Reservation: Reasons and Redressal

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It is a subject on which to write something and to ensure a lot of accountability as well as make people aware of its various aspects keeping in view the socio-economic statusis a risky task. This is because the people of the society clearly hold different opinions, due to which the society appears to be divided into two factions on this issue.

There are many arguments in favor of reservation of a class that benefits from this system. The same other class which, despite being relatively more qualified, is deprived of the opportunity due to reservation. This class also has innumerable arguments against reservation. No argument can be completely denied whether it is in support of reservation or against it. The most difficult situation is that there is a very fine difference between logic and sorcery, which neither side is able to accept because the bitterness in the mind of both the classes is so much towards each other that they are unable to understand each other’s reasoning.

When I was a student, I myself was affected due to this reservation system, at that time the recommendations of Mandal Commission came into force on 7th August 1990 by the decision of the government of the Prime Minister Late Vishwanath Pratap Singh. And suddenly the reservation which was 22.5% increased by 27% and became 49.5%. It was nothing less than a thunderstorm for the general category students. There were nationwide agitations and demonstrations, hundreds of students lost their lives, including incidents of self-immolation. Around 200 students attempted self-immolation out of which 62 died.

Vishwanath Pratap Singh blamed the existed Congress government for the Bofors scam, became a new emerging leader of Indian politics and an atmosphere was created against late Rajiv Gandhi. In the next general election in 1989, the Janta dal and allies parties form a government under the leadership of Vishwanath Pratap Singh. The upper castes played an important role in forming the government. But after the election Vishwanath Pratap Singh implemented the Mandal Commission, which caused tremendous displeasure among the upper castes and Vishwanath Pratap Singh was seen as a villain.

I had passed Mathematics Honors from Langat Singh College Muzaffarpur at the exact same time i.e. in 1990. The proverb like ” ill luck to overtake at the very outset” seemed to be coming true. There was an anguish towards this arrangement and the bitterness lingered over the mind for a long time. Not just once but again and again, the impact of the reservation system was on my career. A regret remained in my mind and what i wanted could not happen. Even today, there is such bitterness in the mind of the students of the general category, who, despite being better on performance in competitive exams, lose the opportunity to get selected due to the reservation system. I understand their sentiment. But have you ever wondered why such a system has come in existence? When I went to the root of it and read a lot on it, I understood its relevance. You too can understand it, but to understand about this system, you have to keep away the frustration and prejudice out of your mind. Let us understand why there is reservation system?

Why reservation ?

The Republic of India advocates socialist, socio-economic and cultural justice and equality.

The term socialist means ‘a structure in which there is equal harmony in distribution with public ownership or control over the main means of production, capital, land, property, etc. Can we say that all these resources have a normal distribution? Actually it is not so. The people who are in the downtrodden class have not got the same right on these resources for centuries as the people of the general class have.

Justice:- Justice is mentioned in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, which can be seen in three different forms – social justice, political justice and economic justice.

Social justice means that there should be no discrimination between human beings on the basis of caste, varna and every citizen should have access to proper opportunities for progress. Here is room for debate. Those who oppose reservation say that if someone gets special status then how is there equality of opportunity. Whereas the supporters of reservation say that since there is no socio-economic equality, so talking of equality of opportunity will not be considered meaningful unless there is socio-economic equality. For example, a child from an educated family starts his education in a convent school in the city from the age of 3 and completed his Graduation at the age of 20-21 years, whereas a child from village starts education from the age of 6-7 years in a government school where the level of education is not as good as the children studying in convent school and completed his Graduation at the age of age of 24-25. At the end there is a huge difference in its educational qualification in terms of knowledge and exposer to the awareness of competitive exams. Suppose the maximum age of Civil Services Examination is 28 years as it was earlier. So a student graduating at the age of 20 will have 7-8 chances to appear in the exam while a student graduating at the age of 24 will have 4-5 opportunities. Would this be called equality of opportunity? Ofcourse not. Therefore, in order to provide equal opportunities, at least 3 years relaxation in the upper age limit has to be given to the students of rural areas so that students from both the backgrounds can get equal opportunities.

Just as there should be some relaxation in the upper age limit to provide equality of opportunity if the educational background of urban and rural students is different, in the same way, separate provision had to be made to provide equal opportunities even if the economic social background is different. .

Economic justice means equitable distribution of the means of production and distribution and that wealth and wealth should not be centralized in only a few hands. The reality is that for a very long time, the collection of wealth has remained in few hands, whether it is land or any other asset. There has been a section of the society which has been deprived of these resources due to certain reasons. Whatever land they had, in medieval times the feudal class took over them in a manipulative manner and exploited them in various ways. Now in order to bring economic equality, various types of help are provided to them by the government so that their economic empowerment happens. One remedy in this is reservation in government jobs.

Political justice means that all citizens under the state should have equal civil and political rights, whether it is the matter of entry into political offices or the right to express their views to the government. Therefore, the government has reserved proportional seats from the panchayat level to the Lok Sabha elections to ensure proper representation of different sections.

Parity:- The Preamble of the Indian Constitution provides for status and opportunity to every citizen, which means the absence of privilege for any section of the society and a provision to provide equal opportunities to every person without any discrimination. To provide equal opportunities, the government has made reservation arrangements for women, scheduled castes and tribes, backward castes and economically weaker candidates. So that these classes can get proportional representation.

Now some burning questions come to mind which have to be answered?

1.Is the reservation not against the right given by Article 14 of the Constitution?

Article 14 provides the right to equality before the law to all persons residing in the territory of India whether he is a citizen of India or a foreigner. But in Article 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India, provision has been made for reservation for socially and educationally backward classes. The Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, brought to give 10 percent reservation to the economically backward people of the general category, has been passed in the Lok Sabha. For this 15.6 was added in Article 15. According to which the State and the Government of India will not be prevented from making laws in this regard. Accordingly, 10% reservation has been proposed for economically weaker general category in educational institutions. The proposed 10% reservation for poor upper castes will be different from the existing 50% limit. This provision was made by adding a point in Article 16.

Reservation cannot exceed 50% as per Supreme Court ruling, but some states like Rajasthan have proposed 68% reservation, including 14% reservation for forward castes. The cases against them are going on in the Supreme Court. For example, the caste-based reservation portion is 69% and applies to about 87% of the population of Tamil Nadu. The previous UPA government had decided to provide reservation to Jats on the recommendation of an expert committee of the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

The court held this to be wrong and said that the government ignored the report of the National Backward Commission. The Court observed that while caste is an important factor for granting reservation, it alone is not sufficient to determine backwardness. If it can be proved that a caste is socially and educationally backward in comparison to others. Because in the past, considering that injustice has been done to them, reservation can be given as compensation.

The Supreme Court while quashing the Jat reservation in Haryana had said that caste cannot become a basis in itself, it has to be shown that the entire caste itself is educationally and socially backward from the rest. Keeping all these things in mind, the Supreme Court has said that we do not think that Jats are backward from other people. There should be logical data behind it. In the case of Rajasthan, the High Court had asked to bring logical data in the matter of demand of reservation for Gujjars, for which a commission was also formed.

In the Mandal Commission case, the Supreme Court had made it clear that there could be different situations in different states. Suppose there is a lack of basic facilities in a hilly area, then it may be possible to make a provision of reservation up to 70 percent for the hills, but it has to be justified. Reiterating the decision of Balaji case in 1963, the Supreme Court in Indira Sawhney case said that generally there cannot be more than 50% reservation because on one hand we have to take care of merit and on the other we have to keep in mind social justice also.

But in the same case, Justice Jeevan Reddy has clearly said that in special circumstances, by showing clear reasons, the government can even cross the 50 percent limit. On this basis, Patel is demanding reservation in Gujarat. Recently, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has demanded Marathi reservation in Maharashtra. from Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with representatives of his allies, However, in general, there is a rule that reservation should not be given more than 50 percent.

Also, if a section of the society progresses less – which has historical reasons, then it will affect not only the progress of the country but also the society in the long run. So in the context of the above things, it can be said that reservation is not against the equal opportunity provided in Article 14.

2. Are the meritorious students not ignored in the country due to reservation?

It is true that the selection of less meritorious students from the reservation quota than the meritorious students is impractical. But the country runs on the principle of holistic development. Socialism is here that there should be development for all. For this we have to do it so that we can bring equality by raising the standard of living of the exploited underprivileged. An important point is that this reservation is only in government services. Meritorious people can contribute better in the development of the country by using their skilled and best knowledge in other fields. The difference between the cut off mark of the general category and the cut off marks of the reserved category is continuously decreasing.

3. There is a basic premise of reservation that because of the injustice done to them in the past, considering it, reservation can be given as compensation. Is it right that the present generation should be punished for the injustice done by our ancestors?

It is true that the punishment of one crime cannot be given to another. So the anti-reservationists argue that then to what extent it is appropriate to punish the next generation for the injustice done by the ancestors? But the answer to this argument is also hidden in this logic. Since the movable and immovable property acquired by the ancestors by exploiting these castes is still being consumed by their next generations, so the next generations will have to bear the consequences of their exploits. Due to them, even today these upper caste generations are prosperous on the socio-economically parameter than backward classes, scheduled castes and tribes.

4. After all, how long will the reservation be given?

While making the provision of reservation, it was thought that the reserved class would be enriched economically and socially in a given period of 10 years. Then it will no longer be needed. Even after the passage of more than 70 years, due to some reasons this has not happened yet. Yes, it has definitely improved rapidly. Therefore, the system of reservation will continue till this happens. But now reservation is becoming a political issue more than social justice, due to which it seems that hardly any government takes any final decision on this issue in present or future.

5.Should the basis of reservation be economic?

Reservation has been done not only to remove economic inequalities but with the aim of substituting social justice. In which the entire community of a particular caste can be enriched socially. Therefore, the reservation has been fixed on the basis of caste.

6. When there is a system of reservation on the basis of caste, then why are the people of the reserved category selected in the general category.

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, including the backward classes in the country, constitute about 90% of the total population, while the reservation is only 49.5%. Therefore, justice will be done only if they get proportional representation or the able people get a place in the general category. Since in the first situation, the development of the country will be adversely affected, so the second arrangement has been made.

7.When will the reservation end?

However, it does not seem likely in the near future. But from the results published in the recent past, it is clear that the level of competition has increased in the reserved categories also and the gap between the general category cut off and the reserved category cut off is continuously decreasing.

There have also been many such exams in which the cut off of OBC was higher than the cut off of Economically Weaker Section of the general category. The general category has started distancing itself from this tough competition and looking for other options. So in future it may also happen that the cut off of reserved category may be higher than the cut off of general category. Then these castes will stand against the reservation, then only the reservation can end slowly.

Discrepancies and Corrections

1. Despite the passage of more than 70 years since the provision of reservation in the Constitution, it is still needed. This is because some sections of these castes have become economically and socially prosperous. In fact, now they should not get this reservation, but due to the reservation for a particular caste, people here occupy the jobs of the reserved class. Whereas those who really need it, they do not get this benefit. As a result, most of the people who were backward in the far flung areas of the Depressed Classes neither improved their standard of living much nor able to take advantage of reservation.

2. The government made a provision to exclude those people from the creamy layer ie reservation category, whose annual income is more than Rs.8 lakh. But this provision is still more on paper while less in effect. Due to which the empowered people take advantage of reservation from these castes, due to which the purpose of reservation is not being fulfilled. It needs to be followed strictly.

3. Reservation is a fact provided by the Indian Constitution and cannot be denied. There is a need to make oneself talented so that there can be a tough competition in the exams held in the general category. These words of Urdu and Persian poet Muhammad Iqbal are undoubtedly the ones to communicate enthusiasm-

“खुद को कर बुलंद इतना कि हर तकदीर से पहले खुदा बंदे से खुद पूछे बता तेरी रजा क्या है”

(Make yourself so powerful that before every decision of god, God ask to you.)

Hope you have got important facts and a meaningful information on reservation from this article. Citations are not described in detail to keep the article limited in words.

Note: These are my own views and have been written in a neutral spirit. Maybe one’s views are closer to one side which is very natural. In such a situation, reasoned discussion is welcome.