The idea of India is fast becoming synonymous with the idea of reservation and every community, regardless of social and economic status, wants a share in the pie
When politicians run out of ideas and imagination, they fall back upon their only remaining bastion - Caste— the bread of butter of Indian politicians, especially those who thrive on identity politics. Nothing is as powerful in sowing the seeds of mistrust and hatred between its groups, alienating each from the others in an irreconcilable manner, and when the seeds of hatred flourish in all their cussedness and start enveloping the society with their squalor, it is only the politicians who reap that monstrous harvest.
In power, much of their energy and State’s resources are spent on perpetuating and strengthening these social cleavages in the pretence of uplifting the backward castes so that they can exploit them in future elections. In the process, the idea of a casteless society, the dream of our constitution makers, becomes an ever-receding mirage.
After his botched experiment with prohibition which has indisputably thwarted Bihar’s economic development by depriving the state of revenue exceeding Rs 5000 crore, while failing miserably to curb the ever-thriving smuggling and bootlegging rackets operating all over the state with impunity, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar apparently has no more ideas for the revival and resurgence of the state. With the old prophet of identity politics, Lalu Prasad Yadav, now a pale reflection of his old self, being back on the political scene after his bail, Nitish probably feels threatened, especially after his close shave in the last Assembly election.
With reduced numbers for his MLAs, the ground under his feet has already turned quite slippery. As regards the father-son duo of Lalu and Tejaswi, development of the state is the remotest thing in their minds - while the father had turned Bihar into a den of outlaws, the son would have emptied the treasury by fulfilling his promise of 10 lakh Government jobs to unemployed Bihari youth if elected. It is thus not surprising that the arch enemies of yore are now joining hands for their common political interest around castes. Along with leaders of nine other parties, they even met the Prime Minister to demand a caste-based census in Bihar. The demand is likely to be echoed by other States, for sure.
The stand of the Union Government,” as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in the Census",has already been made clear by the Government in July. Even then, Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale and BJP leader Sushil Modi have raised the same demand.The National Commission for Backward Classes, a constitutional authority, has also urged the centre to collect OBC data as part of the 2021 Census. The demand is raised at the time of every census, but independent India has never enumerated caste data except for the SCs and STs.
Extrapolating the NSSO data, in 1980, the Mandal Commission had estimated the OBC population at 52 percent which led to reservation of 27 per cent for them.This percentage remains under dispute; a recent report using primary school enrolment data from the U-DISE database which can serve as a rough proxy, given our nearly cent percent primary enrolment, suggests that the proportion of general category, OBC, SC and ST populations are 25, 45, 19 and 11 percent, respectively, with wide inter-state variations.
Various states have been demanding increases in the reservation quota citing higher percentages of backward castes in their population and several states have legislated increased quotas for them too, but the Supreme Court has stubbornly defended its nine-judge bench judgment in the Indra Sawhney case (1992) that capped the reservation at 50 percent. Since then, however, as many as nine States - Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Telangana - have passed laws breaching this cap, though these are yet to be implemented pending judicial examination or have been disallowed by the Supreme Court. Claiming that the backward castes constituted 87 percent of its population, in 1993, Tamil Nadu hadlegislated for 69 percent reservation - the highest in India - in Government jobs and higher education, and then got the Centre to place the act under the Ninth Schedule by virtue of Article 31B of the Constitution through the 76th Constitution Amendment Act of 1994, taking it beyond judicial review.However, this amendment itself is presently under judicial review; one only wonders why it has taken so many years without any verdict as yet.
In 2018, Maharashtra legislated for reservation for Marathas, becoming the state with the second highest percentage of reservation after Tamil Nadu, touching 65 percent; this was struck down earlier this year by the Supreme Court which, while refusing to buy the argument that the Marathas were ‘educationally and socially backward’, reiterated the 50 percent cap of the Indra Sawhney judgment.It was indeed absurd to treat Marathas who dominate the state's political and economic landscape as a community needing empowerment through reservation.
In a unique instance, Andhra Pradesh in 2000 reserved all seats for ST candidates for the posts of school teachers in Scheduled Areas; as expected this was also struck down by the apex court. In North Eastern India there are several States, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, for example, which have reserved upwards of 80 per cent seats in Government jobs, the constitutional validity of which has never been judicially challenged. Other States are also contemplating an increase, some on equally absurd grounds like in Maharashtra, for example, for Jats in Haryana and Patels in Gujarat. In 2019, even the Centre passed the 103rd Constitution amendment bill reserving 10 percent quota for EWS under the general category thereby breaching the 50 per cent limit of reservation. This has since been challenged before the Supreme Court where it now stands referred to a five-judge bench. The idea of India is fast becoming synonymous with the idea of reservation and every community, regardless of their social and economic status, are demanding a share in the pie.
In 2011, responding to political demands from various quarters, the UPA government conducted a full-fledged Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) at a cost of nearly Rs 5000 crore; the data were published in 2016 but excluding the caste data which has never been made public, ostensibly for fear of stirring up uncontrollable social turbulence and further polarisation of an already polarised society, besides the fear of antagonizing dominant and powerful castes that may not have sufficiently high numbers.
The caste system is arguably one of the world’s longest surviving discriminatory and exploitative social hierarchy. Merits of continued reservation to mitigate its scourge that continues to afflict our society even after seven decades of independence and jeopardise our economic progress has never been in doubt. However, the absurd levels to whichshort-sighted politicians are pushing it is dangerous with no potential benefits in sight except serving their narrow political interests.
(The writer is a former Director General of the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India. The views expressed are personal.)