Social equality or social disaster?

SC/ST Promotions:

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A diversion from Coalgate?

PM plays quota card in govt promotions to trump Coalgate Govt using quota bill to divert attention from Coalgate: BJP UPA allies SP and BSP go to war over quota bill NDA, UPA are responsible for not passing quota bill: Mayawati 05 07 08 10

A bad, bad idea?

Why quotas for promotions are a bad, bad idea SC/ST quotas in promotions, and the coming caste wars Quotas in promotions: No party is willing to say no Why SC/ST promotions quota puts India on the road to disaster Maya makes a fool of everybody, including herself 13 16 18 20 22

Why a promotions quota could work

Reservations have united India better When quota champions speak the upper caste language SC/ST quota in promotions: The reality of the core constituency 25 26 28

What do you think?

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A diversion from Coalgate?

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govt promotions to trump Coalgate

Under pressure over the coal blocks scam, the Manmohan Singh government has opted for a diversionary tactic by approving quotas in promotions
Sanjay Singh, Sep 4, 2012 ven as the coal blocks controversy (Coalgate) refuses to die out, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the draft for a Constitutional amendment bill to give reservation in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Cabinet, which usually meets on Thursdays, met on Tuesday in Parliament House and cleared the draft. It is indicative of the governments sense of urgency and purpose. Also, while the monsoon session of Parliament has

PM plays quota card in

virtually been washed out (it will formally close on Friday), the government obviously wants to be seen as being sincere in promoting the cause of Dalits and tribals. It is likely that the Constitutional Amendment Bill for amending the relevant provisions in Article 16 for the fifth time will be introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday amid protests by the BJP on Coalgate. The Samajwadi Party (SP) was quick to blast the UPA government for this move. Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav termed it as a diversionary
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tactic by the government when it was facing political heat on Coalgate. The Cabinet decision in this regard is wrong. This is a ploy by the government to divert attention from the coal scam. Their idea is to fool the people, he said. The SP has been consistently opposed to it. The Samajwadi Party was the only one to oppose the idea at an all-party meet convened by the Prime Minister last month on the subject. It maintains that if quotas were to be given to Dalits and tribals in promotion, why not to OBCs (Other Backward Castes) and Muslims, the two social and religious communities that form the base of SPs strength. Tuesdays Cabinet decision may sour SPs relations with the Congress since it reveals a tilt towards its rival, Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party. The Cabinet stamp over quotas in promotions made Bahujan Samaj Party leaders (BSP) jubilant. Party chief Mayawati claimed exclusive credit and went on an overdrive to garner support. She met two top BJP leaders, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, in Parliament House, urging them to put the brakes on their Coalgate protests to allow the quota bill to be passed. Given the social and political sensitivity on the quota issue, BJP leaders remained guarded in their response. They told Mayawati that they would speak to other leaders in the party and then formulate their response. The BJP does not want to dilute its agenda on Coalgate and continue targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. At the same time it does not want to do or say anything that might be called an antiDalit or anti-tribal move. The BSP chief was not satisfied yet. She wanted

the bill to somehow be passed in the remaining three days of this session. She put the onus on the UPA government. If they dont do it then it would be clear that Congress was Nagnath and BJP was Sanpnath (the two synonyms for snake). Once she achieved the goal of reservation in promotions for SC/STs, she said she would not mind the quota to be extended to Other Backward Castes, religious minorities and economically weaker sections among the Upper Castes. Its a politically tricky issue that most mainstream political parties want to avoid. But dictated by the compulsions of vote-bank politics, and with assembly elections due in seven important states over the next 12 months, senior leaders of these political parties either remain silent or support the quota proposal. A senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said the proposal for this bill must not be supported. Quota in promotion was not justified. More so because its long-term implications are unhealthy both for administration and governance. But that certainly could not be their public view, he said. Mayawati has been at the forefront asking for a constitutional amendment. The problem arose after the Supreme Court, on 27 April, in a case involving the UP Power Corporation Ltd, struck down a provision for reservation in promotions to SCs and STs in UP. The Prime Minister made his intentions clear in last months all-party meet convened to discuss the issue. He had asked the parties to provide valuable suggestions so that a legally sustainable solution may be arrived at.

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Govt using quota bill to

divert attention from Coalgate: BJP
BJP today accused the Government of bringing the Bill providing for quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in government jobs to divert attention from Coalgate.
PTI, Sep 5, 2012

ew Delhi: BJP today accused the Government of bringing the Bill providing for quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in government jobs to divert attention from Coalgate. BJP leaders insisted that the party has always stood for social justice and espoused the cause of SCs/STs and the most backward and that no section of the party was opposed to the Bill.

BJP sources said government brought the Bill in a hurried manner without discussing it in the Business Advisory Committee meeting of the Rajya Sabha though all parties, barring SP, had pledged their support to it. The main Opposition also questioned the motive behind calling an unscheduled Cabinet meeting at short notice yesterday just to clear this Bill. This was also done on a day when the CBI was conducting raids in coal block allocation anomalies and Congress MP Vijay Darda was one of those who were raided, a BJP leader said.

The manner in which the Bill seeking a constitutional amendment for reservation in promotions for SC/ST was brought shows that the government is using it as a diversionary tactic. This is a clear ploy of diversion from the fight against corruption, BJP Chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

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UPA allies SP and BSP

go to war over quota bill
The Congress managed to introduce the bill to ensure quotas in promotions in the Rajya Sabha, but two of its big allies are at war now
Sanjay Singh, Sep 5, 2012 he UPA government on Wednesday played its quota card to overshadow the BJPs unyielding stance on the allocation of coal blocks (a.k.a. Coalgate), but in the process it set two of its own allies against each other. The government succeeded in introducing a constitution amendment bill to ensure quotas for SC/STs in promotions in the Rajya Sabha, but the two parties that are supporting the UPA from the outsideMulayam Singhs Samajwadi Party and Mayawatis BSPwere at each others throats. The UPA needs the support of both the SP and the BSP to survive the next 18 months to May 2014, when the next general elections are due.

immediately. An angry Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav came out and declared that his party will go to the public on this issue and the Congress will have to pay a heavy price for it. He termed the bill as unconstitutional. Slogan-shouting Samajwadi Party members had trooped to the well of the House, to prevent the introduction and passage of the Bill. With its vociferous opposition, the party hopes to find support not just from its two traditional social constituents, OBCs and Muslims, but also from the Upper Castes. Ironically, the UPA governments move did not entirely please the Bahujan Samaj Party, the main protagonist of this quota bill. It was at BSP chief Mayawatis behest that the government came up with the present bill in doublequick time. The bill essentially seeks to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling barring reservation in promotions. While Mayawati claimed sole credit for the bill, she blasted the Congress for delaying the bill during the budget session and bringing it only after Coalgate exploded in monsoon session. Despite our repeated pleas, the Congress did not bring the bill in the previous budget session because they wanted to have their President and Vice-President elected. Then, they could not afford the displeasure of any other political party. The ruling UPAs self-interest overrode other considerations, Mayawati said. She also vented her ire against the BJP. More so, because the main opposition party refused to budge from its stand on blocking parliament over Coalgate even after she made a rare gesture of meeting the two leaders of the Opposition
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As the bill was introduced in the din, unprecedented scenes of fisticuffs between Samajwadi MP Naresh Agarwal and Bahujan Samaj Partys Avtar Singh were witnessed. Proceedings in the Upper House have generally been more sober in the past. The political fallout of the Congress move to introduce the bill found its reflection almost

Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley in their offices. She requested them to temporarily keep their demand for the resignation of the PM and the cancellation of coal blocks in abeyance till the quota bill was passed. The BJPs behaviour is condemnable. It did not heed to my request because it is dreaming of forming a government after the next parliamentary elections, she said. Mayawatis barbs were swiftly countered by the BJP. The partys deputy leader in the Upper House and chief spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad, sarcastically said that Our appeal to Mayawati is that she should at least once stand with us in the fight against corruption. She has remained silent on corruption in Commonwealth games, in 2G and now also she is silent on UPAs corruption in the coal scam. We will not allow the governments plan to sidetrack the fight against corruption. He also took a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on an article published in the Washington Post headlined Indias Silent Prime Minister becomes Tragic Figure. The quota bill was moved in the Rajya Sabha for two strategic reasons. Bills passed in the Rajya Sabha do not lapse since the Upper House is a permanent body unlike the Lok Sabha. Moreover, the Samajwadi Party, which is openly opposed to it, has much just nine members in the Rajya Sabha as compared to 22 in the Lok Sabha. The government will now try to introduce the bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. Given the scuffle between the SP and BSP in the Upper House today, the Lok Sabha is all set to see a greater amount of ruckus when the bill comes there. The main opposition party seems to be happy playing its card. After all, it is very rare to see both Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party come knocking at its door for support. Following Mayawatis meeting with Sushma Swaraj and Jaitley, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav spoke to Jaitley to stall quota bill. The constitutional amendment bill seeks to replace Article 16(4A), which enables the state to provide promotion quotas for SC/STs, with

a new formulation that would render irrelevant the need to prove backwardness and inadequate share in services. It seeks to delete two words inadequate representation from the said article in the Constitution. The revised article, cleared by the Cabinet, reads: Notwithstanding anything contained elsewhere in the Constitution, the SCs and STs notified under Articles 341 and 342 shall be deemed to be backward and nothing in this article, or in article 335, shall prevent the state from making any provision for reservation in matters of promotions, with consequential seniority, to any class or classes of posts in the services under the state in favour of SC/STs to the extent of the percentage of reservation provided to SC/ STs in the services of the state. The amended 16 (4A) would come into force from 17 June 1995, to ensure that promotions effected in the past remained unaffected by the SC order in the Nagaraj case of November 2006 as well as another ruling in April this year. The ruling set out the need for states to justify promotion quotas by evidence that SC/STs were inadequately represented and that the beneficiaries were backward. Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal had justified plans for a quick vote without discussion, saying the house needs to consider just a four-line amendment and that the bill need not go to a standing committee. A constitution amendment bill cannot be passed amidst pandemonium in the house. The provisions under the constitution require that such a bill should have the support of members who are not less than half the strength of a house and two-thirds of those present and voting. For voting to be done, the house needs to be in order all members on their seats and with a sincere intent to participate in voting. On Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha chairman tried to get the bill passed, but amidst the general din, it could not be taken up for voting.

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not passing quota bill: Mayawati

The BSP leader has said that both the BJP and Congress had attempted to protect their political self interests instead of passing the bill.
PTI, Sep 5, 2012

NDA, UPA are responsible for

ew Delhi: BSP today blamed both UPA and NDA for the delay in passing the bill providing for reservation to SCs and STs in promotions in government jobs. Though the Bill relating to SC/ST promotion was introduced, it has not been passed yet and for this both Congress and its allies and BJP and its allies are responsible, BSP chief Mayawati told reporters outside Parliament. The Constitution Amendment Bill relating to reservation for promotion of SC/ST employees was introduced in Rajya

Sabha amid din. The BSP leader has blamed all major parties for preventing the bill from being passed. PTI I am happy that the Bill was introduced. But the way the House is being disrupted, it looks that it would not be possible to pass the Bill, she said. Criticising the BJP for not supporting the Bill, she said, We strongly condemn the stand taken by the BJP. As far as coal block allocation is concerned, it is also an important matter. But
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the reservation for SC/ST employees is also equally important. She said she had appealed the BJP to support the Bill. Because this is an issue concerning the entire country, she said. Taking on the UPA, she said, Congress has vested political interest in delaying in bringing the Bill. It should have come in the last session. But they wanted to have their candidates win the President and Vice-President elections and for this they did not want to annoy any party. Mayawati said there is no difference between Congress and BJP and their allies as far as their attitude towards the SC/ST promotion Bill is concerned. Both parties (Congress and BJP) for their vested political interest did not push the Bill, she said. They delayed the Bill and they will pay for it in the next elections and SC/ST people will not tolerate this, she said. Asked what was their political interest, she said, Their (BJPs) calculation is that the House would not function and they would be able to form the government in 2014. They are dream-

ing of forming government in the next elections. Had they allowed voting, the Bill would have been passed toady. Even if they had allowed only two and half hours in the House for the Bill, it would have been passed. But they are not interested about SC/ST employees, she said. For Congress, she said, their interest was to have their nominees in the post of President and Vice-President. Congress and its allies are also equally responsible as they prolonged the issue for long otherwise it would have been passed in the last session, she said. The BSP supremo said BJP and its allies and Congress and its allies kept their political interest above others and did not support the Bill. The SC/ST promotion issue was secondary for them, she said. When it was pointed out that BSP is supporting the UPA, she said, We are not part of the government. We are supporting the UPA to weaken the communal forces in the country.

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A bad, bad idea?

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Why quotas for promotions

are a bad, bad idea

Sixty years after promising job reservations, we are extending this bad idea even further to job promotions. Its time to abandon it.
R Jagannathan, Aug 23, 2012 to dismiss my arguments for that reason, please dont read any further.

ts easy to dismiss any argument against caste-based reservations on the ground that it comes largely from the upper castes. But this is an illiberal stand, for an argument should stand on its own and not depend on who is saying it. One could use the same logic to say reservations are supported only by its prime beneficiaries and hence suspect by definition.

Now, with the UPA government planning to introduce caste-based promotions in government services, it is time to re-examine all the arguments again. But let me plead guilty upfront to being an upper caste writer though I deny being overly caste-conscious. If you want

In the kind of first-past-the-post and fractious political system we have built, bad ideas have a way of expanding beyond their original intent. Since elections are won by tiny margins of votes, no party wants to anger any caste group, howsoever small. This is why barring the Samajwadi Party which is gung-ho about reservations in general no one was willing to oppose castebased promotions when the PM called an allparty meeting to discuss the issue. Caste-based reservations are an idea whose
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time has gone. Sixty years was long enough to prove its efficacy or lack of it. But one can be certain it will remain forever. We started with Ambedkars promise that Dalits need it for only 10 years, but have found various excuses to extend it forever, and for all kinds of groups, and for all kinds of reasons. From SC/STs, we now have reservations extended to OBCs, Muslims, and even economically backward upper castes. Worse, we are not even willing to ask tough questions of the ideas backers (read here). This is nothing but incentivising backwardness. Centuries after some backward castes abandoned Hinduism for Islam and Christianity, the latter have not found nirvana. Now they want reservations. Ambedkar called for the annihilation of caste. What we have erected instead is a complete political and institutional support system for the regeneration of casteism. Indian secularism is supposed to root out discrimination on the basis of religion, but when it comes to caste another form of communalism we water its roots and apply fertiliser. Today, the only forces working against caste are urbanisation (which is erasing caste consciousness in the metros) and the market economy (where talent is what matters, not your castemark). Politics is helping and hindering the erasure of caste: it is helping, because in the race to win seats, different castes end their unwillingness to sup with other castes by banding together to aggregate votes; its also hindering, because castes become vote-banks that also emphasise stronger caste identity consciousness. Coming back to issue of caste-based promotions in government services, our starting point, lets see where the arguments are coming from. The main reason adduced for giving promotions on a caste basis is that there are very few SC/ ST candidates in the higher echelons of government. This is why Mayawati introduced a law in Uttar Pradesh to ensure this, but it was struck down last April by the Supreme Court on the ground that it was ultra vires of the constitution. While some constitutional amendments after the Indira Sawhney judgment (which declared this ultra vires) provided for reservations

in promotion, the Supreme Court said this could not be done unless a state could demonstrate that a particular caste was backward and grossly under-represented in a service. This should normally have been easy to prove, but our politicians do not even want to provide even data to support their cause. So, clearly, this is not about giving SC/STs a helping hand against discrimination, but a political ploy to further complicate the reservations issue. Mayawati wants this small caveat squashed through a constitutional amendment that guarantees reservations in promotions with no riders. The rest of the political class, with Dalit vote-bank politics in mind, is willy-nilly acquiescing in this gameplan. In any case, the question really is this: why are the SC/STs under-represented in central and state services despite 60 years of reservations? The answer is counter-intuitive. Government jobs usually go by seniority upto a point, and then by merit. The reason why so few Dalits are up there near the top is that their average age of entry is around 29-31, when other candidates enter in the range of 24-26. Little wonder they lose on the seniority criteria. The solution is clearly not reservations in promotion, but lowering the age of entry of SC/ ST candidates in the administrative services. What the government really needs to do is focus on getting younger Dalits to enter the services through quotas, whether by giving them better mentors, or spotting them earlier, or financing better for pre-test coaching, or some other means. The second argument pro-reservationists use is that the merit claim of the upper castes is bogus. This is both right and wrong. It is a good point to make but also beside the point. In competitive exams like the IIMs CAT or the IITs JEE, what is being tested is a certain kind of narrow intelligence, and no less a person than Infosys ex-chairman NR Narayana Murthy has criticised the quality of students the IITs are now getting via the coaching classes route. It is also a moot point whether maxing CAT makes you fit to be a manager after being processed through an IIM. SC/STs, with no resources to
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attend coaching classes, clearly dont face a level field here. But what is the real argument here? One, that merit may be wrongly defined, and that, gaming the system by attending coaching classes is not the same as merit, for which SC/STs should be excluded. Nobody is saying that merit is not important; just that what is now considered merit may not be real merit. There is no substitute for competence. We can always redefine what constitutes merit, and use other yardsticks to avoid this kind of bias against Dalit candidates. But the argument for promotions, and reservations based on caste, and not merit, is clearly without merit. A third argument is to say, see, it already works. In TV shows, we often find Dalits saying that they would never have made it without reservations. The case of Tamil Nadu (where reservations now are close to 69 percent, despite a Supreme Court order capping it at 49 percent) will also be trotted out. See, here is a state making progress due to reservations. Of course, if you do give me a job, I will say it works for me. Very few interviews are conducted with Dalits who made it even without reservations. This is a selection bias in the sample which talks of reservations. I doubt if any serious experimenter would accept this logic. The only way one can prove that quotas work better than no quotas is by comparing two states which undertake opposite policies one through reservations, and another through mere voluntary affirmative action coupled with growth-oriented, employmentgenerating policies that benefit everybody. So when anyone in India says reservations have worked, the answer is that they have no proof. We know a medicine works only when we can show a placebo given to another control group does not work. If the placebo works as well, then the medicine is worthless.

So there is no compelling reason to claim that reservations work for we dont have a placebo case where there was no reservation, and the system worked just as well, or even better. I would conclude thus: It is time to abandon quotas and substitute it with a time-bound affirmative action programme. To give Dalits or OBCs or even Muslims the opportunities that they are justly entitled to, we need to create alternative programmes that allow states, government bodies or even private organisations to do it differently. Rather than embedding a proviso in the constitution that ensures reservations in promotions, what we need is a constitutional amendment that will give any state or institution currently subject to reservations a 10-year window in which to try out alternate affirmative ideas and plans, subject to periodic reviews. At the end of 10 years, if the plan is a flop, the amendment can be made to automatically lapse and compulsory reservations mandated instead. It is time for India to take the road not taken to help the classes that have been most discriminated against. The worst baggage our Dalits carry is the stamp of mediocrity writ large on their foreheads all their lives, thanks to mindless quotas. If Ambedkar could do it without reservation, it is downright insulting to argue that all his followers are so incapable that they deserve reservations. Indians need to have the courage to admit that quotas may be mere placebos they are not the cure for social backwardness.

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SC/ST quotas in promotions, and the coming caste wars

The political atmospherics over quotas in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes bears an eerie echo of post-Mandal politics. This wont end nicely.
Venky Vembu, Sep 6, 2012 f there were any doubts that the proposed Constitutional amendment to remove legal obstacles to the provision of quotas in promotions for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will drag the debate down to the lowest common denominator of caste-based identity politics, what we witnessed in Parliament on Wednesday should remove them.

its inhibitions about the unconstitutionality of the provision if, for instance, the provision for quotas in promotion were not restricted to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes alone, but extended to the Other Backward Classes as well. DMK president M Karunanidhi, who has elevated casteist politics to a high art, too backs the Samajwadi Partys stand, and wants the quotas in promotions to be extended to Other Backward Classes as identified by the Mandal Commission. And suddenly, the Congress, which initiated this constitutional amendment provision in the hope of harvesting political benefits in the guise of advancing social justice is caught in the crossfire of the identity politics that characterises Uttar Pradesh, between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, both of which notionally support the UPA government from the outside. That disquiet over being at the risk of falling between two stools was manifest in Parliament on Wednesday, when the Congress treasury benches barring the Dalit MPs in the Congress did not rise to challenge the Samajwadi Partys objections to the constitutional amendment bill that its own Minister, V Narayanaswamy, introduced in the Rajya Sabha. In effect, the caste-based tensions are coming to the surface because the proposed measure is seen as pitting the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes against Other Backward Classes in the most cynical fashion. The clamour for reservations within government is increasingly being
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The pushing and shoving between Samjawadi Party MP Naresh Aggarwal and Bahujan Samaj Party MP Avtar Singh Karampuri is merely a trailer, as they say. The real picture will unfold only now. The physical jostling is only a metaphor for the larger scramble in the political domain as each of these parties and others too seek to advance the interests of their core constituencies. Although the Samjawadi Partys objection to the constitutional amendment proposal is voiced on the ground that the provision is unconstitutional, the real objection lies elsewhere, and is unconnected with any high-minded principle. The Samajwadi Party will be persuaded to give up

seen as a zero-sum game, where a concession to one is seen as a loss to another. Of course, if history is any precedent, parties across the spectrum will find a way ahead by extending the quote in promotions benefit to Other Backward Classes too either now or at a later date. But that will only trigger off another round of competitive casteism, because once all lower castes and Scheduled Castes become entitled to the same benefits, they now have to seen to be advancing the case of their constituencies relative to other sub-castes as well. This is entirely in keeping with the way the discourse over reservations has evolved over the decades. Introduced as an exception to one segment of the population that had legitimate claims to having been socially discriminated against, it has become the rule, where even groups that dont quite deserve the benefit (since they never faced social discrimination) such as Jats in Rajasthan have begun to qualify for it. At every successive stage, the provisions for reservations have been so debased as to take them farther and farther away from the original intent of providing an exceptional, time-bound benefit to a small constituency of socially backward people. And a provision that was intended as merely an enabling instrument has perversely gone on to become a right, to be claimed by ever widening circles of caste groups. When the Mandal Commission recommendations, under which reservations were extended to Other Backward Classes, were introduced in 1989-90, the opposition came principally from upper caste groups. At least some of the opposition came from genuine concerns that the Mandal Commissions methodology for arriving

at its classification of other backward classes was flawed. For instance, the then Left Front government in West Bengal found it could not trace some of the castes that the Mandal Commission had listed: the same was the case in Odisha. Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik at that time pointed out that some 20-plus castes that had been listed by the Mandal Commission as belonging to the OBCs were already recognised as Scheduled Castes, and that some of the surnames that the Commission had listed as identifying lower castes were used by upper castes as well. Yet, the attempt then and now has been to project all opposition to the flawed recommendations of the Mandal Commission as arising from upper caste elitisim. The hollowness of that claim is increasingly becoming manifest, with the tussle now principally between the SCs/STs and Other Backward Classes. The Mandal Commissions recommendations decisively churned Indian politics, not always for the better. The politicking over Mandal also distracted the country from a looming economic crisis, which erupted in full force in 1991. The political atmospherics, and the economic backdrop, of Mandal present a striking parallel to the events of today. At a time when the economy is on a downward spiral, a new caste war politics is being unleashed, which will, its patrons hope, shift focus momentarily away from the succession of scandals that have beset this government and from its colossal underperformance on the economic front. As it did in the post-Mandal era, this new political churn, based entirely on caste-based identity, has serious negative consequences for Indian polity, economy and society.

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No party is willing to say no

Many parties see a danger in introducing quotas in job promotions, but no one is willing to antagonise the Dalit votebank.
Sanjay Singh, Aug 22, 2012 t the all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister to discuss quotas for the scheduled castes and tribes (SC/ST) in promotions, only the Samajwadi Party was clear in its opposition. Its only vocal supporter is the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for obvious reasons.

Quotas in promotions:

The Congress is running with the hare and hunting with the hounds since both the BSP and the Samajwadi Party are UPA backers, with one of them for it and the other against. Every party (other than the BSP) realises that the bill to ensure this will be disliked by its base. As a senior BJP leader told Firstpost on condition of anonymity: If you ask me privately the proposal for such a bill must not be supported. Quota in promotion, after already giving them (SC/STs) one for entry into a job, is not justified. More so because the long-term implications are unhealthy both for the structure and for governance. But that certainly cant be our public view. We have to support, or at least seen to be supporting the idea, of advancement of SCs and STs. Remember, we have good support among these communities. The Congress, which traditionally has had the support of these communities, is trying to pilot the bill, to get even with BSP leader Mayawati in the game of political brinkmanship. A Congress leader said the UPA government needed to go with this bill. It was after all the Congress which had provided reservations for Dalits and tribals at all levels. Now we cant be seen to be lagging behind. We understand some of its adverse implications but in a democracy where you have to go to the electorate after quick intervals, one needs to be pragmatic. Mayawati has been at the forefront asking for a constitutional amendment to ensure reservations in promotions. The problem arose after the Supreme Court, on 27 April, in a case involving the UP Power Corporation vs Rajesh Kumar & Others, struck down a clause for reservations in promotion to SCs and STs in UP.
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But almost nobody else was willing to take a stand clearly against it. The PM merely sought the oppositions valuable suggestions to get around the Supreme Courts verdict in April striking down a Uttar Pradesh decision to provide quotas in promotions. The BJP, while paying lip-service to the upliftment of the weaker sections, muttered caveats about adhering to constitutional and legal norms. The Left too made similar proforma statements (Read here). The undertone is clear: no party, barring the BSP, really wants to do this, but vote-bank politics is forcing them to bury their real views.

The Samajwadi Party says if quotas are given to SC/STs in promotion, the same have to be given to other backward classes (OBCs) as well. It also says that Muslims wont be benefited from the reservations. According to the SP, OBCs constitute 52 percent of the population and if quotas are given to SC/STs, OBCs will be the worst impacted by this. The Prime Minister, in his opening remarks, said he was seeking the counsel of all parties to discuss a way out of the Supreme Courts order. Singh asked the parties to provide valuable suggestions so that a legally sustainable solution may be arrived at. Though no formal announcement was made after the meeting, a minister said the government will try to present a bill by end of the monsoon session. With parliamentary proceedings being disrupted on the BJPs insistence that Manmohan Singh resign over Coalgate, legislative work is no longer a priority for the government and the opposition. In this case it suits them fine. You may be aware that the government has always been committed to protect the interests of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and on certain occasions did not hesitate even to bring constitutional amendments, the PM said at the meeting. The Supreme Court, in its 1992 judgment in the Indra Sawhney case, had held that reservations in promotions are ultra vires of the Constitution, but allowed its continuation for five years as a special case. The 77th amendment to the Constitution was made in 1995 to insert clause (4A) to Article 16 before the five-year period expired to continue with reservations for SC/ STs in promotions. Clause (4A) was further modified through the 85th amendment so as to give the benefit of consequential seniority to

SC/ST candidates promoted by reservation, he explained. Singh went to some length to explain the legal position. The 81st amendment was made to the Constitution whereby clause (4/B) was incorporated in Article 16 to permit the government to treat the backlog of reserved vacancies as a separate and distinct group, to which the limit of 50 percent ceiling on reservation may not apply. The 82nd amendment incorporated a proviso in Article 335 to enable states to give relaxations/concessions to SC/ST candidates in matters of promotion. These aforesaid four Constitutional amendments were made in order to protect the interests of the backward classes, including SC/STs. The validity of all these four amendments was challenged before the Supreme Court through various writ petitions clubbed together in M Nagaraj & Others vs. Union of India & Others, mainly on the ground that these altered the basic structure of the Constitution. The Supreme Court upheld these four amendments but stipulated that the concerned state will have to show in each case the existence of compelling reasons, namely, backwardness, inadequacy of representation and overall administrative efficiency, before making provisions for reservation. The court further held that the impugned provision is an enabling provision. If a state government wishes to make provisions for reservation to SC/STs in promotion, the state has to collect quantifiable data showing backwardness of the class and inadequacy of representation of that class. No party, of course, is planning to prove any such thing. In electoral politics, quota politics has always needed no proof.

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Why SC/ST promotions quota puts India on the road to disaster

Although it is packaged as an affirmative action proposal intended to uplift the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the measure is regressive.
Venky Vembu, Sep 5, 2012

f the Idea of India as envisaged at the time of Independence was premised on the erosion of caste identities, two developments today validate the shameful fact that not only does caste-based discrimination persist, it continues to be perpetuated, including as an instrument of state policy.

other Dalit cooks in the village. Meanwhile, over in Delhi, the Union Cabinet put its stamp of approval on a Constitutional Amendment provision to clear the residual legal hurdles in formalising reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in government jobs. Although it is packaged as an affirmative action proposal intended to uplift the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who, as the Tamil Nadu experience illustrates, continue to face discrimination, the measure will end up accentuating and reinforcing caste identities in a regressive way. If passed and it surely will, given the nearunanimity across political parties to be seen to be advancing the interests of Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes it will be the 98th amendment to the Constitution in only the 66th year of independence. Its a sign of how far weve come from the sterling document that our founding fathers, in their infinite wisdom, had drawn up. Like artless monkeys shredding a garland, our leaders and political parties have over the decades hacked and plucked away at the Constitution that had been drawn up by minds that were far more visionary than anything weve seen since. In the name of improving upon that document, they have effectively ripped it to pieces. The supreme irony of the upcoming Constitutional amendment provision to strike down all the legal challenges in implementing and institutionalising the quotas-in-promotion enterprise is that it violates the spirit and letter of what everybody from BR Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru downward wanted to see: the erosion of divisions along caste lines, and the
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The first of these reports relates to the experience of a Dalit cook in a school in a Tamil Nadu village, who faces social ostracism from caste Hindu Vanniyar parents who are refusing to send their children for the nutritious noon meal scheme on the grounds that it is a sin to eat food cooked by a Dalit. That such regressive caste-based notions of untouchability continue to be perpetuated even 65 years after independence may seem shocking enough, but the response of the district administration was even more astounding. According to The Hindu, rather than sensitise the Vanniyars in the village and caution them on the folly of what was at its core a criminal act of discrimination, officials transferred the cook to another school on deputation. But even in her new posting, she faces a social boycott, as do six

winding down, over time, of all reservations. The evolution of the reservation policy in these 65 years and the manner in which the abuse of the original intent has played out over the decades portends ill for the country. From being a mere enabling provision to confer a discretionary power on the State as a temporary expedient to uplift a small section of the socially oppressed, it has become an instrument that advances competitive casteism and institutionalises caste-based divisions, with vast numbers clamouring to claim reservations as their birthright. What started off as a temporary provision for just Scheduled Castes has over time extended to cover Other Backward Classes, and is being sought to be extended to religions minorities as well. And successive governments have over the years been pushing to extend the provision to promotions as well. The proposed Constitutional amendment will do it for Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but you can be sure given the precedent that the facility will be extended to OBCs as well. Every time the provision for quotas in promotions was struck down by the Supreme Court or other courts, successive governments have responded with alacrity to amend the Constitution and dilute and expand the provisions of the law to drag it to the lowest common denominator. In that enterprise, virtually every political party has been complicit.

The most striking warning of what lies in store came long ago, from Nehru. Addressing the Constitutent Assembly, Nehru had said that he and the others were opposed to reservations, particularly on caste and religions considerations, but had reluctantly agreed to carry on with some measure of reservation for the Scheduled Castes, given the history of discrimination that they faced and the expectation that the reservation would be limited to just 10 years. It was a theme he would return to over the years, with a sense of growing alarm and despondency. In June 1961, in a letter to Chief Ministers, Nehru wrote: It is true that we are tied up with certain rules and conventions about helping the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. They deserve help, but even so I dislike any kind of reservation I react strongly against anything which leads to inefficiency and second-rate standards. The notion that reservations were being extended even to promotions caused Nehru immense anguish. It has amazed me to learn that even promotions are based on communal or caste considerations. This way lies not only folly, but disaster, he warned, with amazing prescience. With todays approval for the Constitutional amendment that will overcome the repeated legal challenges that the proposal faced, India may be well on the road to folly and disaster.

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including herself
India is sliding towards another bad decision on quotas in promotions. It does not benefit anybody except Mulayam Singh - but no one is opposing it.
R Jagannathan, Sep 5, 2012

Maya makes a fool of everybody,

ts called the Abilene Paradox.

Does this decision benefit anybody? Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is said to be the main sponsor of this bad idea. But she already has almost the entire Dalit vote in Uttar Pradesh. So how does she expect to augment it further? Her party has not made great progress outside Uttar Pradesh, but since other Dalit parties with pockets of influence in Maharashtra and elsewhere will surely support the same idea, she has nothing really to gain. Moreover, Mayawati, who rode to power in 2006 with the help of a chunk of Brahmin and upper caste votes in UP, is essentially cutting off these possibilities by banking on this bankrupt idea. Mayawati is surely intelligent enough to know this. At best, this is her way of getting even with the Supreme Court, which has shot down castebased reservation in promotions in a case involving the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation. The Congress, which is using the reservations idea to shift attention from its Coalgate and other corruption-related embarrassments, is doing all this just to obtain momentary relief from public scrutiny. Mayawatis Dalit voters wont desert her for the Congress in UP, and Dalits elsewhere are anyway Congress backers at least where there is no alternative. But there is no vote-bank to gain. Like VP Singhs Mandal politics, this is Congress stupid votebank idea only, its even more bankrupt, for there is no votebank that is really on offer here. It would have been more sensible for the Congress to deal with the Coalgate issue head-on by cancelling the coal
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Named after a mythical family which is playing dominoes on the porch one lazy afternoon, the story begins with the father-in-law asking, more to keep the conversation going than anything else, why dont we go to Abilene?

Abilene is a distant place with a hot, dusty road to traverse. Nobody would want to go there for fun, but his family members, in the erroneous belief that the others were all keen on the trip, agree. All of them go to Abilene unhappily and then come back to regret it. The paradox is about people making a choice which nobody wants due to a lack of proper articulation and a misunderstanding about what everybody really is thinking. India now stands on the brink of its own Abilene paradox following the Union cabinets decision to extend reservations in promotions to the scheduled castes and tribes (SC/STs) in government services.

block allocations and starting on a clean slate with auctions. Despite a temporary loss of face, in the long term it has more to gain by putting Coalgate behind instead of watering the roots of casteism once more. The BJP, which is clearly the party with the most to lose, is still undecided on whether to back this Congress move for a constitutional amendment to allow for caste-based reservation in promotions. The partys prime votebank is the upper castes, and so one wonders what it sees in the Mayawati idea. It is still hesitating, since it wrongly believes that it can somehow expand its base beyond the upper castes and urban votes by willy-nilly going along with Mayawati. If the BJP does this, Mayawati will eat the party for breakfast. Perhaps the only party with something to gain is Mulayam Singhs Samajwadi Party, with its strong base in other backward classes (OBCs) and minorities in UP. By opposing the castebased promotions or stalling it, he may hope to benefit from upper caste crossover votes in the next round of elections in Uttar Pradesh. This way, he can make up for the partys failure in governance over the last one year. In other words, the only theoretical beneficiary of Mayawatis move is her rival Mulayam Singh if at all. The biggest losers will be the Congress and the BJP who are anyway marginalised in Uttar Pradesh since they will be angering their upper caste voters in the state without bargaining for something in return. The Congress looks pathetic as it abandons the modernist ideas of its greatest leader Jawaharlal Nehru who was against these kinds of reservations. The BJP is even more pathetic. It is shooting itself in the foot by gifting away its core vote in the mythical search for a broader coalition of castes. Perhaps, Mayawatis calculation is that by destroying both the Congress and the BJP, she will

become the only other option to Mulayam Singh in Uttar Pradesh. Once it is a two-horse race, all castes will have to choose the lesser evil and vote either for her or Mulayam Singh. Apart from Congress and BJP, the biggest losers will be Dalits themselves who will now be ostracised for using political clout to seek undeserved promotions. Even deserving SC/ ST candidates will now be seen as undeserving since merit is no longer required for promotions. As this writer noted in an earlier article, the reason why SC/ST candidates are under-represented in central and state services is this: they enter the services late. Government jobs usually go by seniority up to a point, and then by merit. The reason why so few Dalits are up there near the top is that their average age of entry is around 29-31, when other candidates enter in the range of 24-26. Little wonder they lose on the seniority criteria. The solution is to get Dalits to enter the civil services around the same age as their upper caste peers. But instead of focusing on this, all parties are focusing on non-solutions. However, even Mayawatis calculations and Mulayams may not quite work out because all castes are now discovering their vote power. The upper castes did not stay with Mayawati in 2011; and the Muslims may move away from Mulayam as they rediscover the power of agency. Superficially, Mayawati may have made a fool out of every other party by playing to their guilt complexes on caste. The Congress feels obliged to back the idea, and so does the BJP. Only these two parties can call their bluff but the Congress has already fallen into her trap. And the BJP looks likely to follow suit. Only Mulayam Singh is calling her bluff, but we dont know if he will ultimately gain from it. The Abilene paradox is at work. Only the BJP and Mulayam can still call Mayawatis bluff. If they dont, Mayawati would have made a fool of not only her rivals, but herself too.

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Why a promotions quota could work

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united India better

Will the bill destroy merit in government service or will it provide much needed representation to the backward castes?
espite the bill to allow promotions based on caste dividing opinion and political parties, JNU professor Vivek Kumar has welcomed the governments decision and said it will not divide the workplace, as its opponents claimed. The reservations have not divided (workplaces), it is the political promotions and appointments, Kumar told CNN-IBN. Kumar also shot down the argument that from hereon now on the merit of a person would not matter when it came to promotion, since according to him, promotions in government jobs were always linked to political support.

Reservations have
FP Staff, Sep 5, 2012 Merit is a construct used by the upper caste against the SCs, STs. One doesnt become cabinet secretary because of seniority(or merit), but because of political choice, he said. Kumar said that reservations would not only benefit the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees but would also strengthen democracy. I think reservation has united India much better. It has given representation to people. It has brought a mass of people, who did not have any representation in any institutions nearer to democracy and therefore it has strengthened Indian society and democracy, he said.

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the upper caste language

The OBCs or the parties dominated by them are unlikely to agree unconditionally to a quota in promotion bill. When it comes to the SCs/STs, they have a logic that sounds like the age-old anti-reservationist argument of the upper castes.
G Pramod Kumar, Aug 22, 2012

When quota champions speak

ts almost certain that the union government will bring a bill to amend the constitution to restore the much needed quota in promotion for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SCs and STs) that had been blocked by a recent Supreme Court judgement. Compared to the Lok Pal bill; which targets an equally critical issue of corruption, on which the parties and the governments have been dragging their feet for decades; this piece of legislation is politically expedient for the UPA as well as others.

Its therefore not surprising that there is near unanimity of opinion on the issue. Its delightful to watch that the Congress, the BJP and the Left parties are in it together. However, the OBCs or the parties dominated by them are unlikely to agree unconditionally. They are the champions of affirmative action, but when it comes to the SCs/STs, they have a logic that sounds like the age-old anti-reservationist argument of the upper castes.
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The Samajwadi Party (SP) of Uttar Pradesh is completely against it while the DMK, another OBC reservation champion is fine with the idea, but would want another bill for the backward castes. Incidentally, both the states have an SC population that is roughly 20% and have a history of violence against Dalits perpetrated mostly by the backward castes. According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data, UP accounts for the highest share of the crime against Dalits in the country. Times of India reported that at the all party meeting convened by the Prime Minister on the issue on Tuesday Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and brother Ramgopal Yadav were vocal in opposing the move, arguing it led to social heartburn and vitiated social harmony. They argued that all top positions in work departments in Uttar Pradesh were occupied by SCs, with OBCs and general candidates unable to move beyond the rank of superintending engineer, TOI reported. Sounds similar, isnt it? The Mandal messiahs sound upper casteist when it comes to Dalits. In this argument, they even find common cause with the upper castes (general candidates) in blocking the upward mobility of Dalits. The riders such as a separate bill for the OBCs by the JD(U) and DMK for their support stem from the same supremacist mindset. The same logic was heard last when the country pushed for 30% reservation for women. No wonder, Indias affirmative action story is that of the rise of the backward or middle castes and the continued oppression of Dalits and violence against them by caste hindus. Reservation is a contentious issue and the debate has mostly been between the OBCs and the upper castes. In simple terms, as was witnessed during the Mandal agitation, the upper castes are forever peeved that their opportunities are taken away by less meritorious people because they belong to backward castes. Instead of appearing to be anti-OBC, they argue for respect for merit as well a quota for economic back-

wardness, overlooking the fundamental logic behind affirmative action empowerment of socially backward sections of society. Mulayams argument of discontentment is no different from the upper castes getting peeved by the glass ceiling created by the OBCs. Backward castes also figure prominently as the perpetrators of violence against Dalits, especially in Tamil Nadu, UP and Bihar where the OBC dominated parties control electoral politics. The anti Dalit violence of the 1990s in Tamil Nadu and that in UP in the 1980s and 90s, for instance, are commensurate with the political rise of the intermediate castes and oppression of Dalits. The role of backwards castes, who ironically fought for their rights against the oppression of the upper castes, in such incidents of violence has been extensively reported. As academic Zoya Hassan noted, the rise of middle and backward classes in a number of districts in UP has intensified the conflicts between them and the landless agricultural labourers. The dominant role sought by the middle castes also is reflected in the famous Mandal Report, which notes that for some reasons, the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes and other minor artisan castes like the potters, the weavers, the carpenters, etc. feel threatened by the intermediate castes also having a stake in land like the upper castes. It also said: There are many states in India where the weaker landless minority artisan castes and the scheduled castes look to the upper castes and not to the intermediate castes for protection. In the end, it is nothing but the fight for supremacy by the intermediate castes and their political parties. They try to conflate their demands for reservation with that of the severely oppressed Dalits and are at the vanguard of this willful conflict. That is precisely why the union government should go ahead with the proposed Bill and ensure that it is legally sustainable.

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The reality of the core constituency

Core constituencies are the driving force in politics and by extension democracy. Political parties cannot ignore these.
Akshaya Mishra, Sep 6, 2012 n the face of it quota in promotions are regressive. It is easy to argue against it, but lets get real. Core constituencies are the driving force in politics and by extension democracy. Political parties have no reason to exist and they will not if they dont cater to the needs of their core constituencies. They have to bargain hard to promote and protect the interest of the latter to stay relevant. Otherwise, the core has the option to choose other alternatives. Whenever it shifts, parties in governments collapse. Both Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav understand it well. In the heart of their support

SC/ST quota in promotions:

and opposition to the quota bill are their core constituencies, the Dalits in the case of Mayawati and the middle castes in case of the latter. The BJPs opposition to the implementation of the Sachar panel recommendation on minorities, specifically Muslims, and the Congress insistence on quotas for the community inside the OBC reservation also comes from the same concern. The only problem is that neither seems to have a rock-solid core base now. Theres no point in being in denial. It is the existential truth in a party-based democracy. And its not necessarily loaded with negative possibilities. Core constituencies dont come out
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of thin air. They are born out of specific expectations of communities and as a collective bargaining tool in the democracy. The expectations many times militate against reason, like in the quota-based promotions case. But again, reason is a highly subjective quantity and its interpretation and understanding depends a lot on from which exact location in the social hierarchy you are looking at the subject in question. Do the Dalits have the same aversion towards quotas in promotions as the upper castes? Obviously not. Would Mulayam or for that matter DMK chief M Karunanidhi be as aggressive in his opposition if the government sweetened the bill with promises for the OBCs? No. Both are catering to their constituencies. The Congress and the BJP are trying to impress the Dalits by coming to a rare agreement over the bill. They are trying to mark out imaginary or real constituencies for themselves. Quota in promotions amounts to reverse discrimination and reinforcing and perpetuating a system that should have been done away with long ago, goes the age-old argument. But that again is poor understanding of both power of the caste, democratic politics and caste-politics dynamics in the country. Politics will always address to the concerns of identity and the perceived sense of victimhood among communities. Since the caste system has already created blocks of people with similar grievances, they are easy to reach out to. Its often a two-way process, first, when people bind into a force and choose to use the political

system to their advantage; and second, when parties reach out to them promising things in returns. Either way, the caste groups benefit. The Dalits wont be better off today in Uttar Pradesh without rallying strongly behind the BSP. Obviously, their empowerment and upward movement on the social ladder has come at the cost of the middle castes. It is natural that there will always be opposition to the BSP from this section. But that is the beauty of democracy. It allows all groups to be in a state of competitive bargaining for power and benefits. It calls for better management skills from political parties. Democracy in India is certainly going deeper and wider, bringing in more groups into its fold. The process and the outcomes may be difficult to digest for many but thats the bland reality. Democracy cannot be an institution to strengthen the status quo, its far bigger role is to the instrument of social change. The merit argument in the context of promotions is valid but the support in its favour either from the political class or outside does not look too strong. That offers the parties scope to go ahead with the proposal. Things could change only if the upper castes or the sections who are likely to be in a position of disadvantage organise themselves into a vote bank and put pressure on the parties. That is essentially how democracies function. Love it or hate it, you have to accept it.

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What do you think?

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The proposal to amend the Constitution to remove all residual legal obstacles to providing for reservations for Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in government service is a dangerous perversion. When the Constitution was being drawn up, its framers intended reservations for Scheduled Castes as a temporary measure for 10 years and an enabling provision not as a matter of birth right. The goal then was to work towards the erosion of caste divisions, not provide a crutch for perpetuity. Competitive casteism and political populism has extended reservations and reinforced castebased identities to extreme limits. They were then subsequently sought to be extended to promotions, and the courts have repeatedly struck it down as unconstitutional. The current effort to circumvent those judicial pronouncements and formalise reservations in promotions will only accentuate the social divide even further, in addition to weakening governance at every level. If anything, the more compelling need is to initiate a debate on the demerits of reservation in their entirety. There are many other ways in which affirmative action programmes to uplift the socially backward can be channelled. This proposal needs to be scrapped

Reservation is a contentious issue and the debate has mostly been between the OBCs and the upper castes. In simple terms, as was witnessed during the Mandal agitation, the upper castes are forever peeved that their opportunities are taken away by less meritorious people because they belong to backward castes. Instead of appearing to be anti-OBC, they argue for respect for merit as well a quota for economic backwardness, overlooking the fundamental logic behind affirmative action empowerment of socially backward sections of society. In the end, it is nothing but the fight for supremacy by the intermediate castes and their political parties. They try to conflate their demands for reservation with that of the severely oppressed Dalits and are at the vanguard of this willful conflict. That is precisely why the union government should go ahead with the proposed Bill and ensure that it is legally sustainable.

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Result till 6th Sep 2012

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