Politicians have reduced reservations to a farce

Politicians have reduced reservations to a farce

The irony inherent in the decisions of the Union Cabinet on Thursday is so blatant that it could not have gone unnoticed. While clearing three newvoluntary retirement schemes for the employees of public sector undertakings, it has conferred the benefits of reservation on 90 new backward castes in 16 states. This is in addition to the 116 castes which were included in the list of backward castes in October and 126 in November last. The liberal attitude of the BJP government in granting reservation to any caste that asks for it manifested itself in Rajasthan when the Prime Minister declared Jats a caste eligible for reservation. It is believed to have helped the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections, particularly when the Congress could not honour its pre-poll promise on this score. The Uttar Pradesh government took its cue from his announcement and declared the Jats in the state a backward caste. However, the recent civic elections in Rajasthan have shown that the BJP's liberal attitude on reservation has evoked resentment among the members of the castes mentioned in the Mandal Commission report who do not approve of any addition to the list.

It is well known how the backward castes have been opposing the creamy layer concept introduced by the Supreme Court while upholding the constitutional validity of Mandal-based reservation during the Narasimha Rao regime. Needless to say, it is the creamy section among the backward classes that corners all the benefits of reservation. But to date no effective formula has been evolved to ensure that the benefits of affirmative action are availed of by the truly deserving. In all this, the transformation of the BJP is quite significant. Ten years ago, when Prime Minister V.P. Singh announced the implementation of the recommendations of the Mandal Commission report, the BJP pulled down his government -- such was its aversion to caste-based reservation. Why then does the BJP now accept every sectarian demand on reservation? One uncharitable explanation is that by extending reservation to all and sundry, it wants to render the whole thing a farce. Whatever be the case, there can be no mistaking that reservationhas already become one.

The liberal voluntary retirement schemes being introduced in PSUs indicate that the problem they are facing is one of surplus staff. Once they are privatised, like Modern Bread, there will be no scope for job reservation in them. With liberalisation, the government is withdrawing from more and more sectors. Although the absolute number of government employees has been increasing, this is against the spirit of the times when downsizing is the watchword in the government, as argued in these columns recently. With technological and other innovations, there will be lesser scope for jobs in the government sector. All this makes reservation meaningless. But then there is the danger of the protagonists of reservation demanding the extension of such a provision to non-government sectors as well. After all, Mandal had recommended that any organisation taking any assistance from public sector banks or government should be brought under the purview of reservation. Therefore, the BJP had better watch out beforeextending reservation to all and sundry.