Opinion: Caste reservation is a double-edged sword… Rahul Gandhi should understand this.

Badri Narayan: Hardly a week goes by when a politician does not raise the issue of reservation. Although the framers of the Indian Constitution saw it as a measure of social justice, it is now being seen as a means of political capital rather than a means of equality. Being associated with vote politics, no one (be it political parties or activists) dares to say or debate anything on its changing nature, functioning and effects. Remember the 2015 Bihar assembly elections, when the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement calling for a social review of this policy was considered a major reason for the defeat of the BJP and its allies. As a result RJD got a landslide victory. This had put the Sangh on the backfoot. Since then, there has been a change in its rhetoric. Time and again, RSS leaders have explained that they are in favor of continuing reservation.

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then reservation will lose its meaning

As we know in the politics of social justice, if a plan does not have room for review and evaluation, it gradually loses its transformative democratic meaning. This is what is happening with the issue of reservation in India. Even if the reasons and context of its formation are removed, few can dare to discuss its ‘end’. In September, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during his/her visit to the US, told students at Georgetown University that Congress would think about ending reservations only when ‘India is a fair place’. After this, this statement created a wave of negative mobilization against him/her.

Now SC/ST will also have creamy layer! Why is there uneasiness among NDA constituents regarding quota within quota?

Reason for party’s defeat in Haryana

In fact, analysts say this is one of the factors that contributed to his/her party’s defeat in the Haryana Assembly elections. On the other hand, BJP took advantage of this comment and cleverly consolidated OBC and Dalit votes. Even though Rahul Gandhi later tried to clarify his/her quota statement by saying that it was a misinterpretation, the damage was done. It is interesting to note that Rahul Gandhi himself was instrumental in turning reservation into aggressive political capital for his/her party and other allies of the India Bloc.

However, this case clearly shows how politics regarding reservation has emerged as a double-edged sword. This may backfire against political parties who see it as political capital for mobilization. Emotions that generate political power today may start generating negative effects tomorrow, as Gandhi must have realised.

What is the whole logic of reservation?

As we know, the entire argument for reservation is based on the notion of victimhood which always involves a binary between the ‘victim’ and the ‘oppressor’ or ‘other’. In this binary, the categories of victim and dominant persist but who is in those categories changes. The castes and communities which today are vocally evoking political sentiments in their favor may be replaced tomorrow by other backward and marginalized social groups with more vocal claims and arguments of victimization or exclusion. These changes are inherent in the structure of social justice as it is based on ‘sharing’ (division) of resources in democracy.

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Why the opposition to quota within quota?

We saw this recently during the debate triggered by the Supreme Court judgment on subcategorization within the SC/ST category. The application of the creamy layer principle to this category likely pitted the relatively less deprived SC/ST groups against the leading castes. Interestingly, since the dominant Dalit communities are opposing subcategorization, most of the political parties are either silent or against subcategorization of reservation opportunities. But the demand for sub-categorization is the voice of marginalized groups, who in my view will become politically stronger in the future. This will make it difficult to suppress this desire of the most marginalized communities because it is the voice of future Dalit politics in India.

Serious consequences of amendment in reservation provision

The Indian Constitution has been amended more than a hundred times since it was enacted in 1950, but the mere mention of an amendment to the reservation provision can have serious political consequences. This hyper-politicization has also made it difficult to talk about equitable distribution of its benefits among marginalized social groups. The electoral influence and pressure of upper castes is eroding its democratic prospects and moral context. One can go to the extent of saying that the political capital of reservation politics has created a voice that can vocally suppress other democratic voices due to its self-interest.

(The author is Director of G.B. Pant Institute of Social Sciences.)