Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Reservations should be based on economic and not caste grounds' that was published in Newsband

Reservations should be based on economic and not caste grounds

The erosion in upper caste votes in the recent Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, has led the BJP government to come up with ‘10% reservation for upper caste’ idea to try and recover this traditional vote base. It has sought to provide a 10% quota for economically weaker sections in public employment and educational institutions. This is an election-time signal to upper castes that justice is being done to them too.

The 124th Constitution Amendment Bill will have to be passed by two-thirds of the MPs. To win the approval of both the houses will be a challenge. It is doubtful if it will stand judicial scrutiny. Why do socially and educationally backward people who are rich enough need reservation facility. They can fetch for themselves social and educational justice with the money they have. They don’t need reservation benefit for that.   

There are no clear routes to achieve social equality. Affirmative action is essential for a society to tap on to the skills of the less fortunate members of the society to enhance the rate of progress. Unfortunately it can be misused. And India is a glaring example.

Someone has to take the courage to scrap the whole mess of reservations based on birth and follow an economic model where the poorer sections of the society can achieve parity with the rest.

If the reservation is based on the Social and Educational backwardness, why then there is reservation for employment in Government services? Historical wrongs can never be corrected. How can we take revenge on the generation who are not responsible for the historical wrongs? In keeping out the deserving candidates out, we can see the deterioration in the public services.

There is a significant number of people who belong to that 10% given the present criteria. One would need 25% to accommodate that many people whose family income lingers below 8lakhs. Supreme Court should not hesitate to sneak in this 10% into the other 50%.

Some are of the opinion that the Bill proposed by BJP led NDA government to provide a 10% quota for economically weaker sections in public employment and educational institutions more is an election-time signal to upper castes than a genuine attempt to revisit social justice policy. But if for political benefits, Rajiv Gandhi government could pass an act to rescind a Supreme Court decision in Shah Bano case, why can’t BJP govt. propose a bill for job reservation, etc for the economically backward among the higher castes?

This is a step in the right direction. As time passes and the stigma of caste pales, economic backwardness would be the sole criterion for reservations. Let's give it another 20 years and all reservations will become uniform and based on economic backwardness.

Reservation based out of caste and creed was installed in our constitution because there was true injustice to the socially weaker sections of people. The motive of the constitution drafters was to use the reservation as a key to uplift the socially weaker groups in terms of their education and economic status so that they would earn a respectable position in the society. As a result of it, now we see a judge or an IAS from scheduled castes who is earning much respect and accolade from the society. So the purpose of reservation has already been delivered to those people and so it would be undue to carry forward the reservation benefits to their career progress or to their Kith and kin as they have sufficient economic mass to look after themselves without the need for reservation which they are used to.

Therefore, it is necessary to shift from social and education status to economic status and it is the duty of lawmakers to amend the necessary changes.

The current reservations for SC/ST/OBC has already dampened the competitiveness based on merit. Some may find competition on merit unfavorable for those classes or caste. That's where government should come in. Make the starting point equal and don't provide different tracks to race.

Thus the government is right even if it is based on election time. The economically backward class is suffering a lot as the SC &ST. They too need to be considered. Instead of giving importance to social backwardness, support economically backward. Then only India can develop.

This move by Central Government Is a positive move, and it is welcome. This gives an opportunity to economically weak general category to come out of social and educational backwardness imposed on them by the reservation regime of last 70 years.