne out by the fact that although groups are periodically added to the Mandal list, hardly any are removed from it. The Supreme Court had envisaged an "in and out" policy, with forward groups being removed from the list, even as backward ones are added.No political party has raised this issue. Chandra is certain the reservation drama is a farce. "Where are the jobs? Every year, the Central and state governments are downsizing by 2 to 3 per cent."

Privatisation has put a further squeeze on public sector jobs, leading to a demand for affirmative action in the private sector. The BJP has chosen the middle path and suggested a debate on the issue of reservation in the "privatised public sector". With unprecedented unemployment, post liberalisation, reservation in the private sector could well become a highly sensitive political issue in the near future.

The end result, say sociologists, is that we're fast moving towards a redundance of the principle of reservation, thanks to the opportunism of votebank politics and globalisation. Either way, those who genuinely deserve affirmative action and economic and social empowerment are, finally, the real losers.