Indian Polity Mains CC Lecture - 4

Indian Polity Mains Crash Course

Lecture - 4

AASHIRVAD KUMAR
Faculty – Indian polity and internal security
➢ 8 years of experience
➢ Worked on 35 books on UPSC
➢ Author of internal security (Disha publication)
➢ Author of Indian polity (Oswaal publication)

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST RESERVATION QUOTAS

Arguments For
1.For recipients of reservation benefits
➢ Chance of development: Gives them a possibility of developing socially as well as economically.
➢ Class and caste distinction tend to coincide: Dalits in rural areas are worst in economic condition and
likely to be landless
➢ To tackle different forms of marginalization: Untouchability has acquired different forms such as
honour killings for marriages, Dalits not given houses on rent
➢ Skewed representation: In 2017, there were only 4 SC/ST officers at secretary level.
2. For the society
➢ Historical wrongs: A chance to undo the historical wrongs committed
➢ Interest of society: Quotas should promote the interest of the entire society by promoting the interest
of its weakest
➢ Continuing derogatory practices against reserved sections: According to a recent survey by Amit
Thorat, up to 47% of respondents in the hill State admitted to practising untouchability. More than half
the forward caste people confessed to practising untouchability. Further, nearly 68% Brahmins in rural
and 77% Brahmins in urban areas of the State admitted such practice.
3. For nation
Talent pool: Allows the country to use full talent pool available
Demographic dividend: It can turn into disaster if not all are given equal opportunity to grow and develop.
Meritocracy vis a vis equality: Meritocracy is important; however, it will have no meaning without equality.
4. Other reasons
Inefficiency of normal development: Normal process of development does not automatically close gaps
between the marginalized and dominant groups
Untenable claim of compromise in productivity: A study conducted with respect to SC/STS working in
Railways found found no negative impact on productivity and efficiency in any area, and some positive effects
in some areas of work - Ashwin Deshpande and Wieskoff (2014)

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Arguments Against the reservation policy

1. For marginalized sections
➢ Cornering of benefits: The Rohini commission highlighted that from about 2,633 central list OBCs,
about 1900 castes have not proportionately benefitted.
➢ Class within caste: With few members cornering benefits of reservation it has created classes within
a caste.
2. For the society
➢ Alienation: Perpetuates alienation feeling between general category and those reserved
➢ Feeling of apathy: From those sections of unreserved category who do not benefit from the
reservation but are otherwise not well to do off.
➢ Self-perpetuating: Instead of diluting caste identities, it perpetuates such primordial identities.

3. For nation
• Impact on meritocracy: As students/employees are selected not on basis on their ability but caste.
4. Other reasons

• Compensatory discrimination: It replaces one form of discrimination with another – often called
'compensatory discrimination
Mismatch hypothesis: High drop out rates of BC students. Thus, there is a need for counselling, remedial
teaching, etc
RESERVATION on ECONOMIC GROUNDS
103rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019 provided for 10% reservation in govt jobs and educational
institutions to EWS among those who are not covered under any reservation plan.
Arguments for reservation on economic grounds
1. Constitutional mandate: Article 46 of the Constitution provides that the State shall promote with special
care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the society.
2. Need for new deprivation assessment criteria: Supreme Court in Ram Singh v. Union of India (2015) held
that social deficiencies may exist beyond caste (ex- economic status, gender identity etc). Therefore, need
to move away from caste-centric definition of backwardness, to let list be dynamic and most distressed can
benefit
3. Social benefits

• Increasing dissatisfaction among various sections: Political and class issues have been
overpowered by caste issues. There is a sense of dissatisfaction amongst communities.
• Reduce divisions: Unlike Caste based reservations that escalate caste-based divisiveness and
encourage sub-nationalism, reservation on economic basis will reduce such tendency.
• Casteless society: Reservation on the basis of economic background may pave the way for a
casteless society which was initially purpose of Dr Ambedkar's reservation system.

SPM IAS Academy, D.S. Mansion 2nd floor, Opposite Indian Oil Petrol Pump, Near Assam State Zoo, Zoo Road,
Guwahati, Assam – 781005 Phone: 6901259799, Students’ Support Team: 7099064717,
Email: [email protected]
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Argument against economic reservation

1. Purpose of reservation:
➢ Not an anti-poverty programme: Reservation exists because, in addition to being more likely to be
poor than general castes, SCs, STs face social discrimination and exclusion that poor people from
general caste backgrounds do not face.
➢ To undo historical injustice: Caste based reservation is a necessity in India because of historical
negligence and injustice caused to those backward communities.
➢ Reservation as inclusive concept: As the reservation grows larger, it becomes a mechanism of
exclusion rather than of inclusion. At present, around 60% of the seats are reserved comprising a
large section of society, leaving only 40% open to merit.
➢ To ensure representation: However, upper caste is adequately represented in public employment.

2. Policy/Administrative Issues
Arbitrary ceiling: The income ceiling of Rs 8 lakh is same as for creamy layer for OBC candidates, created a
parity between SEBCS without any associated data supporting the same.
Broad criteria: Definition of EWS is too broad and would include large section of population.
No corelation between 10% and population of EWS
Challenges in identification of beneficiaries - very less taxable population (<3%) due to misrepresentation of
income. Implementing economic eligibility criteria will be a nightmare and can be misused.
3. Judicial Review: In Indra Sawhney case, Supreme Court had denied reservation solely on the basis of
economic criteria. Further, with EWS reservation coming into picture there is a breach of 50% limit set by the
Court. Earlier in 2016, Gujarat High Court had struck down a similar provision for Patidar community
reservation brought by Gujarat Government.
4. Other issues
Pandora's box of demands - Demand from other sections to introduce some other kind of affirmative action
policies. There are already demands from Marathas, Jats etc for reservation.
Shrinking public sector 10% will not fulfil expectations of such a large section of population.
Tool of populism: This affects their credibility as tool for social justice
Sinha Commission report (2010): It is being cited as basis for this never explicitly recommended reservation
for EWS but was only emphatic about ensuring that EWS get access to benefits of welfare schemes.

LOCAL RESERVATIONS/PRIVATE SECTOR RESERVATIONS

Andhra Assembly has passed a Bill in July 2019 which provides that industries that would come up either in
public sector or in public-private partnership must reserve 75% jobs for locals.
Haryana Cabinet cleared a draft ordinance that seeks to reserve 75% of the jobs in private enterprises for
local residents to address the aspect of unemployment of the local population on a priority basis.

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Guwahati, Assam – 781005 Phone: 6901259799, Students’ Support Team: 7099064717,
Email: [email protected]
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Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) - 2016 - 2/3 of respondents were in favour that people
from state should be given priority vis-a-vis emp opportunities
Legal basis:
Article 16(3): Parliament may make a law "prescribing" a requirement of residence for jobs in a particular
state. This power vests solely in the Parliament, not state legislatures.
Article 371D: Andhra Pradesh under Section 371D has powers to have "direct recruitment of local cadre" in
specified areas.

Important related Cases

Dr. Pradeep Jain v Union of India (1984): to regard an individual from one state as an outsider in another
state "would be to deny him his constitutional rights and to derecognise the essential unity and integrity of
the country".
Sunanda Reddy Vs State of Andhra Pradesh, 1995: Supreme Court affirmed the observation in Pradeep Jain
to strike down a state government policy that gave 5% extra weightage to candidates who had studied with
Telugu as the medium of instruction.
Kailash Chand Sharma Vs State of Rajasthan (2002): The court held that "measures taken by the State on
considerations of localism is not sanctioned by the constitutional mandate of equality".
Uttar Pradesh Vs Pradip Tandon: The reservation for rural areas cannot be sustained on the ground that the
rural areas represent socially and educationally backward classes of citizens. This reservation appears to be
made for majority population of the State. Eighty per cent of the population of the State cannot be a
homogeneous class. No reservation can be made on the basis of place of birth as that would offend Art. 15.
Arguments in Favour of Reservations for Locals
1. Political reasons:
Legitimate right of State: Since the private sector uses public infrastructure in many ways like subsidized
allotment of land, tax exemptions etc.
2. Economic reasons
Agrarian distress: Young people desperate to move out of agriculture, and mostly seek local jobs
Sense of justice: perception of central devolution being insufficient especially in Southern States reservation
of jobs gives a sense of indirect economic justice
3. Social reasons
Reduce migration: Availability of local jobs will deter people to migrate from one state to another.
Demography: prevent large scale change in demography and culture of the state

Arguments against Reservations for Locals

1. Political implications:
Impact on the unity of the nation: It can increase parochial tendencies and discrimination and lead to a
situation of locals vs non-locals in area, thus posing a threat to the integration of the country.

SPM IAS Academy, D.S. Mansion 2nd floor, Opposite Indian Oil Petrol Pump, Near Assam State Zoo, Zoo Road,
Guwahati, Assam – 781005 Phone: 6901259799, Students’ Support Team: 7099064717,
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Localised protectionism: Through this policy, India is going back to a stage when the country was ruled by
500 Princes and each one of them used to take care of his/her fiefdom.
2. Economic implications
Impact on investments: It might discourage capital investment in the region and can result in a flight of capital,
decrease competitiveness of companies.
Increases cost of production - Since these industrial units cannot 'import' labourers from elsewhere; the
burden of imparting the requisite skills to, and of employing, locals will fall on the units.
Ease of Doing Business: Such restrictions on businesses can act as a barrier to ease of doing business
3. Social implications
Son of the soils: It will further enhance feeling of regionalism.
Intolerance: It can reduce cross regional understanding and awareness people from other parts of the country
intolerance towards
Pandora's box: It can open Pandora's box which can threaten the unity of the country
4. Unconstitutional:
Article 14: reservations to locals are against that equality.
Article 16(1): no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence
or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office under the
State.
Article 16(3) - only Parliament by law can provide that for a particular class of employment under G0I, state
government or local authority, the resident within a state/UT may be required
Article 19(1)(g): As outsiders won't be able to effectively do any job of their choice in the state.
Against the reservation ceiling: Giving 75% reservation goes against the Supreme court's ceiling of 50% for
maintaining meritocracy.
5. Other reasons:
Short term solution: After the short-term benefits of the policy are exhausted, the State
Government might need to find other ways to generate more jobs for the locals.
• Impracticable: The shortage of qualified workers in a state may impact its implementation.

SUB-CATEGORIZATION OF OBCS
OBCs are granted 27% reservation in jobs and education under the central government but only a few affluent
communities among the over 2,600 included in the Central List of OBCs have secured a major part of this.
Idea of sub-categorization
1. First Backward Class Commission report (1955): Proposed sub-categorization of OBCs into backward and
extremely backward communities.

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2. Mandal Commission report (1979): A dissent note by member L R Naik proposed sub- categorization in
intermediate and depressed backward classes.
3. National Commission of Backward Classes (2015): Proposed that OBCs be divided into the following three
categories:
➢ Extremely Backward Classes (EBC-Group A) facing social, educational and economic backwardness
even within the OBCs, consisting of aboriginal tribes, nomadic and semi- nomadic tribes who have
been carrying on with their traditional occupations.
➢ More Backward Classes (MBC-Group B) consisting of vocational groups carrying on with their
traditional occupations.
➢ Backward Classes (BC-Group C) comprising of those comparatively more forward.

4. According to NCBC, few states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, Karnataka, Haryana,
Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu etc have sub-categorized OBC for
reservations in state government-owned institutions.
Data and facts
1. According to the 2018 data analysis of 1.3 lakh central jobs and admissions to central higher education
institutions given under OBC quota:
97% of all jobs and educational seats have gone to just 25% of all sub-castes classified a 24.95% of these
jobs and seats have gone to just 10 OBC communities.
Representation in jobs and educational institutions: 983 OBC communities, 37% of them have zero
representation in jobs and educational institutions.
Representation in recruitments and admissions:994 OBC sub-castes have a total representation of only
2.68% in recruitment and admissions.
2. According to the 2018-19 annual report of the Department of Personnel and Training, OBC recruitment in
central jobs is considerably low.
Need for sub-categorization!
➢ Equitable distribution of representation: As per Rohini commission highlighted that from about 2,633
central list OBCs, about 1900 castes have not proportionately benefitted.
➢ For betterment of more backward: It will help more backward among the OBC communities can also
access the benefits of reservation for educational institutions and government jobs.
➢ Constitutional mandate of social justice, equitable distribution of resources and notion of welfare state.

SPM IAS Academy, D.S. Mansion 2nd floor, Opposite Indian Oil Petrol Pump, Near Assam State Zoo, Zoo Road,
Guwahati, Assam – 781005 Phone: 6901259799, Students’ Support Team: 7099064717,
Email: [email protected]
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