India ready for quota? Question merits debate

OPINION WITHOUT RESERVATIONS: SC upholds OBC quota but keeps creamy layer off it. Is it a right decision?

              

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Keywords: The Quota Question, Reservation

These were the point that got missed in the fury of the anti-reservationists. But again, the question is of political commitment. Will a Government in power review the OBC lists? A tough question, perhaps, for Jayanthi to answer. She said she was not empowered to answer that question. “We have not diluted our commitment towards a socially inclusive society. It’s all very well to talk about merit, we stand strongly by our statement to achieve that goal. Yes, SC’s ruling is a law and will be applied. This will be considered by the Cabinet,” she said.

There were 2,400 backward classes 60 years ago, today there are 4,000. Justice Ravindran says when more and more people aspire for backwardness rather than forwardness, the country stagnates. Jayanthi, however, countered that statement. “That’s exactly the point. As long as people do not fulfill the criteria of forwardness, it’s our duty to pull them,” she said.

She concluded her statement by saying that if someone thought of it as vote bank politics, then so be it. “We have to go to the people and either they will reject us or accept us,” she said.

But the moot point of argument remains the state of education – perhaps the best reflection of Government’s duality on reservation. The driopout rates among OBCs is mounting each day but the Government still wants to give them reservations in technical institutions.

“There are only 2,200 backward classes listed in the Central list compared to 3,700 in Mandal list compared to even more in state list,” he said, conveniently forgetting a study done by the Human Resource Development Ministry that says one in every 10 students does not go beyond class VIII.

But Krishnan refused to listen to the argument.

"I am not speaking for the HRD Ministry. I am speaking only for this case because I am the advisor of the HRD Ministry for this case. I know that the Solicitor General presented before the Supreme Court, the various programmes which are being run by the Government under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan etc, saying that the drop-out rate has come down. But, I agree that much more has to br done to bring down the drop-out rate for which a lot of social reforms like land reforms and land distribution and development of lands," said Krishnan.

He said that the civil society is not even ready to lift a little finger in this matter.

So as a result of this judgement, an attempt is being made to review the whole concept of "creamy layer". It's true that in state after state, a few backward castes have monopolised the benefits of reservation, and this is the layer that the court wants removed, but is this something which is really happening?