On 7th January 2019, the Indian Union Cabinet approved 10 percent reservation for general category, which will be treated separately from the existing reservation. If we leave aside the rhetoric around the reservation, the fact is that it is often the last resort in Indian politics. As & when the government proposes it around election time, it is often a sign of desperation for votes. It’s a familiar script that has been written many times before: in the year 1996, for instance, when the government sought to extend the Scheduled Caste (SC) status to SC converts to Christianity, and in the year 2014 when the government notified Jats under Other Backward Class (OBC) in nine states. Nevertheless, it is another matter that after the elections, such proposals of extending the reservation to those who don’t have it are generally either put on the back burner or are struck down by courts. The surprising speed with which current government’s proposal to provide 10 percent reservation for the ‘economically weak’ of the upper castes passed test of both houses of parliament has not only surprised many, it has also led to several questions being asked about the government’s motive behind the move, legal challenge it is likely to face and logical inconsistencies it suffers.
Given the sheer size of the population, reservation bill seeks to cover, and its passage in parliament just after half a day’s debate seems less about economic justice for financial backward and more about electoral politics. As every time reservation policy has been used as an electoral weapon, it has really proved to be a treacherous terrain and had severe consequences.
Just a day after the reservation bill was passed in RajyaSabha, it has already been challenged in public interest litigation before Supreme Court by an NGO. Legal aspects apart, there is not at all any clarity on how the eligibility criteria for ‘economic weakness’ has been made up, the cap on annual family income of Rs 8 lakh per year, the agriculture land ownership of 5 acres and the area of the house below 1,000 sq ft. These criteria are very liberal that they seem to cover approximately 95 percent of Indians not covered by existing reservations.
In absence of data on the number of poor people in India in the upper castes, the government seems to have no idea exactly on how many economically weaker people are going to reap the benefit from the 10 percent quota. As India is a developing country with a large middle class. India is also the new emerging economic powerhouse. But according to the new definition of ‘economic backwardness’ almost the whole of India economically backward.
This very contradiction may lead to a new demand of the income criteria be reduced to be brought on par with income tax exemption limit, so the real poor and needy people are actually benefited from this 10 percent quota. Politically, reservation is a potent tool. But still, where are the government jobs to employ millions of jobless youth? It appears that BJP has really played the reservation card quite well. What remains to be seen, is whether or not people will see it as an election stunt that may not exactly benefit them eventually.
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