CHAPTER X

Need For Rethinking

 NEED FOR RETHINKING

On one hand is the centuries old caste system in the Indian society and
on the other hand have been the efforts of social reformers down the age to
break the barriers which separated the Hindu society into upper and lower
castes. The constitutional and legal provisions for socil economic upliftment
of the lower castes through reservation have only partially succeeded in their
mission of emancipation.

Calaclysmic changes are taking place in the contemporary Indian

society. Tremendous economic forces have been unleashed. Urbanisation and
modern education is becoming an order of the day and agricultural
modernisation too is on the anvil. Despite these forces the caste divide
remains due to the vote bank politics and lack of political will to evolve ways
and means in consonance with socio-economic reality. Within the caste/class
covered under reservation a section of the group has emerged which has
cornered the benefits given by the government and the real target group has
been missed upto a great extent.

After five decades of inpleinentation, the reservation policy has left its
beneficiaries as well as its critics dissatisfied. The former are dissatisfied
because the reservation policy has not created a noticeable impact on the
social economic conditions. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
majority of whom remain at social periphery, illiterate and poor while a small
group among themseleves has cornered the benefits. The critics argue that in

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matter of employment its reservation has been at the cost of merit and has

given rise to frustration and social anger amongst the unreserved category.

A need for rethinking is imperative at this stage of development of

Indian society when on one hand the world is shrinking into a global village,

on the other hand fissiparous tendencies on caste lines are becoming more

evident. The reality of this type of dichotomy is to be resolved so that

alienation of groups with each other on the issue of reservations is brought to

a halt.

The reservation policy assumed that the economic advancement of

reserved category is going to be a pivotal force which will also lead to

removal of social disparity, It was felt that these benefits of Scheduled Castes

and Scheduled Tribes were needed only for a limited period after which these

groups would be integrated into the mainstream of socio-economic life of the

society. Though recruited under relaxed criteria it was assumed that job

learning would make these groups as professional in their performances as

those selected on merit. It was also felt that upward economic mobility of

some members of the gorup would faciliate the same for other members of

the group. With regard to the unreserved categories it was argued that

employment market would expand at a fast enough pace to absorb these

groups and thus there would be no tension resulting due to lack of

employment opportunities as a result of reservation policy.

The main objective of the reservation policy was the removal of

historical disabilities to which these groups had been subjected. There has

been a limited realization of the objectives and ironically the unfortunate

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aspect of this policy has been unabashed exploitation by various groups and

vested interests. Political expreience and emergence of ‘elite’ beneficiaries

has led to perpetuation of the reservation policy and its implementation of the

reservation policy in a distorted manner.

The result of reservation policy has been widening the gap between the

beneficiaries of this policy and the unreserved category. The social

consequence finds its reflection in various forms at work places. The

emergence of elite beneficiaries has made these groups more interested in

cornering the benefits for themselves rather than welfare of the community.

This has resulted in lack of leadership within these communities. The

population explosion has led to less number of job opportunities. The

reservations and adhoc quota have been fixed from primary education to

professional colleges and skilled governement jobs. The criteria for fixing

these quotas have not been practical for it is a known fact that percentage of

literacy among the reserved categories is abysmally low,

M.K. Gandhi always considered Harijans as an integral part of the

Hindu society. He fought and won the battle against separate elctorate for the

Harijans because, according to him, it would have created a permanent

schism between the two caste groups. Nehru was also against undertaking

any steps which would lead to separatism and create a psychology of

dependence in this section of the Indian society. He had said in so many

words, that external props like reserved categories is not the correct

appraoach to overcome the socio-economic handicap is a lasting manner.

Like Gandhi he also favoured programmes to help them develop inner

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strength to compete in a healthy manner with other sections of the nation on

an equal footing. So long as they continued to rely heavily on the external

props of reservation they would not learn to stand on their own and the

moment these external props are withdrawn they would find themselves in a

helpless situation from where it may not be possible to pull them out easily

Lohia had emphasized the social aspect rather than the welfare of the

drepressed classes. According to him, it was more an attitudinal rather an

economic problem. In order to liberate these downtrodden classes a complete

transformation in the attitudes of the upper castes was needed and reservation

of seats was not a solution to this basic problem.

With regard to backward class the identification and designation had to

meet the constitutional requirements of these groups. However, die

government particularly in south India could not resist the pressure of those

caste and communities and of such caste and communities as had become

economically powerful after land reforms as they used to enjoy the benefit of

caste based reservation in pre-constitution days. At the national level the

latest Mandal conmission report adopted the basis that ritual ranking of cast

had enabled the higher caste to hold lower caste in bondage for ages. The

commission was of the view that unequals can not be treated as equals

otherwise ineqality will be perpetuated. On die basis of eleven social,

economic and eduational indicaters and giving more weightage to social

indicators the commission made the caste and communities as die basis for

identification of backward classes. The Mandal report became controversial

and its critics argued that firstly it is based on inadquate data and

unsatisfactory survey, secondly it gives dominant importance to caste.

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Thirdly complete neglect of very poor upper caste and fourthly extension of

the benefit of reservation even to the affluent of the backward class and

fifthly application of the reservation policy not only at the stage of initial

appointment but also at the stage of promotion made the Mandal Commission

Report highly controversial and whipped up passions for and against it,

No wonder that the decision of the Union Government to implement

the Mandal Commission Report generated high tension and violent.re-actions.

The timing and manner of its implementation reflected intentions other than

social upliftment. It did not convince the nation and smacked of political

opportunism. The timing of the action on the recommendations of the report

was unfortunate since its implementation had not been preceeded with

adequate national debate and moulding of public opinion. These doubts about

the intention/motive are relevant since they reflect on the cool-headed

sincerity of the government which intends to execute the reservation policy.

The deep rooted social problem in terms of history and payche of the

groups and the showed implementation in the present innovative times have

given rise to conflicting values in the society. Herein the role of judiciary

comes in. The judiciary can at best play the role of integration and

resurrection of values and reconcile the conflicts present in die society.

However, it is not possible for the judiciary to create a new set of values for

the society. Nor can it suppress the age-old value system. The constraints

under which the judiciary has to work are tremendous; for they too are the

product of society and problems before them are delicate, complicated and

innumerable. By and large the judciary at the highest level has revealed a

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high judicial statesmanship specially with regard to fixing the upper limit of

reservation at 50 percent. The Supreme Court has considerably toned down

the Mandal-game by trying to balance various competing interests. The

i

concept of creamy layer which was laid down by the Supreme Court in Indira

Sawhney case is also a judicious contribution; for this concept aims at

targeting the real beneficiaries while eleminating the affluent among the

backward castes from the purview of reservation. Another area where tire

reservation with its principle of social emancipation of lower castes comes

into conflict is that of sacrifice of merit and administrative efficency. At the

level of assumption it was argued that those beneficiaries who were recruited

would grow with the service and soon be as proficiet as those recruited

directly without reservation benefits. The question of promotion is linked to

the issue of administrative efficiency; for would we not compromise

administrative efficiency if we disregard merit and lay down lower standard

of evaluation for promotion. In Indira Sawhney case the court attributed

higher value to administrative efficiency while dealing with the issue of

reservation in promotion. The judicial approach till now has been positive:

for it has attempted to give a genuine social justice orientation to the

reservation scheme.

In the present reality one has to visualise the effects of new market

forces which had invaded the Indian social economic system. Historically

speaking controlled economy which has been the hall mark of Indian planning

the government jobs carry major source of power and prestige. The public

sector in our economy control the commanding heights. This process is in for

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a change since license permit Raj is breaking and government jobs over the

years are likely to lose the power and prestige attached to them.

Another important effect of the new economic intiative which would

have far reaching economic and social repercussions are the new issues which

will emerge for the Indian Polity. Over the time it would be the economic

agenda which will determine the political battles and victories therein. This

emergence of political agenda would be a boon to Indian society as it would

directly affect vote banks politics based on caste and perpetuated through

reservation. With the scenario described above, we have to evolve a realistic

plan of reservation policy for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and

backward classes so that disharmonious strains within the body politics are

ironed out and the basic objective of reservation policy is not lost sight of.

It is in order to keep sharp focussed the issue of re-thinking on

reservation, it would be pertinent, before making suggestions to underscore

the very spirit of the constitution. The preamble itself envisages justice,

social, economic and political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith

and worship, equality of status and opportunity, fraternity assuring dignity of

the individual and unity and integrity of the nation. It solemnly resolves to

constitute India into a sovereign socialistic secular Republic. With the basic

spirit of the Premable behind us the need of the hour is to realise the fact that

the phenomena of poverty cuts across all castes, regions and religions in our

country. On one side it would be academic naivety to believe that only

certain castes deserved special attention for amelioration of their economic

condition through the instrument of reservation policy. On the other side it

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would be equally wrong to think that the biases, prejudices and negative
attitude deeply engrained in the minds of the so called non-scheduled castes
would be removed over a period of time if they work together with higher
caste brethren. The basic drawback of the present reservation service has
been that a deeprooted social and psychological cancer of the society has
been treated throught economic measures and the results have been obviously
unflattering.

The present policy of reservation in services instead of bridging the

gap between the scheduled and non scheduled caste has further widened it
and led to the hardening of the attitude on either side. In addition, tire so
called backward castes also started demanding and claimed reservations in
services to overcome their economic hardship.

Who shall live if India dies ?

And who shall, die if India lives ?

That is the most important issue at hand. The reservation policy has
created forces which tend to strengthen fissiparous tendencies. The solution
has to come from the society and not from the policy and hence there should
be first a national debate within a time frame. For a period of next ten years
there should be freeze on any action with regard to implementation of
reservation policy so that economic forces take deep root within the Indian
society and vote bank politics based on caste does not get further impetus The
stood has till now withstood the the strfe generated by the implementation of
the Mandal Commission report despite the fact that the prophets of Doom had
predicted the disintegration of society. The freeze for next ten years on the

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issue of reservation will enable the society to integrate the conflicting forces.

It will also serve the need of not pushing further the social disequlibrium.

The next suggestion keeping in view the practical reality and the basic

motive of ensuring social justice on the crest of economic benefits gien by

reservationist is sincere and faithful implementation of the concept of creamy

layer of the society. The faithful implementation of the creamy layer doctrine

would enable those sections of society which truly deserve the benefits of

reservation policy. This would have far reaching consequences for scheduled

castes and scheduled tribes and backward classes majority of whom are

unable to get benefits on account of cornering of benefits by the members of

the affluent section amongst them. These benefits should rightfully accrue to

them. Necessary changes in the implementation of the policy are immediately

called for. We shall make a reference to them later in this very chapter. Till

then the non-government organisation and public interest litigation are the

right social fora (including legal measures) to ensure that the creamy layer

directive given by the Supreme Court is carried out according to the letter

and spirit.

The major drawback with regard to reservation policy has been the

identification of backwardness through caste. The Kaka Kalelkar and Mandal

Commission gave more stress to social indicators and thus caste remained the

main identifying factor for reservation. It is a fact rapid economic progress

(though lop-sided) and educational progress has taken place in India but still

keeping caste as the pivotal point for identification! of backwardness is being

oblivious to practical reality. For identification of backwardness socio-

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economic criterion is to be fixed and equal stress is needed to both the social
as well as the economic aspect. It is the duty of the State to lay down the
socio-economic criteria keeping in view the socio-economic perspective of
backwardness. Once equal stress is given to social and economic indicators
and caste takes a back stage in identification then a lot of tension generated
would be resolved since many from the upper caste who at present are not
eligible would become beneficiaries of the reservation policy.

If socio-economic criterion is to be adopted, then what would be the

basic unit for determining backwardness? The unit of family is the obvious
answer to this question. Irrespective of caste or community die family unit
should be adopted for extending the benefit of reservation. The basic data
with regard to family at the national level already exists and to prepare a blue
print die data with regard to the census figures, electoral rolls and public
distribution system needs to be integrated. These changes can not be adopted
right away hence first for a decade a freeze on reservation, sincere and
faithful exclusion of creamy layer should take place. Till dien the national
debate should go on and the society would veer round to accept balanced
criteria for extending benefits of reservation which would give due
importance to economic criterion. Such a criterion when evolved would not
exclude any target group and therefore the target groups would be a class and
not castes.

Till now it has been found that the host of indicators are used for
determining the beneficiaries of reservation. Too many indicators lead to
obfuscation of the basic objectives of reservation and vested interests are

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liable to hijack the agenda for their own ulterior motives and gain. Hence it is

suggested that as few as possible indicators for identification be used.

Secondly those indicators be given more weightage which are relatively more

quantifiable in nature. As an illustration we may suggest that the use of

annual family income as a major, if not the sole criterion, be considered.

The economic criteria and parameters defined would change as society

develops and crosses new thresholds of economic advancement. The review

of economic and social parameters is essetial from time to time so that

beneficiary groups do not take the advantage in perpetuity. In order to give

more teeth to the economic criteria in the execution of reservation policy

vacancies be filled against the income criterion from amongst those selected

for appointment. For doing this a study needs to be made about the prevailing

distribution of income, the percentages would need to be revised after an

inter-regnum of ten years to keep them in consonance with the prevailing

income distribution in the society, In the present administrative set up the

block level in rural areas and circles in urban areas can be taken as viable

level at which income certificates can be issued for reservation purposes. The

block level officer or a functionary equal to him can be vested with adequate

powers to issue such cetificates.

Like the police verification which is undertaken before the final offer

of appointment, a strict verification of income may be undertaken before

appointment is offered. Today it should be verification of the real eligibility

for reservation to ensure that the benefit is not being hijacked by the affluent

of scheduled or otherwise. Such verification be backed by penal action

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against the defaulter rendering him ineligible for all future employment

through reservation criteria.

If the needs of social justice are to be addressed to, it is imperative

that the difference between the relaxed criteria of recruitment and that of

open merit be exactly such as renders those candidates eligible for

employment who have in them the potential to bridge the gap of professional

merit. Unrealistically low level of induction for reserved category foils the

needs of social justice since the striking difference between the groups

working together perpetuates social disdain. The natural corollary to this is

that reservation may be made at all levels of recruitment while promotion

should be made strictly on seniority cum merit basis.

A more realistic quantum of reservation which would also reduce

tensions in the society, would be one which is pyramidal in shape. The

argument here is that at the level of education adequate cushions like free

education and adequate financial support to the wards of the poor coupled

with reservation of seats in schools of excellence be undertaken. This would

be the base of the pyramid from which would emerge the candidates for

employment under reserved categories and these candidates will not be much

behind from those who come from open competition. If faithfully

implemented this scheme would do away with the roaster system and the

carry forward roll which would gradually phase out itself since there would

be ample aspirants. The main focus of reservation policy should be on raising

the income levels of the economically weaker sections of society and

sustaining these groups at higher levels of income. Once this is achieved the

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external props of reservation may be done away with for these families and

more and more families be adopted to achieve self-sufficiency to avail the

opportunities of climbing up the higher ladder of income leading to self

confidence with regard to developmental programmes and anti-poverty

programmes, the instrument of execution of which has been die government

agencies. The government agencies have failed in their mission. They have

been found to be venal, insensitive and utterly inefficient towards their

duties. The execution of such programms essentially involves missionary zeal

on the part of the executing agencies. Herein the involvement of voluntary

agencies in this union of faith to be executed in die spirit of mankind needs

consideration.

The temples of learning need to be backed tremendously in social

research work Realistic policies and programmes can not be evolved widiout

such work. Such independent research in institutions of higher learning on

subjects like stratification in the society as also social mobility as well as

changing economic parameters is imperative for die findings of such

objectives. Research projects and scientific studies would facilitate

formulation of schemes in consonance with social realities by opinion makers

and decision makers.

The Constitution of India declares our country to be' secular socialist

democratic republic,' People of different faiths live here. They are supposed

to enjoy equality of status and opportunity irrespective of the religion to

which they belong. Socio-economic backwardness is a pervasive

phenomenon. Almost 40 percent of the country's population including all the

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religious communities live below the poverty line. For an orthodox Hindu a

Muslim or a Christian is/was as much an untouchable as a Shudra of his own

religious group. Thus the poor amongst these religious groups suffer at the

hands of orthodox Hindus from the same handicaps based on caste and

community as do the Sudras. How is it then that the secular Indian

government feels so much concerned about the latter sections only. Does it fit

into the secular image as reflected in the Constitution ? This can be set right

by adopting a criterion which is applicable to all Indian citizens irrespective

of religion, caste, or community. Adoptiion of economic backwardness as the

sole criteria would serve this purpose. It will cover the entire population and

no single section of the Indian population will feel neglected because of

belonging to a particular community inspite of deserving the same attention

and concern as is being shown to the down trodden of the Hindu community.

The ultimate aim should be to reduce the emphasis on caste factor in

reservation process. The problem is to be resolved by concensus and not

confrontation. The major political parties, opinion makers, intellectuals and

academicians of the society and social service groups have to be flag bearer

to usher in these changes.

A society that is both stable and progressive can remain so only if

human beings are treated as equal in all respects within the meaning of the

term and their rights are properly recognised and upheld. The society and its

dynamics of functioning and living should reflect deeply cherished human

aspirations. The feeling should not permeate in different sections of the

people that the advantages being given and enjoyed by some were also their

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due but have been denied to them. Castes reflect the work attitudes inculcated
in Hindu society down the ages. Certain type of jobs became associated with
certain castes. So long as these jobs exist and the prevailing attitude of
considering them menial persists, the divide between the Sudras and Non-
Sudras will also persist. The same is with regard to backward and non­
backward classes.. What is needed is a change in the attitude towards these
sections of the society. The change in the nature of job and change in the
technology and facade of organising them in a sophisticated and glittering
manner will bring about a positive change in due course of time. A visit to a
beauty parlour does not create the feeling that one is getting service which
was provided by the females of the barber community. The service at the
beauty parlours is a matter of adoration and so are the persons who offer the
service. Is'nt it a change in the attitude because of a change in the nature of
job and change in the way it is being performed.

The history of reservation in post independence India is story of shift

from the domains of socio economic emancipation of the deserving masses to
that of the realm of vote banks politics. 'With the reservation issue being
injected into the body politic of the political system, its short term
consequences has been to inject sectarian stridency into electoral politics and
further impair the efficiency of public services. The division of the country
into an efficient private sector and an inefficient public sector would be
further highlighted. In the long term codifcation of the existing caste system
would create vested interest in perpetuation of their backwardness. Whipping
up of caste tension for political survivals would have negative impact on
social reform movements.

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At present the Indian society is socially organised on the basis of caste

hierarchy and is territorially experiencing lopsided economic development.
The need of the day is to gradually reduce the emphasis on caste factor in
reservation process and emphasis be on the habitat, level of technology and
socio-economic conditions of individual family rather than caste. The
problem can only be resolved by consensus and not confrontation, keeping in
view the long term interests of the society its cohesion and overall harmony.
There should be consultations between all the political parties and a national
debate before major decision in connection with existing reservation or its
modification in form or content or expansion is taken.

Reservation has been with us since the passage of Government of India

Act 1935 in a continuous manner, which was thought of as a means to
ameliorate the conditions of the down-trodden. At the same time it was
supposed to be given-up after the objective of their upliftment was achieved.
We have had reservation of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in our
country for a very long time. It was necessary that we should have made a
study how the system worked and whether it needed any modification, if any.
It was also necessary to conduct a study of that targeted population which
was entitled to the benefit of reservation over all these years and to find out
whether it has delivered the goods keeping the extent of coverage of this
population in mind. A partinent question comes up: Among the scheduled
castes or scheduled tribe have the benefits been widespread or concentrated in
a few families or into a few sub-castes among them ? If a survey is conducted
amongst these castes and tribes, it would be easily seen that a large section of
the population of these castes and these tribes have not benefited from the

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provisions of reservation. The benefits have been cornered by a few families

from amongst them who made their debut into the government services
through reservation. How has this happened ? The problem of spreading the
benefits to the entire population could have been solved had we introduced
conditions on availing the benefits of reservation. There is first generation of
beneficiaries, The children of the first generation of beneficiries do not suffer
from any handicap with which the children of other scheduled castes and
other scheduled tribes families suffer. The maximum, therefore that could
have been done was that after two generations of beneficiaries amongst these
castes and tribes, reservation should have been denied to these families. It
would then be thrown open to those who had so far not been able to enter the
government services. Had we followed this the whole population of these
castes and tribes or atleast a sizable part by now would have become
enlightened and come into the main stream of social life. Then in these castes
the disparity within them would have disappeared. The Government did not
undertake any such study till today. We had an opportunity to interact with
the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe candidates appearing in the
competitive examination at the IAS Pre-Examinatiion Training Centre run by
the Central Govt, and other centres run by the State Government in different
Universities. The students clearly voiced the feeling that they are at a dis­
advantage when compared to the sons and daughters of those members of the
scheduled castes and scheduled tribes who have already entered the Central
and State services. Their children have all the advantages which the children
of forward castes have. Where do we stand while competing against them for
the benefit of reservation within scheduled castes or tribes, they said it is

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therefore, necessary that if we want to achieve and spread the benefits of

reservations, we must impose restriction that the benefit of reservation should

not extend beyond two generations of a family. If we do not do this, we shall

be developing and perpetuating the same inequality within the scheduled

castes and scheduled tribes as existed between the forward castes and the

scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

While extending the benefit of reservation to other backward classes in

1994 i.e. 47 years after the indenpendence a pertinent question should have

been answered by the politicians. What have we done to bring about

universal primary education and what is our achievement with regard to

spread of educaiton amongst the weaker sections of the population and

woment in general? Why have we failed in this direction ? What have they

done to honour Article 45 of the constitution? Had we achieved the objective

of universal primary education and taken concret afforts to spread education

amongst weaker sections and the women, the backwardness termed as ■

educational and social would have withered away. The solution lay in

opening of primary schools and other educational institutions so as to make

them within reach for the total population of the country. After 47 years of

independence, we have suddenly woken up to find a solution to remove the

educational and social backwardness of the people through reservation and its

implementation in government services. What an irony of fate ! The solution

lay somewhere else. The means to achieve the objectives are quite different,

but those which are being adopted are quire different. This is what gives rise

to a strong suspicion that it is a calculated political move aimed more at

creating suitable vote-banks to capture political power rather than spread

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equality and enlightenment by removing educational and social

backwardness. The political angle again becomes clear when one finds that

the reservation for women is not coming through easily. As a political

gimmick every political party declared that it is in favour of reservation for

the women. But when it comes to passing an Act in the Parliament, it is

being delayed and opposed in various ways. There can be no doubt that the

women folk of our country in general are backward. If a judicial

pronouncement is needed the High Court of Rajasthan in July, 1997, upheld

that there is a positive case for the reservation of women in Parliament and

State Legislatures as they certainly form that part of population which can be

described as backward irrespective of the fact to whichever section of the

society they may belong. It is unfortunate in our country that we have not

been able to find or we have deliberately avoided the correct solution to the

problem that plagued this society,

Let us look at the problem in a different way, Take for instance a

group of people who are socially and educationally backward. We have to

remove their social and educational backwardness. We have two options:

i) We must make the entire population employable so that the whole group

can contend for jobs,

ii) We offer employment to very few who are employable through reservation

and the cycle of benefit keeps revolving in a narrow circle of beneficiaries, at

occasions picked by new entrants.

We did not follow the first course. Nor did we follow the course of

spreading employability simultaneously with reservation. The result.

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therefore, is that we have been extending the benefit of reservation time and-,

again because the backwardness has not been removed. It has not been

removed because we never were serious about it. This creates doubts on the

intentions of the politicians in our country. Provisions for the enforcement of

the reservatin in different services and the quantum of reservation is related

to the population of castes and tribes be it scheduled or backward. Within

these one has different levels of development. One can classify it easily into

three categories: the most backward, the more backward and backward.

What would happen is that the most backward and more backward sections of

these castes and tribes, be they scheduled or backward, will continue to

remain where they are, and the total number of seats reserved would be

occupied by a few amongst the upper strata of these castes, be they scheduled

or backward. In due course of time, the population logic would extend

further and each caste within scheduled castes or backward castes would

demand reservation on population basis for their particular caste. Shall we be

able to do it ? We have to stop and think right now when we are trying to

reserve vacancies in the government, Central or State, for a cluster of castes

as a whole. What, is meant for the whole group should spread through the

whole group. If the benefit is largely conrnered by a few castes, scheduled or

backward, reservation fails to achieve the objective. It would be advisable to

conduct a survey on the part of the government to find out which particular

castes have been benefiting amongst the scheduled and backwards in getting

into government services, Central or state. It is confirmed that the benefits

have not percolated to all castes of the whole group, scheduled or backward.

We should take steps to set our house in order and see that the benefits

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spread out to the whole group. This could be possible by restricting the
benefit only to two generations in a family. Then only the whole cluster of
castes will benefit from it. We should not wait for the internecine quarrels
within a cluster of castes to raise its ugly head. For instance fears are being
expressed than the benefit of 27 percent reservation would be cornered by
dominant castes like Yadavas and Kunnis keeping other backward castes at
bay. A demand is bound to come up that the 27 percent quota should be
broken up for each caste of the group according to population. We should
take steps now and today to avoid such eventuality.

Reservation for the SEBC’s the way it has been provided is

politicisation of castes. The constitution never intended it for castes. It
intended it for a class of people which had three common attributes: Indian
citizenship, social and educational backwardness and inadequate
representation in State services, True, most of the people in this class will be
from backward castes but they will be there not because of caste
consideration but because of the above three attributes. The class entitled for
reservation will be casteless; for entitlement to reservation would not be on
the basis of caste at all, However, once we gave up the class and extended
benefits to a bunch of castes, we are playing the cards of caste for election
purposes. The way a cry was made for inclusioin in the list of backward
castes by various castes for inclusion, it became obvious that reservation has
been politicised.

The election arithmetic is caste based. The Bahujan Samaj Party

depends upon the votebank of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. They do

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not look for votes from Sab-jan i.e. all the people. The Samajwadi party and

Janta Dal depend on OBC vote bank. They try to bring in the Muslim-votes

on their side and secure power. Reservation on caste basis consolidates the

vote banks, who would then think of ‘class’ as laid down in the Constitution?

That the approach to reservation is political is also clear from the fact that the

united Front which announced reservation for women to the extent of 33

percent in Parliament and legislatures are now not allowing even discussion

in the Parliament (August 1997) on the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal are apposing it in

unbecoming language.

A rethinking is called for. The policy of reservation has the obvious

object of ensuring upward mobility of the deprived section of the society. It

is a mockery of reservation to see sons and daughters of Ministers and

Governonrs, Ambassadors, Secretaries to Govt., Heads of Departments and

Public Undertakings taking advantage of the reservation facility. The above is

a clear example how reservation has allowed vested interests to develop and

perpetuate itself. The underlying idea behind reservation is that the moment a

member of such a group is able to shake off the stigma of extreme poverty

and social backwardness, reservation must be denied to him and others be

allowed to benefit from it. What is happening is that those who have moved

up vertically tend to cut themselves off from the parent group and even

prevent others from crossing over to their side so as to limit the competition

to as few members as possible.

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We, therefore, feel that the reservation should be restricted to the first

generation of beneficiaries but in no case more than two generations. This

would be possible when ‘family’ is taken as a unit and not die caste as

suggested earlier. The benefits would then spread out to the whole group,

politicisation will come under check; for members of diverse castes would

come up and dictates of any dominant caste would not work. The sooner we

impose this restriction, the better it would be for the society and for the

country as a whole.

^ ^ ^

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