Isn’t the Narendra Modi government is trying to redefine the purpose of policy instrument called reservation with the proposal of 10 percent quota to upper caste poor in its last few months in office ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The constitution amendment is raising serious questions. So far reservation is synonymous to groups, classes or castes which are backward educationally and socially. The Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes however are kept in separate tray.
With the reservation policy to encompass upper castes the Modi government is surely to be accused of using the instrument that meant for social justice, safety net or subsidy.
Its in fact a blurring shift by the government in the governing principles as two different sets of goals are to be served. It is lack of imagination, and what, it comes at a cost.
The timing is wrong when India’s economy is not creating jobs at the requisite pace and government sector is shrinking. Amid such situation the reservation for the so-called economically weaker section (EWS) will only a symbolic representation and will inject more competition. Another set of demands will be raised in those states which the Jats, Marathas and Patels are feeling left out.
It is a very fraught move by the government and hopefully will be much debated in the parliament. Court will scrutinize carefully too. Ultimately the fight for limited resources will take a northward graph.
