Political and Economic Notes:
Reservations for EWS:
Myth called Creation of Job and Educational Opportunities
In the dying moments of winter
session of the Parliament, the
Narendra Modi government moved
124 th constitutional amendment to
reserve 10 per cent seats in higher
education and government
employment to all who are in the
‘unreserved’ category, meaning
the upper castes, Muslims and
Christians.
The speed with which the
amendment was rushed through
Lok Sabha on January 8, cleared
by Rajya Sabha on January 9,
given assent by the President on
January 12 and notified in the
gazette on January 14 matched the
spate of petitions opposing it came
up before the Supreme Court and
some High Courts. Within hours of
the Parliament passing the bill, the
first appeal was filed before the
Supreme Court by a so-called NGO
–‘Youth for Equality’. Cutting
across all the parties in the
Parliament, except three in Lok
Sabha and seven in Rajya Sabha,
all the MPs voted for the bill.
The criteria for recognising
economic backwardness as notified
by the government are: household
income less than Rs.8 lakh; owning
agricultural land below 5 hectares;
homes smaller than 1000 sq.feet;
residential plots below 109 sq.
yards in municipal areas and 209
sq. yards in non-notified municipal
areas. By these criteria 96 per cent
of Indian population comes under
reservation.
The loss of upper caste votes
in the recent assembly elections in
MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh
prompted the BJP to resort this
move to regain its lost mainstay
and sent an election time signal to
upper caste Hindus, rather than
attempting to create equal educa-
tional
and
employment
Feb, March - 2019
opportunities to all Indians. The
BJP has tried to woo the upper
castes as well as dominant
peasant castes in various regions
like Patels in Gujarat, Marathas in
Maharashtra and Kapus in AP, who
are agitating for reservations for
their community. The BJP threw a
challenge in the form of reser-
vations to EWS to its opponents.
The ruling class parties in the
opposition have knuckled and
supported the amendment except
calling it as election time
manoeuvre.
On most of the social issues
one cannot answer in simple terms
– yes or no, black or white. They
should be viewed as part of the
whole system. The reservations
provided for SC and ST by the
Indian Constitution are based on
the perception that these
communities are condemned to
poverty through discriminative and
oppressive caste system for
hundreds of years and they need
special assistance for some time
until they catch up with the
economically and socially dominant
castes and sections. Later, OBC
reservations came with the imple-
mentation of Mandal commission
though it was earlier implemented
by some state governments.
Reservations in jobs were
never implemented in the true
spirit. Only during the last two
decades some progress has been
made. Even after seven decades
of adopting the Constitution, the
avowed pledge of universal literacy
has not achieved. A little less than
half of the population is illiterate,
not to talk of the quality education
imparting skill to our children that
provides them with employment.
Overwhelming majority of SC and
ST population and a major chunk
of people belonging to unreserved
category find themselves having no
chance of advancement.
This situation – result of failure
of the successive governments at
the centre and in the states –
caused resentment and frustration
on both sides, reserved and
unreserved categories. While the
reserved categories feel that they
were denied of their rights, the
unreserved category feel the
‘others’ are taking away their
opportunities. This gave rise to
various demands like sub-
categorisation of reservations,
inclusion in the lists of SC, ST and
OBC, reservations for econo-
mically backward sections in upper
castes and so on.
The ruling class parties utilized
this situation to whip up sentiments
and perpetuate caste division in
the society in order to maintain
status quo in the existing social and
political system, that is, semi-
feudal and semi-colonial system.
Gaining political mileage and votes
is only a fall out of this wretched
game played by them. The UPA
government in 2014 notified Jats
as OBC and gave 5 per cent quota
to the community, though it was
struck down by the Supreme Court.
The BJP gave reservations to
Gujjars in Rajasthan and Gujarat.
After the assembly elections in
Maharashtra, the BJP government
provided
reservations
for
Marathas. After the enactment of
EWS reservations by the Centre,
the Chief Minister of AP announced
that his government will provide
half of the EWS reservation of 10
per cent to the Muslims. The game
goes on.
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