Political Diary

New Delhi, 12 September 2023

Quota In Perpetuity

I AM AN OBC, WHO ARE YOU?

By Poonam I Kaushish 

India arrived on the world map last week, and how. Clearly the G 20 summit was a blockbuster with its impresario Prime Minister Modi having the world at his feet! But call it Monday blues its back to mundane business. Controversy over Bharat vs India, reason for  calling Parliament’s special session next week, to the ongoing reservation tamasha playing out in Maharashtra which has snowballed into a major challenge for the Shinde-Fadnavis-Pawar State Government after the police baton-charged a violent mob.

Trust little known reservation activist Manoj Jarange from Maharashtra’s Jalna district who has been on hunger strike for the last 16 days  to have the State Government’s knickers in a twist demanding Marathas be given Kunbi status, reads: OBC quota. Even as Chief Minister Shinde held out the bait of wanting to give reservation but would do so once its’  foolproof, withstand legal scrutiny and not bring two communities (OBCs and Marathas) face to face.

Luckily for Shinde, Opposition Parties support reservations for Marathas but are wary of it eating into the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota. NCP’s Sharad Pawar wants an additional 15-16% quota to accommodate them with a rider: reservation for OBC should not be affected, echoed by Congress and Thackeray’s Shiv Sena. Instead, they have urged the Centre to increase reservation cap from 50% even as Jarange continues to play hard ball.

Recall in 2018 BJP’s Government in the garb of meting out social justice amidst massive protests granted 16% quota in jobs and educational institutes to Marathas which was later slashed to 13% in jobs and 12% in education by Bombay High Court. However in 2021 Supreme Court struck it down as the State’s  total quota exceeded 50%.

Undeniably, one can understand the State Government’s predicament as the politically dominant Marathas constitute over 30% of the State’s population with minuscule representation in Government and semi-Government services and have been crying hoarse for a quota for a long time. Yet, this could have far reaching implications, not the least for OBCs as it would further marginalise them and strengthen Marathas hold in the State’s political landscape.

Also, it cannot be at the cost of nurturing mediocrity.  True, it will be suicidal not to take cognizance of Marathas new found political aspirations. But it is equally dangerous to indulge in politics of brinkmanship and political power games based on caste considerations.

Don’t get me wrong, certainly,  social justice is desirable and a laudable goal, alongside Government’s fundamental mission to educate, provide equal opportunities and better quality of life. Yet, India’s seven decades of ennui in uplifting them from poverty’s grime bowl shows no amount of legislation on providing reservation to myriad sections, castes, sub-castes and deprived has bettered the lot of the poor, even if a few got jobs and admission in educational institutes.

Reservation is not the sole panacea for uplifting people.  Moreover, it is dangerous to indulge in stoking rivalries on the facetious reason that it is to uplift the down-trodden. Instead, it has created both victims and fake winners. Whereby the mere accident of birth determines whether one is a winner or loser.

Bluntly, those born poor are sufferers and those born upper castes are victors. Worse, no study has been done to find out whether post quotas any effort is made to build up morale of those given reservation to bring them into mainstream. Underscoring that quotes don’t solve what’s wrong with education or provide better quality of life.

Arguably, is reservation an end in itself? Not at all. Has anyone assessed whether those provided reservation have gained or continue to lose? No. Are quotas the answer for maintaining India’s social fabric? Never, as it only divides people and harms national unity. Does it make sense if someone with 90% in engineering sells medicines while a Dalit with 40% becomes a doctor, thanks to reservation?

What purpose does quota serve when a student or officer is unable to cope with the decision-making process? When does backwardness super-cede equality assured under Article 15(1)? How is the Government going to avoid reverse discrimination?

From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Maharashtra to Manipur quotas and queues rule the roost. Whereby, it has become the most luscious mistress to be measured through the prism of power glass politics. With Parties defining it according to their own warped and selfish needs, never mind if the countryside air is rent with cries of aversion.

Pertinently, there is no place for double standards or Orwellian concept of ‘more equal than others’ in a democracy. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The Fundamental Rights provide for equal opportunities for all irrespective of caste, creed or sex. Let’s not fudge or forget this.

India of 2023 is not India of 1989 when 18-year old student, Rajiv Goswami immolated himself in public. Today, the Mandal fiend unleashed by our polity then has come to bite. Our netagan have to realise that they are dealing with a savvy Gen X and Gen Z aged 18-35 years who constitute 50% population and believe in action not reaction.

They seek jobs on merit in an over-crowed employment market where the labour force is growing 3.5% annually, employment is rising by 2.3% resulting in increasing 7.1% joblessness. Over 7000 had applied for 10 joint secretary jobs advertised by Modi Government recently. Thus, none has given thought to the challenge of absorbing new entrants to the job market, 15 million every year and clearing the backlog. In this scenario where do quotas fit?

Undeniably, the ever-expanding reservation cake is indefensible. Increasingly, socially dominant groups always agitate for inclusion in reserved categories. Whereby, quotas have become a replacement for decades of under-performance in providing basic quality education to all. Consequently, this short-sighted quick fix expansion of reservation has only resulted in hardening of narrow group identities. Bringing things to such a pass whereby electoral power politics has led to numerically dominant groups gaining at the expense of others.                                                                                               

Succinctly, injustices arise when equals are treated unequally and also when unequals are treated equally. Two examples: Education Ministry statistics show 48% SC, ST and OBC students dropped out of  IITs and 62.6% from IIMs as they found the course challenging. IIT Guwahati holds the worst record, with 88% of its 25 dropouts hailing from reserved categories followed by Delhi’s 76%. Of 6,043 faculty members at 23 IITs, 149 were SCs and 21 STs, totalling less than 3% and none from  OBCs in most of 40 Central universities.

Our leaders need to recognize that inequalities exist and should be rectified. Merely having quotas in education or cramming down quotas in jobs will not spell excellence. Towards that end, they need to develop innovative ways of making them qualify thereby enabling them to compete with the general category.

In the final crunch: Provide equal opportunity to all.  It is imperative our leaders create a level-playing field as quotas are divisive and self-defeating. We need a system that will neither punish victims nor reward winners. Time Centre-State Governments rethink and rework entire reservation policy and stop blind application of quotas. Else India will soon become a State of incompetence and mediocrity. What gives? --- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)