F E A T U R E S

India’s Caste Cauldron and the Quota Business
Gobind Thukral

CAN we not appreciative what the Union Human Resources Minister, Arjun Singh had done to India’s polity. Though his 27 per cent reservation proposals for Other Backward Castes in education of higher along with other institutions of education, he has pushed the questions of equality, equity and the state of the poor on the national agenda. It was a long forgotten subject from the drawing rooms of English speaking and English dreaming consumerist middle class. His move has not only exposed the bankruptcy of the government to manage a political crisis with intra party game of one-upmanship, but also political parties across the board.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh through his silence and acquiescence when the doctors struck work paralyzing medical services in many parts of the country, lost a great opportunity to demonstrate leadership by seizing the opportunity and offering a better solution than reservation to meet the challenge. We do not as yet know what his real mind is except that now all the partners in the United Progressive Alliance have opted out for 27 per cent reservation.

Political parties in the middle or on the right and left are also caught up. BJP still dreaming to ride on the crest of Hindutva is badly divided in the middle. Its one half is for 27 per cent reservation and another half asking for commissions to find solutions. Its leaders one-day support the cause of the striking doctors and another day say that backward must be helped through the reservation route.  The left, the CPM and the CPI supporting the reservations with many ifs and buts. CPM that claims complete understanding of the caste system and the class character of the India society, one synonymous with the other has now swung to keep the creamy layer out of the reservation. In its desire to placate the rising middle class that has the backing of the powerful media, particularly the television, it is also for a staggered reservation system. It is another matter the UPA had finally no choice as Arjun Singh in his moves envisaged but to back him on 27 per cent reservations. Votes count for everyone.

The move also brought back to the street agitation the middle class through its doctors who were lost at the secluded study tables and in the hospital wards. But as many observers wrote its “passion-charged street power and the virulent rhetoric against reservations points out to a disturbing pattern. India's smug, selfish, self-centered, satiated middle class, fattened on the fruits of the booming economy, is positively hostile to any policy, which sets out to empower the poor. Over 900 million of our citizens live on less than Rs 90 a day. Of this, 300 million live on less than Rs 45 a day.  And those 200 million privileged have decided that these citizens must remain roughly where they are—or wait till the enormous wealth the rich, the ultra rich and the nouveau rich are accumulating trickles down. This is an obscenity. No fancy economic formulation can hide this appalling reality of India 2006.”

Take the case of subsidy for the farm sector or employment guarantee scheme, information act or selling cheap grain to BPL or any other measure that might empower the poor that rot on the streets or in the urban slums, the cry goes out, it is sheer wastage of our taxes. The poor are poor because they are lazy and worthless, incapable of any improvement. The government is declared corrupt and irresponsible. In Delhi when slums are demolished in one go   and the poor lathi charged, television channels do not pay even the proverbial lips sympathy. But when illegal structures are demolished under court orders, the whole city is set on fire. And finally, the parliament passes a law negating all efforts through courts to bring order to the city and some punishment to the greedy, corrupt traders and real estate sharks.   The middle class is indeed a self-serving class and thrives on that. But how could the politicians ignore these 900 million people who have long realised the power of vote and learnt to use it craftily. In 2004 as often earlier they threw out governments that were considered invincible. No political party can survive by pandering to the prejudices of a fickle middle class.

There are whole lots of questions that come to the mind. Were our dear doctors, majority of who refuse to go to rural India and help the poor and who are educated at state expenses, they run away to placid foreign lands at the first instance ever shown their concern for the health of the people. Were they ever critical of sale of medical seats in many private institutions? When we talk about merit alone, do we understand that resourceless persons struck in abysmal poverty and lack of any education could not compete with those who have usurped or managed all means?

Criticism against reservation is manifold. Many point out that it ignores merit and thus undermines the quality. How can we trust a backward class doctor with just 50 per cent marks against the one with brilliant 90 per cent marks? India has to emerge as a knowledge super power and this would compromise and if some have remained backward and poor it their fault and nothing can be done. Second is that only a creamy layer among the reserved categories have so far benefited and the poor have remained without real benefit. Also, the caste system is dead and these are the politicians who are keeping it alive.

There is no doubt that merit should be respected but the means to achieve should be available across the board and not monopolized by particularly castes or classes. Look at these facts. We spend less than three per cent of three GDP on education and we need to spend at least 6 per cent. Nearly 1.4 crore children are out of school and in many parts not more than 10% or more of school age children are enrolled. Only in three out of four schools in the country the teachers were present. The really worrisome findings of a national survey is not more 35% of children aged 7-14 could pass simple tests of reading and learning. 60% of the children could not read a simple story at grade 2. In one word not even half of the villages have schools. The case is if there are schools, no proper sitting arrangement and if the facilities are there, teachers are either not posted or do not attend the schools.

This class, particularly in the north of India refuses to admit that this affirmative action and reservations the story of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala where mandatory quotas ranging from 69.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent have been in place since decades and merit has not been compromised and without any social turbulence. Can we assume that engineers and doctors from these southern states are substandard? And, anyone wishes see the oppressive caste system should travel a few miles from Delhi to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and not far off Bihar or Orissa and find what it means in the 21st century.

Yet the debate must go on, but not on the streets and by shutting down health institutions, but in a more civilized manner. Mind it the poor too are watching it and when they come to the streets, who would stop them.

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