It’s a sign of the desperation being felt by present day political parties that almost all, including the Congress, are demanding reservation for OBCs in the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’. It is understandable that parties like the SP and RJD, based entirely on caste support, should be making this demand, but the Congress should know better, having held the responsibility of running the nation at the Centre. It is obvious that the demand for reservation within reservation for women is the thin edge of the wedge for the larger objective of seeking overall OBC reservation in the legislative bodies against the designated cap of fifty percent in force at present. It is the basic structure principle laid down by the Supreme Court that is being challenged.
The demand for a ‘caste’ census is also part of this strategy, which again the Congress has supported. It is believed by the proponents of the census that the numbers of the OBCs would be so staggeringly large that reservations would be difficult to deny. It would also give these castes a sense of their potential size in the electoral process. They would then seek ‘proportional representation’, the principle that was rejected by India’s founders and eventually led to the Partition.
Rahul Gandhi, in his speech in the Lok Sabha on women’s reservation, attempted to instigate these caste sentiments when he spoke of how few persons from the OBCs were secretaries at the Centre. In this, he is in sync with AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, who is reiterating a similar form of proportional representation for Muslims, thereby taking politics back to pre-Independence days.
It has been seen that, at the state level, some governments have already been attempting to breach the ceiling on reservations, as they are constantly under pressure from electorally important caste lobbies to do so. Essentially, all reservations are expected to have an expiry date, including those for SCs/STs. These have been extended as it was generally felt that the goal of equal opportunity had not been achieved. In fact, in political circles, the attitude is that these are, more or less, of permanent nature, as a vested interest has grown around them. This is one of the reasons why the caste divides have not been eradicated. Those on the receiving end of caste discrimination are the ones most invested in permanently carrying that stigma. A caste census, if ever conducted, would further freeze people in these identities. Unfortunately, greedy, short-sighted politicians are unwilling to consider the harm they are doing with such demands, putting India’s future as a genuine democracy in serious jeopardy.
