The Quota Sewage

The judges are becoming naughty, needling the government at every turn. The UPA coalition has lost Punjab, Uttaranchal, Delhi and Mumbai municipalities and some by-elections to Lok Sabha. Three tears. The Andhra Pradesh High Court has quashed the ordinance providing 5 per cent reservation for Muslims in education and public employment. So what, Karunananidhi will reserve seats for Christians and Muslims taking the total of reservations to 79 per cent, i.e. 29 per cent more than what the Supreme Court permits. UPA’s Left allies received a black eye in West Bengal. And, Uttar Pradesh is in the middle of electing a new Assembly. Is this the time to stay OBC reservations or challenge the minority status of Muslims in UP? Spoilsports, the judges are.

But then poor Arjun Singh, with a scalp that is vulnerable, depended on oral maths in computing his arguments to dole out the gravy to the OBCs. 1931 edition of the census report. That does not seem to be unreasonable. What if everything has changed since 1931? Independence came. Okay, Kaka Kalelkar counted 1200 OBCs but Mandal counted 2200. No, said the judges and asked a few uncomfortable questions. "1 What is the basis of the norms for fixing the OBC category? 2 What is the rational behind fixing it? 3 If the proposed reservation is implemented, what are the modalities and the basis for modalities?” All right, we will re-do our maths as we do our history. Veerappa Moily has done it. As we wait for the result, we remember what Oscar Wilde had said, “The best way to conquer desire is to yield to it.” So, the best way to abolish casteism is to accept it.

The Allahabad High Court ruling and its later stay by a division bench are all a fall-out of our history of troubled social and religious discord which establishment historians want to tinker with so that everyone becomes bhai-bhai. The very first question in defining a minority that needs an answer is: is the minority numerical or caste or religious or class or economic or intellectual? How can religion or caste be a basis of classification in a secular republic? Please, don’t bring reason into politics.

The apex court delivered a rebuke: “It has to be noted that nowhere else in the world do castes, classes or communities queue up for the sake of gaining backward status. Nowhere else in the world is there competition to assert backwardness and then to claim we are more backward than you.” How does it hurt the courts if we want to remain backward? There is some pride in it.

Okay, granted the Muslims are a minority. What do you do with Shias who are a minority among Muslims? But why does a numerical or religious minority need special treatment? The Muslims are backward, illiterate, poor etc. But aren’t there other people who are as backward, poor and illiterate as the Muslims? If some people talk of discrimination, such talk is based on the stupid hope that God should have created every one of us alike in every manner -- complexion, height, intelligence and gender too – and given us a common language so that there would be no basis for discrimination. Whether it is caste or religion, it is a shame that people scramble to be recognized as backward, not today but for ever. What a country! What a people!

No religious minority in India is persecuted. They are all victims of vote politics practiced by secular/communal parties and the greed of their own leaders. People are cleverer than the laws. They are converting to minority religions and buying scheduled caste certificates to grab the benefits that concessions bring to the minorities and the SCs and STs. There is no country in the world wedded to democracy which robs Peter to pay Paul. Is it necessary to tell the Dalits or Muslims they have been the victims of upper caste or majority villainy every time you offer them a carrot? The result has been a caste divide worse than the communal divide. The Dalits hate and wish the demise of everything they believe is the creation of the upper classes. In a recent interview Chandrabhan Prasad wanted all Indian languages should die because they do not benefit the Dalits. His suggestion that the Dalits should learn English is very good. For that, is it necessary that Indian languages which are older than English should die?

There is no secularism or communalism today. The ruling religion is opportunism. Mayawati woos Brahmins. Karunanidhi breaks bread with Muslims. In Kerala, secular parties regularly go to bed with the Muslim League. Reservations are 57 years old, extended every ten years as though it was a constitutional mandate. Those who benefited from these concessions failed to share their success with others of their community and, worst of al, became a separate caste by themselves. Poor Manmohan Singh is angry with the judiciary and asks the judges not to cross the constitutional Lakshman Rekha. But who knows better about the Constitution than the judges whose daily business it is to interpret it?

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