A brief autopsy of reservation conundrum by Mitra

[Guest dada_rocks]

Caste away by Court The mischief of August 7, 1990 -- when the Mandal recommendations were officially accepted - has been finally undone -- if not in full measure, at least substantially. Howls of protests and threats against the "Brahminical" Supreme Court (incidentally headed by a Dalit at present), besides voluble promises of legislative rectification will follow the Supreme Court's March 29, 2007 interim order staying 27 per cent OBC reservations in professional institutions such as IIMs, IITs, AIIMS and a host of private centres of academic excellence. The legal battle will be protracted: First, the Government will marshal all resources to argue Arjun Singh's case with vehemence when hearing resumes in August; second, even if the present Bench proceeds on the lines it has hinted at and confirms last Thursday's order, the Government may press for a review by a Constitution Bench.

Meanwhile, the ramshackle ruling alliance at the Centre will come under extreme pressure from coalition partners like Lalu Yadav and M Karunanidhi, to put the issue beyond the pale of judicial scrutiny. That, however, is easier said than done, now that the Supreme Court has pronounced that even legislation parked in the Ninth Schedule is not above review by the judiciary.

:wtg:

In many senses, the March 29 order, taken together with the observations made by the Court, is explosive. It has not only questioned the numerical basis of fixing quotas for Other Backward Castes (euphemistically called Socially and Educationally Backward Classes or SEBCs in official parlance) but also struck at the very principle of caste-based reservations for them. In a stinging indictment of India's political drift, their Lordships have rightly remarked that nowhere in the world do castes and communities queue up to profess their "backwardness" in order to derive social or economic benefit. The Court has also said that quota-raj, currently in vogue, is a by-product of India's vote bank politics. Of course political parties would respond to these observations saying it is none of the Court's business. But they have no credible reply to the query regarding the empirical basis of reserving 27 per cent seats for OBCs, since it has rightly been pointed out that the last caste census was conducted 76 years ago!

It is here that the obdurate hypocrisy of India's political class stands shamelessly exposed.

Despite frequent suggestions that a caste-based enumeration of the population has become necessary in view of the rabid casteism pursued by most political parties, politicians are unanimous that no such census need be conducted because (don't giggle), "Caste divides society"!

However, to get around this problem, the Government periodically directs the National Sample Survey (NSS) to enumerate the representation of various castes in select districts by way of a sample survey. The latest NSS result puts the percentage of OBCs at 34.1, way below the 52 per cent BP Mandal arrived at by a process of elimination backed by a most cursory, limited sampling. Mandal's logic was extraordinary. He took the 1931 Census (the last authentic caste record, as the 1941 Census was formally scrapped following reports of widespread fudging), noted the percentages of all castes including those of Muslims, picked out upper castes in quite an arbitrary manner overlooking regional diversities, and decided that the remainder consisted of OBCs. As there was no such recognised category till then, Mandal cannot be entirely faulted for producing a faulty report. The problem arose when his recommendations (thrown into the wastepaper basket by Indira Gandhi when she stormed back to power in 1980) was resurrected by her erstwhile camp follower, VP Singh, 10 years later to give a new direction to official policy and consequently Indian politics. It is a fact that nobody knows precisely which castes can be placed in the OBC basket and what are the numbers in that category.

The Indian caste system is probably the world's most complex (and yet, flexible) form of social organisation. For example, in Karnataka, Lingayats, generally considered an upper caste, are deemed to be backward in certain districts. It is common knowledge that the indigent Brahmin of Mithilanchal in North Bihar, ekes out a meagre existence often dependent on the munificence of the locally powerful Yadav -[ Coming from mithilanchal I can vouch for this] supposedly king of the OBC pack.

On a personal note, I still don't know whether a Kayasth in Bengal is upper caste or Shudra (OBC). There are conflicting judgments by different courts on the issue - one saying that Kayasths are in the upper caste basket on account of their Kshatriya origin while another verdict classifies us as Shudra. But in Bengal, Kayasths, along with Brahmins and Vaidyas, are regarded as society's upper crust. Which Ghosh, Bose, Mitra, Dutta or Guha would "queue up to profess their backwardness" and claim eligibility to reservations? Interestingly, Bengali Brahmins in Maharashtra are classified as "backward" entitling the progeny of Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar (Ganguly) to benefit from the OBC quota! In my limited understanding of the Indian social reality,

the Hindu social order makes only one distinction: Those that are part of the Chaturvarna system and those that are excluded. The four varnas, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, were classified according to professional categories. Further, there was no strict prohibition regarding mobility within the varnas. I recall my intellectual guru and legendary Editor of The Times of India, Girilal Jain, occasionally thundering, "If I am not a Brahmin, who is?" His family may have become adherents of the Jain Tirthankaras centuries ago, but Giri believed he was probably a Vaishya and under Vedic rules of mobility an intellectual of his stature would have been anointed a Brahmin in ancient times.

Interestingly, VP Singh, architect of the legitimisation of casteism in contemporary India, was beside himself with joy when pundits of Varanasi conferred the title of Rajrishi upon him in 1990, thereby categorising him as a candidate Brahmin! The varna system, however, clearly predicates that those outside it have no caste or gotra. Hence modern day Scheduled Castes or Dalits (Chandals of ancient times) were excluded from the purview of the prevailing social order. Therefore, they remained unlettered (barring a stray Valmiki, author of the Ramayana), hopelessly poor and oppressed. Without an iota of doubt, Hindus outside the varna system fully deserve affirmative action to bring them at par with the rest of the varna order.

That explains the across-the-board support for SC/ST quotas in jobs, educational institutions and legislatures, irrespective of Dalit messiah BR Ambedkar's derisive reference to reservations as a "crutch" that ought to be discarded after 10 years.

The upwardly mobile Yadav, Kurmi or Kamma, leave alone the prosperous Jat and Maratha, do not need reservations today because they are already politically dominant and economically successful. Many OBC aspirants nowadays qualify for elite services like IAS, IPS and IFS in the general category. Incidentally, one person led an education revolution in Bihar in the 1970s, opening a host of private schools and colleges - so much so that he earned the sobriquet of 'Education King". His name: Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav!

[kumble_rocks]

Re: A brief autopsy of reservation conundrum by Mitra A general question I have is can the courts legislate from the bench? :shrug:

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: A brief autopsy of reservation conundrum by Mitra court can legislate on the basis that something goes against the preamble of constittion hence not alloed.. If I am not mistaken not even 100% majority in parliament tamper with constitution's preamble

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: A brief autopsy of reservation conundrum by Mitra why creamy layer exclusion concept is must and most of all why general category people calling for it are being generous at their own expense whereas OBc people calling for abolition of it are being selfishat the expense of economically underprivilged counterparts among them As of today out of 100 seats 23 goes to SC/ST and if u ignore other quotas GC and OBCs compete for 78 seats. OBC reservation stands at 27% Now consider two cases (1) with creamy layer exclusison among obc quota and (2) another with creamy layer inclusion in obc quota. Another assumption and safe one is that x% ,no matter how low or high that is, of obc manage to get seats in GC without crutch of reservation. Case (1): here x obcs will be competeing with gc nadidates and will becomes successful but their ranking will be decided along with general category so may not be able to get discipline of their choice in engg or medical colleges but here they do make life little difficult for gc candidates. OTOH real unprivileged obcs students will not have to compete with privileged obcs and thereby it gets easier for them to succeed. Mind you Gc people are asking for this at their own detriment because they now will have to compete with these privileged people from obc category. Case (2): here the x obc candidates who has been successful een without reservation goes through reservation channels hence makes sure he not only becomes successful but also gets higher ranking and gets the disciline of his choice but the question is at whose cost answer is obvious: unprvileged folks among them. see in this case Gc students will breathe little eay because those potential x number of competetitor from obcs are out of the scene so had GC people been selfish they too should have been shouting for inclusion of creamy layer obcs among reservation quota. it goes without saying privileged class among obcs is being outrightly selfish by demanding their inclusion . PS: I am sure GC people don't know the stupidity from selfishness perspective of the demand for excluding creamy layer from reservation bracket. had they thought about it they won't have been crying wolf with gusto. be informed it's in us general category people's interest that creamy layer be included in that 275 category. of course this doesn't make sense in terms of social jstice but if u are watchign ur own back then support this cause of obc creamy layers. :wtg: ********************************** This number game aside if u look at things in larger perspective then the question arises why any affirmative action program is run? It's for enabling the under-privileged and unprivileged class to come at the same footing as the general class and thereby being able to compete andbe counted. In case of reservation the end goal is to help provide economic justice this may or may not entail social justice. Particualrly those why are clamouring for inclusion of creamy layer on the polemics of they are still being discrimnated against socially despite being economically uplifted should ask themselves a question. So econmic development has not made sure social parity so what makes u think the continuation of this is going to change that in future. If u are looking for social justice then reservation is not the tool for sure; if and that's big if one buys that economic development doesnt entail end of social discrimination. Some other program of social-justice senstitization needs to be brought. I for one do not buy this but that's my opinion: economic well beingin my view always erodes social boundaries. Reservation is for economic justice social justice if ti comes by it is bonus. So now how do u measure wheter someone has benefited from reservation program or not? Obviously econmic indicators is the key here. If u advocate the continuation of this reservation even when an individual has been econmically enabled and thereby keep cornering all the doles generations after generations then how are you going to provide justice to the under-privileged folks among any class. And if u claim that reservatios doles don't empower them then what was the need for this program in first place. In case of SC/ST reservation still so many seats go unclaimed so obviously there is a need for empowering then at lower level by bringing some kind of doles in primary and secondary educations. So far this problme has not occurred in OBC reservations in UPSC results it has been seen there hardly is any difference in average marks and its standard deviations between students who pass in obc reserved category and in general category. There is no doubt whatsoever that OBC reservation in general and creamy layer inclusion in particular is nopthing but a vote-garnering tool social-justice is not what drives this reservation howl.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: A brief autopsy of reservation conundrum by Mitra Good news court has thwarted yet another attempt of United psec alliance..

[kumble_rocks]

Re: A brief autopsy of reservation conundrum by Mitra

court can legislate on the basis that something goes against the preamble of constittion hence not alloed.. If I am not mistaken not even 100% majority in parliament tamper with constitution's preamble

Jesus, Anything can be done in India . looks like constitution means nothing to the politicians . Remember the Shah Bano case where the Supreme court was overruled by the Congress Party simply because they were the majority. Even the US , constitution can be codified , remember the Bush proposal for ban on Gay Marriage through constitutional amendment.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: A brief autopsy of reservation conundrum by Mitra parliament gives go ahead for admisison today.......let us see what happens next... in last 60 years of reservation more and more caste and communities one by one have come under the reservation umbrella .. wonder what this means for reservaion as a social justice tool. :lmao: