The founding fathers of the Republic had provided reservations for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes only for the first 10 years, hoping such affirmative action would become unnecessary once the traditionally underprivileged groups acquired a modicum of merit and equality with the rest of the society. They recognised the grave injustice the way caste had come to be practiced over centuries had done to a section of the people. And were keen to address the problem through special quotas in public appointments and educational institutions. Ten years was too short a time to undo the effects of the weight of an accumulated social and economic injustice and atrocity of a long time. After periodic extensions, the SC-ST reservations were now here to stay. Society has come to accept them without a murmur, even if there is a half-hearted attempt to weed out the creamy layer from the scope of such entitlements. But what has followed in the wake of those and, admittedly absolutely necessary, SC/ST reservations now threatens to rend asunder the delicate fabric of Indian
society. The Mandal reservations were unleashed on the nation by a beleaguered prime minister. Indira Gandhi and her son, Rajiv Gandhi, had even refused to make public the report of the Mandal Commission, set up by the short-lived Janata Party government. V P Singh released the genie in a vain bid to save his kursi. It failed to save his job, but he nonetheless ended up inflicting a most lethal blow to the cause of social cohesiveness and unity. Instead of caste vanishing as a determinant of one’s social identity, increasingly it seems virtually to become its sine qua non. Politicians in quest of cheap popularity play the caste card unmindful of the schisms it causes in the larger society. Fragmentation of society, nay polity is now becoming a reality. In time, we might have as many parties and groups as there are castes and caste conglomerations. Regrettably, despite his new-found self-confidence and power of articulation, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi seems bent on degrading the public discourse to its lowest depths by posing absurd questions which can only aggravate caste divisions. The other day in the Lok Sabha, flashing a picture of the Finance Minister and officials engaged in budget-making ritualistically preparing halwa, Gandhi asked rhetorically about the woefully thin numbers of OBCs and Dalits in that frame. Previously, he had intoned aloud about the number of secretaries in the Government belonging to the non-reserved castes. Such absurdities may disprove claims about his new-found maturity, but more important is the question about the damage these do to the cause of larger societal peace and harmony. That could be incalculable, especially if the caste fires he is bent on lighting gain glow. Thanks to such a constant refrain about caste we may be regressing as a people, advancing forward and headed for a Viksit Bharat a little over two decades hence as we are all supposed to be. Pushing back the society into little, and separate but hostile, caste-based silos would be the net outcome of Rahul’s verbal exhaust against the Modi government. Opposing the government with all his might would be welcome, should be welcome, and indeed in lots of cases absolutely necessary, but dragging down the nation in his bid to re-discover relevance for the Congress party should be a firm no-no.
The Mandal-era riots and street protests are still fresh in our minds. There are several ways to mobilise people in favour of the main Opposition party, and against the Modi government. But beating the drum of caste and a caste census cannot be, and should not be, one of them. He should realise that even without his whipping up passions on caste the problem of caste-based reservations has acquired such an ascendancy that the higher courts have had to intervene repeatedly to check the growing malaise. Overcoming the 50% cap on reservations has seen some state governments resort to unconventional ways, with the courts choosing to look the other way. (Right now, a situation is developing in Maharashtra where a hitherto little-known leader has become a thorn in the side of the rulers, current and previous, demanding reservations for the dominant Maratha community. Without commenting one way or the other about the validity of the demand, we want to highlight how handling the question of Maratha reservations has become very ticklish for the administration.) However, the manner in which more and more groups, buoyed up no doubt by Rahul’s uninformed and uneducated rhetoric, are seeking caste-and-sub-caste-specific shares in the ever shrinking public cake, the situation could become unmanageable for any central government. In his desperation to woo the voters, invoking their basest of instincts based on nothing but birth could recoil not only on him but the larger society. As it is, the existing demands for reservations are posing a huge problem for various state governments. Blowing it up a million-times through a nation-wide caste survey — even when the government is dragging its feet on the long-delayed decadal census — is too high a cost that Rahul seeks to inflict in his desperate bid to become prime minister. Desist from raking up caste, for god’s sake.
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