JOIN USTaking India backward
The authors of the constitution envisaged that all citizens shall have equal opportunity to receive education and jobs.
Our politicians, whether in power or sitting in opposition, seldom think of expanding the pie or making several pies available; they only think of dividing the existing pie. They do not have the real intent and patience to multiply the number of pies. Shortcuts have dominated the political thinking for most part of the post-Independence India. Reservation for promotions in jobs are a similar shortcut to popularity and votes, or so think the Indian politicians.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party are in a hurry to score brownie points with their perceived voting blocks before the 2014 general elections. Quotas for promotions is a bright spark of an idea the ruling UPA has hit upon, in light of a heap of corruption scandals to explain and a lukewarm national economic outlook. Anything remotely connected to SC, ST, backward classes, OBCs and reserved quotas is very sacrosanct in this country.
Whether that really uplifts the downtrodden is a moot question. Rarely does one even ask such a question. Naturally, BJP and other political parties too do not want to be left behind. Everyone, with the exception of Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena has reserved their seats in the promotions quota bandwagon i.e. the Constitution 117th Amendment Bill making way for quota-based promotions for SCs & STs in government jobs.
No right thinking person would refute that there is a huge number of disadvantaged people in our country. They are disadvantaged economically and socially. Even after 65 years of India’s Independence the living conditions, which includes the social and economic conditions, have remained utterly miserable for a large section of our population. SCs and STs constitute a bulk of this pitiful lot. In many rural parts of India, there is much social discrimination and many taboos which lead to economic desolation. Reservations are only a superficial solution to these problems. As per our Constitution they were never meant to be a continuing system; they were to be reviewed five years after the first introduction. Various governments at the Centre routinely extended the quota system over all these years. Many state governments have total reservation percentages exceeding what was ruled by the Supreme Court.
However, as the reality shows, having quotas has not significantly served the real aim of uplifting the suffering millions. The original authors of the constitution envisaged that all citizens shall have equal opportunity to receive education and employment. The document also mentioned that the state shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the society and protect them from all forms of social injustice and exploitation. Politicians have taken the easy way out by equating ‘equal opportunity’ and ‘special care’ with a reservation system. Provide quotas and their job is done. They can then promote themselves as the ‘protectors’ of the downtrodden castes and communities.
If they cared
If the politicians in government really cared, they would have provided a primary and secondary education budget of several times the funds that have been allotted over the last 65 years of our freedom from the British Raj. The governments, at the Centre and the state, would have provided far more money for the basic items of living like water and food for the poorest of the poor. If the real care existed, forget the ‘special’ care as mentioned in the constitution, more than half the children below the age of five would not have been suffering from malnutrition. Various employment schemes that have been operating since six decades would have uplifted crores of the weaker sections out of hunger and poverty; this has not happened.
Just as there is a delusion of economic growth for a large fraction of the country’s population, there is another illusion being created around reservations in government jobs and now in promotions. As if one fantasy of entry level reservations was not enough, one more mirage of promotion quotas is being crafted. Politicians of all hues are vocal or silent supporters of such a smoke-screen being erected. It benefits them all. It is after all, a part of the corruption culture that has enveloped the Indian polity and society at large. It is all an aspect of the habit of ‘taking a shortcut’ that has set in.
For decades, we have seen 22.5 per cent reservations for the SC/ST and 27 per cent for the OBC. What fraction of the population of around 300 million SC/STs have made good? Ill-treatment of dalits, rapes of dalit women and other atrocities continue unabated. What they need is real ‘affirmative action’. Quotas are just a palliative being given to this hungry huge section of people. Political parties at the Centre are now adding one more sedative – the quotas in promotion.
What the promotional quota system may do is to further divide the citizens of India. Instead of phasing out the quota system by really uplifting the downtrodden dalits and others, we are adding to the scheme that gives rise to unnecessary resentment and acrimony. The arrangement has been inefficient and the politicians governing the country at different times meant that it remains so. The present lot of them is on the verge of reaffirming that once more.
What the weaker sections and all the suffering humanity of India need is real time tangible boost away from grinding poverty, terrible food scarcity, acute shortage of water, no shelter, no education, no hygiene, no sanitation, marginal healthcare and total lack of security. Instead, the political system is giving them more of the reservations and the ill-will of others.
(The writer is a former professor at IIM, Bangalore)