India: Divided we stand!

After 25 years, isn’t it time to do a serious status check of Caste based Reservation policy?

To correct a wrong which was done over centuries in India, the Mandal commission report was implemented in August 1990 starting an era of caste based reservations in education and government jobs for a wider set of backward classes (caste based promotions in India were enjoyed by Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes since 1955). Further, the honorable Supreme Court’s judgment on this issue in November 1992, raised the reservation quota to 69 per cent and even to 80 per cent in some states in 1994. 

The rationale behind this decision was simple; to ensure upliftment of those sections of the society, which have been deprived of social, education and economic opportunities due to age-old caste based divide.

Anti-reservation movement in the 1990 had put forth several arguments such as, reservations are against right to equality, they do not promote secularism, and it is against meritocracy and promotes mediocrity and increase the social divide - forward and backward class  

However, examples such as the one below were illustrated to shoot down the anti-reservation movement:

Assuming that a child from a 'so-called' upper class family and that of a backward class family had the same intelligence at the time of their birth, it is obvious that owing to vast differences in social, cultural, environmental factors and upbringing, the former will beat the latter by lengths in any competitive field.

Over the years, political parties, one and all, have continued to use the caste card contrary to the constitutional mandate for their vote bank gains.

One example is that of the previous UPA government which had granted OBC status to Jats on the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the NDA government subsequently defended the decision in the apex court. However Supreme Court struck down on this request heavily and asserted that caste alone can’t be the criterion for determining backwardness and described the policy as a reflection of negative and retrograde governance.

This month in August 2015, India completes 25 years of caste based reservation era.

If the reservation policy has really worked in the right direction of upliftment, any logical thinker would expect the number of castes notified for reservations to come down in a span of 25 years.

Even while framing the Constitution of India, it was proposed that reservations should be for a limited period in favor of certain communities only. This point seems to have been conveniently ignored by our political class, who have systematically exploited the ‘caste divides’ to their advantage even today.

Ironically, over the years several castes and tribes have been added to the reservation list. For example, the number of backward castes in Central list of OBCs has now increased to 5,013 (without the figures for most of the Union Territories) in 2006 as per National Commission for Backward Classes

The Supreme Court’s recent directive to the government to devise better methods to define backwardness is a welcome step. It is time to take a pause and do a status check of the economic and social development of all the notified backward classes and then draw a road map to gradually eliminate caste based reservation in the country.

SC directive has brought alive the commonsensical argument that reservations on the basis of caste cannot be a permanent fixture any more than suppression on the basis of caste.

If Caste based reservations continue for another decade or so, future historians are bound to look back and say that ‘Make in India’ or ‘Acche din’ never happened for India, primarily because the merit based culture was never a priority for our policy makers. Self-centered political leaders will never let a positive change happen so easily, hence what is required will be a ‘mass movement’ for ushering ‘acche din’ for India!