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Saba Naqvi
Dr BR Ambedkar must be turning in his grave. Overnight, members of my family can, in theory, be entitled to reservation. They are Sayyid Muslims settled across the Awadh belt of Uttar Pradesh. And many of them are impoverished if we go by the latest definition of earning less than Rs 8 lakh a year that roughly adds up to Rs 60,000 a month. That would be a princely sum for several uncles, aunts, first cousins and so on.
So am I celebrating the quota for the ‘economically weak people’? After all, even Muslims get a foot in? But no, I am not celebrating. On the contrary, I am deeply troubled by the quota that, I think, is a travesty of the idea of social justice.
As for my relatively “poor” relatives, they are all educated enough and have considerable social capital to have many advantages over Hindus from the lower castes and those Muslims who are entitled to reservations. For readers who are getting confused here, there are socially and economically backward groups among Muslims which are entitled to reservations in some states but are rarely able to avail of it because of educational backwardness. The socio-economic differences in Indian Muslim society are between groups loosely identified as the Ashrafs that includes Sayyids and Pathans and sections described as Ajlaf that includes peasants and artisan communities.
But I digress as the newest quota is primarily about winning back the confidence of upper-caste Hindus, many of whom voted against the BJP in the recent Assembly elections. Quota, too, is a great magic trick like the demonetisation.
In terms of short-term gains, this game of smoke and mirrors did catch the Opposition unawares; they were all compelled to back the Bill in Parliament in an election year.
But it is unlikely to be a game-changer. The people, whom the quota creates the illusion of helping, would be smart enough to know there are hardly any government jobs. There are poor Brahmins and Banias across the land (particularly in UP where upper castes make up 20 per cent of the population and from where the BJP won 71 seats in 2014). Will they be convinced this quota will help them in the future?
I don’t know but am certain that the counter polarisation could undo any potential benefit. There is every reason for Dalits to be plain outraged that people from socially forward communities, historically their oppressors, would be entitled to reservation. A section of Dalits had voted the BJP in 2014, and they have every reason to be deeply hurt by the cavalier extension of reservation.
This quota actually mocks at the poverty faced by many Indians. The greatest travesty lies in the fact that the government has opened up the possibility of affirmative action for people who could earn just less than Rs 8 lakh a year when many Indians do not even get the basic minimum wages that vary from state to state.
OBCs equally have every reason to be angry and large sections voted for the BJP in the Hindi belt. Even in the post-Mandal age when reservation was extended to OBCs and capped at 50 per cent, it is the more “forward” OBCs who landed most of the jobs.
The failure to provide education lies at the crux of the problem of quotas delivered so far in India’s history. For an overwhelmingly poor country, we have never prioritised education and the current NDA has slashed even the pittance the UPA allotted to education. The consequence has been that with no educational uplift some Indians are just out of the pale of being able to avail of quotas that they are entitled to.
Yes, my family could in theory get reservations. But I am deeply shamed by a policy that callously mocks real poverty and historical deprivation of my fellow citizens.