Political Diary
New
Delhi, 30 November 2021
Quota In Perpetuity
OF VICTIMS & FAKE
WINNERS
By Poonam I Kaushish
Indians are succors for tamasha and come election time trust our politicians to unleash
their pet all-season freebies: reservation and subsidies. Doling them like moongphalis to pander to their vote-banks,
as Quota = Votes, a winner combination for sitting on India’s Raj gaddi.
First of the mark was
Prime Minister Modi who withdrew the contentious three farm laws after nearly a
year of farmers agitation on Gurupurab. Obviously it has everything to do with
polls due in five States Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur early 2022
and India’s
new President (July) and Vice-President (August). The BJP’s performance in Punjab’s civic polls
and in Haryana and Himachal’s Assembly by-elections recently were dismal. In the unlikely event of
BJP-led NDA losing or reducing its seats in the Presidential electoral college,
numbers could be significantly altered.
Adding
to its woes, the Supreme Court has put a spoke in Centre’s wheels providing 10%
reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in educational institutions
and Government jobs, by telling it to appoint an expert committee to re-examine
criteria within four weeks providing income limit of Rs 8 lakh per annum to
avail quota. It wondered if the Government was trying to make “unequals equals.”
Pertinently, the
Government had announced 27% reservation for other backward castes (OBCs) and
10% for EWS in the all-India quota for medical college admissions while
proportionally increasing overall seats. While reservation in jobs and
educational institutions was introduced in 1993 the EWS quota was introduced
through a Constitutional amendment in January 2019 ahead of Parliamentary
elections.
The trigger then was
BJP’s rout in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan Assembly elections dues to upper castes backlash and rising unemployment among
others. The
Opposition readily obliged as they too would benefit and could not be perceived
as rejecting a Bill which benefitted EWS.
Certainly, the
Government’s fundamental mission is to uplift the poor and have-nots, educate,
provide them equal opportunities and better quality of life. Indeed, one would
forgive our netas their
one-upmanship, populist bravado and reckless ad hocism if it bettered the lot
of the downtrodden and poor. 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 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 eradicating poverty. 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 in upper castes are victors. Worse, no study
has been done to find out whether post quotas any effort is made to build up
the morale of those given reservation to bring them into the mainstream. Underscoring
that quotes don’t solve what’s wrong with education or provide better quality
of life. There are neither any welfare programmes for them or quality
education.
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 supercede equality assured under Article 15(1)? How is the
Government going to avoid reverse discrimination?
India of 2021 is not
the India of 1989 where a young 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 between 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 6000 had applied for 10 joint secretary jobs advertised by
the Modi Government recently. Thus, none has given thought to the challenge of
absorbing new entrants to the job market, 12 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, totaling less than 3% and none from the
OBCs in most of 40 Central universities.
Reservations is not
the sole panacea for uplifting people nor will it transform the village society
whose social structure is built upon an edifice of illiteracy and ignorance
which in turn perpetuates an iniquitous caste system.
Indeed,
the time has come for our polity to think creatively about how to achieve the
goal of putting everyone on equal footing. Merely having quotas in promotion or
cramming down promotional quotas in jobs will not spell excellence. Towards
that end, they need to develop innovative ways of making SC/ST/OBC/EWSs’
qualified thereby enabling them to compete with the general category. Another, is
to make them occupy higher echelons of service. Else, it is like putting the cart before the
horse.
In the ultimate we need a system that
will neither punish victims nor reward winners. Our petty power-at all-cost
polity has to think beyond vote-bank politics and quotas which are divisive and self-defeating whereby struggle
between backwards and forwards is more meaningful than Left and Right in
politics. Time
Government rethought and reworked entire reservation policy and stopped blind
application of quotas. If this situation is not corrected now, India will soon
become a State of incompetence and mediocrity. The buck stops at Modi’s door.
--- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
|