Sir — The judiciary has yet again corrected a wrong decision by the executive. It has struck down the UPA regime’s decision (later backed by the NDA Government) to include the politically and economically powerful Jat community in the list of OBCs. The court said the decision was based on ‘outdated data’ and amounted to ‘retrograde governance’. This is an indictment of vote-bank politics which has undermined the rationale behind reservations and affirmative action.
The NDA’s stance is illustrative of how successors are saddled with the bad decisions of earlier Governments. Such politics has weakened the very purpose of reservations. Far from helping the discriminated groups find their feet, these ill-thought out decisions by Governments have effectively reduced affirmative action to a race between competing castes and communities.