Sunil Jain: Playing with fire

RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

last week, that a second read of the 2003 manifesto of his party, the BJP, would make it clear it had never committed that the Gurjjars would be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes. But in a country, and a state, where such a large proportion of people are illiterate, surely the manifesto doesn't count for much? It would be interesting to see if anyone from the BJP says that a promise was not made in election rallies, and by senior leaders at that""by the way, in election rallies, a we'll-look-into-your-demands is generally said, and seen, as a promise.

While the BJP is getting badly singed, the Congress, which is acting holier than thou by saying the BJP must douse the fire it started, is no less guilty of playing with fire. Indeed, its entire strategy of staying in power all these years has been based on such caste politics""Mandal-II is just a more recent example of this cynical behaviour which makes you wonder if our political class is much better than the British, who also used caste data and identities to strengthen their hold. Given this, the government's refusal to allow caste enumeration by the Census is the ultimate in hypocrisy""it argues such a Census will divide the country, but all politics is being conducted in terms of caste anyway.

What's worse, the Congress doesn't seem to have learnt any lessons and, if it succeeds in its latest endeavour, we could be headed for clashes that would make Dausa look like a kiddies' picnic. I am referring of course to the Justice Sachar report on the condition of Muslims and the government's decision to accept the major recommendations of the committee.

It's not clear why the prime minister asked Justice Sachar to do his report, but presumably it was the same political expediency that guides most such decisions""let's get this juicy vote bank to think we're with them ... we'll figure out what to do later.

Anyway, when the report got completed, it made its recommendations, which were shocking (see "Shades of Jinnah," December 11, 2006). It cited figures to show injustice to Muslims, but did nothing to put the figures in perspective. One of the figures cited by the report, for instance, says that just 3 per cent of the country's IAS officers are Muslim""compared to the 13.4 per cent share of Muslims in population; this comes across as discrimination. The report, however, doesn't bother to see this in the context of the proportion of Muslims who are graduates, or in the proportion of graduates who are Muslim.

Having laid out the facts, as it were, the report then went on to recommend de-reserving some SC constituencies where it says Muslims are in a majority (so that Muslim candidates can win, presumably), as well as other measures to ensure there is "corresponding representation in government structures" and "to enhance political participation of the Community". (By the way, it was the danger of Dausa becoming a reserved constituency that sparked the Gurjar agitation.) It then suggests the creation of a diversity index, an equal opportunities commission, online databases to monitor the progress of Muslims, the amount of credit they're getting, the jobs they get, and so on.

While the committee is well within its rights to make whatever recommendations it wants, what is shocking is that the government has agreed to most of these. Public sector banks have been asked to monitor loans given to the minority community and maintain a record of rejected loan applications, a committee will be set up to review the Delimitation Act to see if the SC constituencies can/should be dereserved, an Equal Opportunities Commission will be set up, an expert group will come out with an appropriate diversity index ... It will be argued that the government hasn't made a firm commitment yet, that we should wait to see how this diversity index is created and then implemented, and only then pass judgement. But this is exactly how the caste-based reservation mess that we are in today started off.

The other question that comes up in the context of the Dausa episode is why there's such a fuss about government jobs and reservations in them. After all, if you look at the central government, and the figures for the states can't be too different, there aren't too many new jobs getting created. But the reason why government jobs, even though they are not growing fast, are preferred is that, at lower levels, they pay around double or more than equivalent private sector jobs do. And this is a distortion that politicians make worse with each Pay Commission.

Access to education and the slow growth in private sector jobs are other reasons cited for why reservations are necessary. Well, anyone connected with the education sector will tell you it is the stranglehold of various government education boards and bodies like the UGC and the AICTE that are holding back more education institutes from coming up. And, as economists never get tired of pointing out, it is poor labour laws and other policies (it can take 20-30 years for an entrepreneur to be able to exit a company which makes huge losses) that are the main reason for slow growth in organised private sector jobs. It's poetic justice then, that the political class is getting roasted in its own fire, the pity is we too are getting caught in it.