Deeper malaise
The Supreme Court of India's verdict in favor of providing reservation to OBCs is welcome, but not for the panacea that the Indian politicians say that the verdict will prove to be.
The verdict acknowledges Indian Constitution's obligation to "preserve and promote the essence of equality, so that disadvantaged groups can be brought to the forefront of civil life." It also clarifies that Article 15(4) (Power to make special provisions for any socially and educationally backward class and Scheduled Castes and Tribes) and Article 15(5) (extending the special provisions to educational institutions) are not contradictory. This observation could be because statistically speaking, all those who are covered in 15(4) will be covered in 15(5) too.
The verdict is welcome not so much for upholding reservation but for instructing the State to remove Creamy Layer from the purview of reservation. This is important because the hallowed portals of esteemed institutions are now thrown open to the really deprived. The creamy layer among the OBC (and even SCs/STs) do not have any disadvantage compared to the others and hence they can compete on an equal footing. The socialistic principles of our consitution are restored by excluding creamy layer. By excluding creamy layer, the judiciary has stressed that reservation is needed, but only for those who absolutely need it.
Politicians will find ways to subvert the creamy layer law. People, dishonest as they always are, will have no qualms about declaring abysmally low incomes and will thereby get themselves in the ambit of reservation. This is evident when one looks at how many small scale businessmen pay taxes in India.
More than the verdict, more than the questions whether IIT or IIM will lose their sheen, what is important is the question raised by the judiciary if there is any beneficial effect of reservation.
Why is the State reluctant to identify which castes among the OBCs or SCs/STs keep garnering the benefits of reservation ? Why is the State not committed to the upliftment of the real downtrodden among the OBCs ? Even the role-model theory proposed by Sanjeevi Guhan supporting the inclusion of creamy layer does not hold water, in my opinion, because a poor country like India cannot afford to pamper role models at the expense of the deprived millions.
So where does this leave those who are outside the ambit of reservation ? I do not want to answer this question because what is happening in India now is not injustice against the upper castes. What is happening is symptomatic social engineering. I stress the word symptomatic because the seats present in higher educational institutions are statistically insignificant.
What the Government is doing is evading the real issues like price rise and farmers' debts and diverting the public's attention to issues that won't have any impact on the poor. The Government has miserably failed in bailing out the poor. In the 1940s, the poor were dying of famines. Now they are committing suicides or drinking liquor or watching movies. The opium administered has changed. And like movie or liquor, the reservation issue is yet another tool to make the poor forget what is (not) being done to them.
The verdict acknowledges Indian Constitution's obligation to "preserve and promote the essence of equality, so that disadvantaged groups can be brought to the forefront of civil life." It also clarifies that Article 15(4) (Power to make special provisions for any socially and educationally backward class and Scheduled Castes and Tribes) and Article 15(5) (extending the special provisions to educational institutions) are not contradictory. This observation could be because statistically speaking, all those who are covered in 15(4) will be covered in 15(5) too.
The verdict is welcome not so much for upholding reservation but for instructing the State to remove Creamy Layer from the purview of reservation. This is important because the hallowed portals of esteemed institutions are now thrown open to the really deprived. The creamy layer among the OBC (and even SCs/STs) do not have any disadvantage compared to the others and hence they can compete on an equal footing. The socialistic principles of our consitution are restored by excluding creamy layer. By excluding creamy layer, the judiciary has stressed that reservation is needed, but only for those who absolutely need it.
Politicians will find ways to subvert the creamy layer law. People, dishonest as they always are, will have no qualms about declaring abysmally low incomes and will thereby get themselves in the ambit of reservation. This is evident when one looks at how many small scale businessmen pay taxes in India.
More than the verdict, more than the questions whether IIT or IIM will lose their sheen, what is important is the question raised by the judiciary if there is any beneficial effect of reservation.
Why is the State reluctant to identify which castes among the OBCs or SCs/STs keep garnering the benefits of reservation ? Why is the State not committed to the upliftment of the real downtrodden among the OBCs ? Even the role-model theory proposed by Sanjeevi Guhan supporting the inclusion of creamy layer does not hold water, in my opinion, because a poor country like India cannot afford to pamper role models at the expense of the deprived millions.
So where does this leave those who are outside the ambit of reservation ? I do not want to answer this question because what is happening in India now is not injustice against the upper castes. What is happening is symptomatic social engineering. I stress the word symptomatic because the seats present in higher educational institutions are statistically insignificant.
What the Government is doing is evading the real issues like price rise and farmers' debts and diverting the public's attention to issues that won't have any impact on the poor. The Government has miserably failed in bailing out the poor. In the 1940s, the poor were dying of famines. Now they are committing suicides or drinking liquor or watching movies. The opium administered has changed. And like movie or liquor, the reservation issue is yet another tool to make the poor forget what is (not) being done to them.