The long dark tea time of the soul

Now that the heat on reservations has sufficiently cooled down, and everybody has said what he or she had to say, it is time to critically analyze all the arguments by all the participants in the debate, summarize them, point out my reservations with both kinds of people, and in short antagonize everyone.

The student and professional’s movement (?) against reservation were shown to be so meaningless by different blogs and pundits (here and here, here and here), that I don’t feel there is any need to do the same here. Not only were a majority of these campaigns elitist and unconnected to the real needs, they were stupid as well. That the movement(?) could not gain acceptance among the masses, and could not spread beyond a few large cities, despite tremendous support from the media does not speak much about them. The outrageous mails about somebody dying in AIIMS were a sign of desperation. The point on merit was so thoroughly exposed to be hollow, that it ceased to be the core of the arguments long ago. A point-by-point rebuttal on many of their arguments has been done in many pro-reservation blogs. Suffice it to say that I was never clear about the intention and logic of stopping medical treatment to the poor, and I don’t want to write a long rebuttal myself.

But I do have a problem with pro-reservationists. I don’t have a problem with OBC reservations per-se, but with the way it is being handled. That’s because “backward” is a blanket term, covering both Narendra Modi and the muslim rikshawallah in Kolkata. When I think of OBC, I think of poor potters in Bastar who need and deserve reservation but I also think of those jats in Jhajjar who had burnt dalits because they suspected them of killing a cow, or those in Tamil Nadu, where pathurai vannars are forced to beg by rich dalits and backward castes. What I am saying is, there is a need to conduct a detailed social and scientific study to create the social grouping that is actually backward. Part of the fault lies with ncbc (national commission on backward castes) which has been extremely lenient in categorizing various castes as backward in last three decades. Also there was a lack of effort from the pro-reservationists to understand the popular sentiment against reservation in national institutes. While there exists strong reason to dismiss them as elitist (consider this popular sentiment among them, “I am going to leave this country because merit is not respected here”. Obviously that is a preposterous comment. Not only is the individual self-obsessed and ostentatious, he has this false illusion of being greater than the country or the society. Similarly somebody else says, “Iam not going to pay any taxes”. Good, shall I laugh or make rotis for him to bring in jail), but apart from the merit clause there was some genuine grievances. All anti-reservationists were dismissed summarily as elite, unreal, rich kids of rich dads and so on. But that is the same kind of generalization that the ‘merit’ wala upper caste boy/girl suffers from. They saw the decision on extending quota as a political decision, completely guided by the constraints of votes and the contempt that politicians deserve and reserve for themselves, opposition was not at all surprising. Nobody can deny that a major share of reservation benefits has gone to a few rich and powerful people. The number of seats in higher education is meager, especially in medical post graduate courses. Successive governments have neglected higher education. The fact that the government has agreed to increase seats to cushion the effect is no consolation. It should have been the other way round, increase the seats first and then introduce quotas. There have been no scientific study to explain just who constitutes an OBC and how? There is no scientific data to ascertain their exact numbers, neither was there any effort to do so. Numbers were quoted by one and all, without any logical basis, 27% reservation for 52 % OBC because the maximum limit for reservations is 50%, OBCs are poor and theis share in IITs is very less and they will live happily-ever-after, if we ensure that their kids become doctors and engineers. Mandal commission is a 30 year old report, nobody tried to cross check how much relevant it is in the present scenario.

The intellectuals failed miserably. Nobody asked the government to give facts, and not take policy decisions based on hypothesis. Many of them blindly supported the government’s move. What was disheartening is that a majority of dalit intellectuals like Kancha Ilaiah, made the same mistakes. Other than Brahmins and rajputs, many castes now listed as OBC, were at the forefront in oppressing dalits and tribals for nearly three millenia. Go to rural Punjab, and you will have countless stories how jats have raped dalit women and enslaved their men. We are in fact rewarding these castes by providing them quotas in elite institutions, we are in a way rewarding oppression. There was a need to give a fitting reply to the racist propaganda by anti-reservation people, but there was an equal need to ask the government to come clean on its stand. It was really depressing to see Muslims in Delhi putting out a rally to demand reservations for Narendra Modi’s children. (ok, Modi is not married, but that does not necessarily mean that he doesn’t have any children, especially considering that he regards rapists in Gujarat as Gujarat’s pride and his heroes)

The point is that the liberal intelligentsia failed to live upto its mark. There was a blind support for reservations among them, without any justification or logic. Remember that, it was not a pressing issue, nobody actually asked for OBC reservations in IIT/IIM/AIIMS/TIFR till three months ago. If it was such a matter of life and death, equality and rural upliftment, if it was suppossed to be a solution to all our ills, there should have been a sustained campaign first. I don’t remember Ms. Jayati Ghosh (whom I respect a lot) ever asking for these measures in her biweekly columns in frontline. Like the demand for RTI or NREGS or Forest bill, there was actually no social movement preceding the cabinet’s decision to extend quotas.

Fact is, it was an unnecessary evil decision without any basis. It was not demanded by anyone, it was just thrown off at us by the UPA. “Tum hame vote do, ham tumhe quota denge”. Coming from a backward caste myself, and hailing from rural India, this is extremely offensive to me. I am not a dog to be thrown away things at, to lick the bone, wag my tail and vote for the party in power. That I see many backward caste elements doing so is shameful. In fact, I quote one of my favourite dalit intellectual, Dr. Chandrabhan prasad, “backward castes need a social movement, not an economic one like reservations.” Very true. Maharashtra and Tamil-Nadu had a long history of social movements under Narayan guru, Periyar, Jyotibha Phule, etcetera, before implementing 59 or 69% quotas. Nobody knows the purpose of extending reservations to OBCs. Was it implemented

• to restore social equity,
• for economic upliftment,
• to work as a catalyst to free our society from caste system,
• to encourage diversity and inclusiveness in these colleges,
• to make Arjun Singh the prime minister of India
• all of the above
• none of the above
• some of the above

Nobody answered these questions, nobody asked them as well. A thousand similar questions need to be answered before taking this major decision. There needs to be an apolitical critical appraisal of Mandal commission report. I agree that, there is a widening gap in our country between India and Bharat, between India shining and India stinking. Mandal’s classification might have been relevant 30 years ago, not now. We need to identify the MBCs among OBCs and have affirmative action for them, and of course the other twelve non-controversial suggestions by the Mandal commission for social and economic upliftment must be taken up by the government urgently. Merely to prove that it is sincere. Well the sincerity of the UPA government was never a question, everybody know that it is not the case. How can the same government that attacked narmada oustees (90% tribals and dalits) two months back in Delhi, take up this mask of being social justice champions? No. I agree with Harish Khare that the politicians cannot do anything right. We cannot achieve positive results by starting with negative intentions. This does not happen, this cannot happen. The need for the hour is for the semi-autonomous faculty of these institutions to take creative positive steps to achieve the same results. It would have been really great if the faculty of IIT debunk JEE as the only selection criteria and come up with something creative that encourages and is biased in favour of the people from rural background, without this whole drama. I am waiting for my professors to stand up to the challenge.