Oct 23 : In India reservation is a basis of affirmative action to bring socially and backward people in the mainstream. The makers of our constitution set 15 years time but still after half a decade this issue continue to whisk the nation.
How moral is the reservation based on caste? As there are equally unprivileged group in all the section of society and how to address the concern of those socially and economically backward in other religions as there were no caste system in other religious groups?
But till now the reservation based on caste has been idolized too much.
Tamil Nadu government which passed an ordinance last month reserving 3.5% each of the seats in state and private educational institutions and government jobs for backward class Christian and Muslims received the assembly’s consent on Monday.
M Karunanidhi said after the bill was passed by voice vote “It’s a golden day in the history of the state assembly and social justice.”
Adding that the bill was passed on the report submitted by Tamil nadu second Backward classes Commission headed by J A Ambasankar in 1985.
The 3.5 % quota each to backward class Muslims and Christians will be a part of the existing 30 per cent reservation as per 1994 legislation.
Earlier, Madras High Court refused to give stay at the ordinance. But Supreme Court later held the quota bill for Muslims in school and Universities, which has been passed by Andhra Pradesh assembly.
All the other allies of DMK supported the bill unanimously. But they cautioned against legal hurdles.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi opposed the bill saying that they are against any quota that is given in the name of religion.
Hailing it as a Ramzan gift for the minorities, Karunanidhi said, “I have not implemented this expecting applause... this is but an effort to ensure the rights of the oppressed”.
The reservation bill was welcomed by many sections but what K.M.Vijayan an eminent lawyer opposing the 3.5 % reservation each to backward section of Christian and Muslims pointed out that the new quota system will prove less beneficial to the community than it enjoys under the 30% reservation for the backward classes.
It is only the first day after the bill has been passed and it is too early to jump to any conclusion.
As in a similar case the Andhra Pradesh high court quashed 5% reservation of Muslims and Christians, dictating that reservation on the basis of religion is against the constitution.
The tone of the reservation based on religion has to be defined, while our constitution does not allow reservation based on religion but it is permissible in the case of socially and economically backward people.
The Dalits, who are now converted themselves to other religions for seeking the benefit of reservation, but by mere changing to another clothing can not change their status overnight, which has passed on from generation to generation.
The quagmire of reservation has become too difficult and complicated that neither socio-economic backwardness nor the caste-based reservation is going to solve the crisis.
Supreme Court has asked to identify whether is there any caste, which has been excluded from this reservation system, it strikes the right chord, as only the privileged section in the non privileged group gets all the benefit.
There should have been an instrument or a system, which should have excluded the beneficiary gradually, making it a product of distributive justice.
But till now it has been accumulating in the hands of few.
This bill is likely to raise few queries. Why can’t we have think tank that can really reach out a policy and make India free of casteism policies.
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Comments:
Biju
October 23, 2007 at 12:00 AM
It is a national shame that people are reduced to spineless spectators in the reservation system, that does not care about the poor, but only caste. Tamilians are known for self immolation and hero worship, but one wonders where their senses are in how they support Karunanidhi who has stooped so low while playing politics.