Identification of OBCs will take 30 years !

I was without internet access for a while since my last post here. In the interim period, we saw the bizarre case of the Tamilnadu bandh / hunger strike and the resultant jabs at the judiciary. We are now seeing the shameless greed for power by Mr Kumaraswamy and Mr Deve Gowda.

Still, these issues are not even remotely as important as the OBC quota case that is being heard by the Supreme Court.

It is rather dismaying that the government is unwilling to table the merits of the case. Instead it is resorting to repeated assertions that there is nothing wrong with this kind of quota. Isn’t that for the court to decide ? See the following reports.

Quota law not violative of basic structure of statute: Centre

Creamy layer not applicable for SC/ST

Amendment doesnt violate law

Take these two submissions of Mr Parasaran (former Attorney General),

On the petitioners’ contention that minorities had been excluded from the purview of the quota law, Mr. Parasaran said “minorities had to be excluded to protect the secular character of our country. Otherwise, it will become a theocratic state.”

Wait a minute ? What does secularism have to do with this ? Minority OBCs have no problems enjoying the benefits of the quota system – Is it then right to exclude their institutes from sharing the national burden ? Enjoying benefits is secular – but sharing the burden is theocratic.

Mr. Parasaran said one could not wait for the identification of the OBCs as in view of the complexity of the problem it might take at least 30 years for proper identification. He, however, maintained that the government had identified the OBCs and only the notification had not been issued in view of the interim stay order (on implementation of the quota law) passed by the apex court.

Source : Hindu

If caste based social and educational backwardness is so real in India, then why must it take 30 years to identify ?

As this blog has pointed out many times in the past.

• It is dead easy to identify the real backward castes (just go to a stone quarry, garbage dump, traffic signals, construction workers, brick kilns, nomadic entertainers, and so forth – If someone is not already SC, they are the OBCs) Youth for Equality will never protest benefits to these groups, just like they have not protested benefits to SC/STs.
• It is hard to come up with a filter to exclude advanced sections from dominating benefits which are clearly meant for people in the previous point. This is where the rub is.

Explore the governments’ argument

The dominant argument forwarded is something like this -“Backwardness is not something that can be measured. Quotas are a remedy for centuries of caste based oppression. No economic filter can be used because just having money does not remove backwardness.”

Lets explore this and see where the perils lie.

If backwardness is beyond rational measurement, then the efficiency of steps taken to alleviate it is also beyond measurement. In effect, this places the system itself beyond measurement. No measurement leads to no accountability. This is why a stone breaker cannot demand what Indias’ social justice programs have done for his community.

States with low numbers of “first class” citizens will lose out to states with high numbers of “first class” citizens. Since, we have placed the classification itself above rational study, there is no incentive for not pushing to increase the “first class” population. This will naturally result in pushback from established “first class” citizens. Result : Jealousy, Rage, Bandhs, Hatred, Votebanks.