JOIN USQuota demands unjust, untenable
Even as ‘forward’ communities like Vokkaligas and Lingayats are clamouring for a larger pie of reservations in Karnataka, it has emerged that less than 20 of the backward castes have found space in politics, leaving hundreds of communities without elected representatives of their own. While the politically and socially empowered Vokkaligas and Lingayats, besides Muslims, are categorised as Other Backward Classes (OBC), only 156 of the 805 backward castes have found representation in local body elections since 1996. These castes fall within Category A and B of the OBC quota. This is one of the findings of the Justice K Bhaktavatsala Commission which was set up to study the political representation of backward classes. It only points to how the powerful communities among the OBCs dominate the election scene, while the smaller and less influential ones continue to be marginalised. Some experts have suggested that rotation in reservations should be introduced so that the unrepresented backward castes find at least a toehold in the political apparatus. It would thus be wise for the state government to study how this can be achieved. Merely increasing the percentage of reservations, as it has just done, will at best help strengthen communities that are already well-entrenched in society. It will not further the cause of the most deserving.
With Assembly elections around the corner, major communities have upped the ante, with politicians and religious heads jumping into the bandwagon. The Vokkaliga community has set January 23 as the deadline for the government to increase its quota from 4 per cent to 12 per cent in the OBC reservation matrix. Leaders have demanded that all sub-castes also be included in the reservation so that the entire community can claim various benefits. The Panchamasalis, a powerful sub-sect of Lingayats, are demanding that they be moved from Category 3B to 2A, which will enable the community to corner a larger share of reservations.
The origin of reservation was the caste-based discrimination and the practice of untouchability within the Hindu community which led to the social, political and economic ostracisation of certain sections for centuries. It is not a poverty alleviation programme, for which there are many other schemes, but an affirmative action of not just providing jobs but also ensuring representation and participation in decision-making. The dominant communities which are now fighting the quota battle have not been subjected to social boycotts or other such forms of discrimination faced by SC/ST and backward castes. Acquiescing to their demands will reinstate the age-old hegemony of the upper castes over the lower and thereby defeat the very purpose of reservations, which is to correct this historical injustice.