#dnaEdit: Gujarat’s 10% quota for economically backward groups raises questions

Faced with the political imperative of retaining its Patidar support base, the Gujarat government has clearly caved in by announcing a 10 per cent quota for economically backward classes (EBC). The violent turn to the Hardik Patel-led agitation for OBC reservation and the police crackdown on the agitators had estranged the Patidar community. Though the reservation agitation has lost much steam since Hardik’s imprisonment, the Patidar disenchantment with the Anandiben Patel government has endured. To compound Anandiben’s discomfiture, the Congress in Gujarat, down in the dumps for over two decades, has shown signs of resurgence with a strong showing in rural areas in last year’s civic polls. Prior to that, the Gujarat government had betrayed its nervousness over the civic polls by citing law and order problems, which were baseless, to postpone the polls.

The 10 per cent quota for EBCs could have been workable had Gujarat not been in violation of the 1992 Supreme Court judgment in the Indira Sawhney case that caps reservations at 50 per cent. With the state’s quota policy touching 60 per cent, it is bound to get challenged in the high court as has happened in other states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Though the quota will cover all upper castes with a household income less than Rs6 lakh per annum, the leaders of the Patidar agitation point have rejected the policy, by pointing to this legal stumbling block. However, if the government succeeds in ensuring that the courts do not stay the new reservation policy while the case is being agitated, as has happened in Tamil Nadu, which offers a whopping 89 per cent reservation, it might succeed in mollifying the Patels.

With newer groups demanding reservations and governments hard-pressed to meet these demands, which often ends in violence, the reservation policy is under tremendous strain. Bearing the Indira Sawhney judgment in mind, dominant groups like the Gujarat Patidars, Haryana Jats and Andhra Pradesh Kapus are demanding inclusion in the existing quotas for OBCs. But those groups enjoying the benefits of OBC reservation will raise the flag of revolt if dominant groups are included in their fold. So the EBC reservation has emerged as a compromise formula to include the poor among upper castes into the quota fold. It is a fact that financial muscle, and not just caste alone, is beginning to determine the access to quality education and remunerative jobs. The traditional reality in India is that the social and financial muscle enjoyed by dominant groups and upper castes has given them a head-start over others. With reservation allowing hitherto backward and underrepresented groups a share in the governance pie, the anxieties of the Patidars and Jats, of losing their social, financial and political clout is coming to the fore. 

The EBC quota could, perhaps, act as a balm on the social psyche of the poor among the upper castes. However, the Supreme Court’s cap of 50 per cent becomes a hurdle in allowing governments to tailor policy to suit its and the public’s interest. Perhaps, a judicial review of the EBC quotas in various states should also include a review the Indira Sawhney judgment. But does the government’s interest always mirror public interest? It is also possible that these groups could turn around and say that 10 per cent quotas are not enough. We are then staring at a future where all government education and job opportunities are hived up on the basis of castes and class, with precious little left for merit. In this context, the need for a cap, as in the Indira Sawhney judgment, becomes relevant. There are unsettling questions raised by the reservation policy and the consequent social churn. Rather than the judiciary, Parliament is the ideal forum to discuss this.