Exploiting scarcity

The minister for human resource development, Arjun Singh, has "proposed" on the eve of important state elections that the quota of reserved seats in centrally-funded institutions of degree-giving institutions should be increased from 22.5 to 49.5 per cent so as to accommodate the Other Backward Castes (OBCs), who are an important electoral category. Since this is a "proposal" and not yet a Cabinet decision, Mr Singh may have convinced himself that it would not attract the attention of the Election Commission's Code of Conduct for political parties. That code forbids the announcement of schemes and benefits after the election process has started. It is not the usual practice for individual ministers to announce major schemes before the Cabinet considers them. So the announcement's intention was clear, to influence the voter, and the Commission has rightly stepped in" though what it can do is unclear.

Mr Arjun Singh has also said that the proposal was approved by the Prime Minister, who has maintained a discreet silence. And since it is likely to have had the blessings of the Congress president as well, there is little likelihood of the Cabinet not approving the proposal. The Congress is thus trying to do a 'Mandal' so as to increase its popularity with specific sections of voters, unmindful of two aspects of Mandalisation. One is that the man who implemented the Mandal Commission's report, Prime Minister V P Singh, has seen his political career go nowhere. Second, it is far from certain that the Congress will be able, through the announcement of reservations, to wean OBC voters away from the regional, caste-based parties that have gained dominance in the Hindi heartland.

The terms of the debate are still sociological. It is being conducted with equity and justice as the main frames of reference. While much can be (and has been) said for and against reservations on this or that criterion, it is extraordinary that the government is refusing to do the one thing that will go a long way towards solving the problem and avoiding conflict: increasing the supply of seats so as to match demand more closely. Instead, it has assumed scarcity of supply and sought the same approach with employment, where it has progressed from talking of voluntary reservations by private sector companies to exactly what had initially been ruled out: a change of law, and probably of the Constitution, to mandate reservations in the private sector as well. It is not a coincidence that in the southern states, where a large number of private engineering and medical colleges have come up in recent years, reservations are not a hot political issue. Indeed, in the case of engineering courses, supply is now greater than demand and (if news reports are to be believed) some politicians who had started engineering colleges are now converting them into hotels!

In other words, the sociological nature of the issue is a cover for not addressing its commercial aspects. The liberalisation of industry led to the disappearance of waiting lists for telephones, scooters, cars and such like" all as aspirational as college education. The liberalisation of college education" that is, giving free rein to private initiative" will have the same effect. Why not try it? And do it differently from the way in which the Chhattisgarh government under Ajit Jogi dished out permits for starting private universities? This may not lie well with Arjun Singh's socialist pretensions, but it would certainly solve the problem more effectively than reservations.