Statements from Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh reflect his determination to ensure that 27% of seats are reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) students in institutions of higher education. Despite growing agitation against the move, one must list the reasons why such a move was proposed in the first place. Contrary to popular perceptions, vote bank politics remains an outcome of reservation as opposed to the cause and this article seeks to highlight the same.
The reason behind the proposal for the hike in reserved categories, ostensibly, is to bring about the alleviation of OBC’s in India. While the intentions maybe noble, the Government is surely not going about the same in a very methodical fashion. For one, they have not considered the percentage of OBC’s who could benefit from such a move, since a census on their numbers and need has not been tabulated. Two, it seems the Government seems to have ignored the question of whether the implementation of an extra 27% reservation for Other Backward Castes would finally ensure their attaining educational and economic parity. Three, if the Government seeks to offset the hike in reserved categories with an increase in the number of seats in the general category, one must wonder whether, practically speaking, this increase can be met especially considering the acute shortfall of qualified teachers institutes of higher learning are already facing? With these stupefying questions and in the face of growing agitation against the proposal it seems very odd that the UPA government seems intent on pushing the hike in reservation. What specifically are the reasons guiding their ‘hand’ in this matter?
In the 2004 general elections, when the Congress Party returned to power in the face of what seemed to be formidable odds, it also received a vantage point from where to correct the party’s thus far wavering fortunes. And, as is the norm of the times, the Congress could only return to power with a coalition of parties representing the various shades, ideologies and identities of Indian polity. If one were to study the broad spectrum of Indian politics today it becomes very easy to recognize the exact identity construct of the various political parties. With linguistic, religion, caste, regional, ethnic, secular, economic bases various parties have carved a niche for themselves. This sole identity ironically seems to be lacking for the Grand Old Party of India. Thus in an attempt to broad base the Party’s traditional support base various steps were introduced to ensure the same.
Judging the recent acts of the Congress Party it becomes clear that religious minorities and the OBC’s have been identified as potential categories of the electorate that can be won over. This understanding is not restricted to Central acts but extends to the various states under Congress rule as well. Thus to woo the religious minority the Party has introduced several proposals - from proposing a head count of a particular religious minority in the Indian Army to promising sops to illegal migrants in a border state of India etc. Not having a particular party representing the minority at the national level, barring secular outfits, assisted the attempts of the Congress. As far as the backward castes were concerned the situation was a little different. Most of them already had political representation in the form of various state level parties and as a result of coalition politics at the national level as well. In order to counter this, sops were proposed for the OBC’s - in the private sector by reserving jobs and in institutes of higher studies by reserving seats thus bringing the Indian electorate to the unfortunate crossroads it seems to have reached today. Let there be no doubt that reservation in educational institutes will go hand in hand with reservation in the private sector. Hence the two will have to go in tandem so if ever one is promulgated, the other would also see the light of day, eventually.
Thus in a clever, albeit unfortunate, play of politics the Congress party seems to have recognized the identified constituencies need of the hour – that of economic and educational opportunity. Ironically despite being a progressive thought, the step in it self is extremely retrograde. What relevance would it have to reserve seats for the backward castes in institutes of higher learning when their primary and basic education has been in want? This is the most basic of arguments to counter the proposal. Moreover one does wonder if the Congress high command has actually thought out the implications of such a step. Politically speaking the Congress party can never really command the loyalty of the backward castes, even if the sops are introduced, in subsequent election cycles. Political life is short and political memory shorter still. Besides, as has already been pointed out, various state level parties already exist to counter any significant move in electorate allegiance. Moreover such a step might just alienate the middle class voter, a traditional vote base for the Congress. Would the Congress want to alienate its traditional vote base for the option of unreliable possibilities? Therefore even if reservation is guided by political gains, however short term they maybe, at the end of the day the Congress high command would need to consider if greater divisive politics is in its favour in the long run and thereby its political fortunes.
Nonetheless, as things stand as of now, these counter arguments have seemingly not been considered by the Congress. What potentially makes the situation worse is that after having taken a determined stand in favour of the proposed reservations, they cannot appear to be forced into a rethink as a result of the growing agitations. So it is fast also becoming a case of ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ for the Congress party.
Considering the statements of HRD Minister, one does expect the Government of the day to continue with a determined stand in favour of the proposals, at least for some time. What fails to be understood however is why the BJP has not moved to take advantage of the situation? Like the Congress, the BJP too has been trying to move beyond the confines of its current identity and acquire a more broad based identity but has so far been unsuccessful. Supporting the anti reservation stir would provide the BJP a positive standing amongst the urban, educated middle class youth that has been leading the anti reservation drive and has traditionally not been its primary electorate. It might also just be the opportunity the party has been seeking to move beyond its current identity construct.
At the end of the day politics means power and the current stand off on reservation holds testament to the power play that is currently being played out on the unassuming Indian electorate.
The reason behind the proposal for the hike in reserved categories, ostensibly, is to bring about the alleviation of OBC’s in India. While the intentions maybe noble, the Government is surely not going about the same in a very methodical fashion. For one, they have not considered the percentage of OBC’s who could benefit from such a move, since a census on their numbers and need has not been tabulated. Two, it seems the Government seems to have ignored the question of whether the implementation of an extra 27% reservation for Other Backward Castes would finally ensure their attaining educational and economic parity. Three, if the Government seeks to offset the hike in reserved categories with an increase in the number of seats in the general category, one must wonder whether, practically speaking, this increase can be met especially considering the acute shortfall of qualified teachers institutes of higher learning are already facing? With these stupefying questions and in the face of growing agitation against the proposal it seems very odd that the UPA government seems intent on pushing the hike in reservation. What specifically are the reasons guiding their ‘hand’ in this matter?
In the 2004 general elections, when the Congress Party returned to power in the face of what seemed to be formidable odds, it also received a vantage point from where to correct the party’s thus far wavering fortunes. And, as is the norm of the times, the Congress could only return to power with a coalition of parties representing the various shades, ideologies and identities of Indian polity. If one were to study the broad spectrum of Indian politics today it becomes very easy to recognize the exact identity construct of the various political parties. With linguistic, religion, caste, regional, ethnic, secular, economic bases various parties have carved a niche for themselves. This sole identity ironically seems to be lacking for the Grand Old Party of India. Thus in an attempt to broad base the Party’s traditional support base various steps were introduced to ensure the same.
Judging the recent acts of the Congress Party it becomes clear that religious minorities and the OBC’s have been identified as potential categories of the electorate that can be won over. This understanding is not restricted to Central acts but extends to the various states under Congress rule as well. Thus to woo the religious minority the Party has introduced several proposals - from proposing a head count of a particular religious minority in the Indian Army to promising sops to illegal migrants in a border state of India etc. Not having a particular party representing the minority at the national level, barring secular outfits, assisted the attempts of the Congress. As far as the backward castes were concerned the situation was a little different. Most of them already had political representation in the form of various state level parties and as a result of coalition politics at the national level as well. In order to counter this, sops were proposed for the OBC’s - in the private sector by reserving jobs and in institutes of higher studies by reserving seats thus bringing the Indian electorate to the unfortunate crossroads it seems to have reached today. Let there be no doubt that reservation in educational institutes will go hand in hand with reservation in the private sector. Hence the two will have to go in tandem so if ever one is promulgated, the other would also see the light of day, eventually.
Thus in a clever, albeit unfortunate, play of politics the Congress party seems to have recognized the identified constituencies need of the hour – that of economic and educational opportunity. Ironically despite being a progressive thought, the step in it self is extremely retrograde. What relevance would it have to reserve seats for the backward castes in institutes of higher learning when their primary and basic education has been in want? This is the most basic of arguments to counter the proposal. Moreover one does wonder if the Congress high command has actually thought out the implications of such a step. Politically speaking the Congress party can never really command the loyalty of the backward castes, even if the sops are introduced, in subsequent election cycles. Political life is short and political memory shorter still. Besides, as has already been pointed out, various state level parties already exist to counter any significant move in electorate allegiance. Moreover such a step might just alienate the middle class voter, a traditional vote base for the Congress. Would the Congress want to alienate its traditional vote base for the option of unreliable possibilities? Therefore even if reservation is guided by political gains, however short term they maybe, at the end of the day the Congress high command would need to consider if greater divisive politics is in its favour in the long run and thereby its political fortunes.
Nonetheless, as things stand as of now, these counter arguments have seemingly not been considered by the Congress. What potentially makes the situation worse is that after having taken a determined stand in favour of the proposed reservations, they cannot appear to be forced into a rethink as a result of the growing agitations. So it is fast also becoming a case of ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ for the Congress party.
Considering the statements of HRD Minister, one does expect the Government of the day to continue with a determined stand in favour of the proposals, at least for some time. What fails to be understood however is why the BJP has not moved to take advantage of the situation? Like the Congress, the BJP too has been trying to move beyond the confines of its current identity and acquire a more broad based identity but has so far been unsuccessful. Supporting the anti reservation stir would provide the BJP a positive standing amongst the urban, educated middle class youth that has been leading the anti reservation drive and has traditionally not been its primary electorate. It might also just be the opportunity the party has been seeking to move beyond its current identity construct.
At the end of the day politics means power and the current stand off on reservation holds testament to the power play that is currently being played out on the unassuming Indian electorate.
4 comments:
Man, this is serious stuff indeed... way to go avanti... :-)
for those poor mortals like me... please see if you can provide us a sorta abstract or teaser that would help us pick and choose what to read... there's just so much..
keep at it... keep 'em coming.. who knows... who else is reading this? U never know... One SG or MS could also read tis..
hey avanti
well written, but i have a few comments.
there seems to be a contradiction in your opening paragraph and the rest of the article.
in the beginning, one is led to believe that there IS more to the reservation theory than the vote bank politics, which is the 'perceived' cause.
but reading the rest of the article, it seems that you are convincing yourself against it, as there are NO well-meaning reasons why the congress came up with the reservation in the first place.
great read nevertheless. will read more articles soon
In unequivocal terms - I dont think that there is anything more to the issue of reservation as being currently practised by the UPA Govt over and above blatant vote bank politics. The thrust of my article is to prove just how the vote bank can be captured and cornered, after the bill is implemented thereby also providing the causal conditions to introduce it as well in the first place.
Joe - however inadvertent - I think the above would be the teaser/abstract that you had requested! :)
Just when I thought of publishing my views, I see this post covering most of my ideas. Will refrain from blogging on it as you might cry "plagiarism".
Post a Comment