The editorial “Skimming the cream” (October 7), observes, and rightly so, that through its move to narrow the definition of the “creamy layer” by raising the annual income ceiling for it from Rs 250,000 to Rs 450,000, the government has made it clear that the real intention is to dilute the court’s order for keeping the “creamy layer” out of the ambit of OBC reservations and to make more people eligible for it. There could be no denying that government decisions regarding reservations have always been driven by vote-bank politics.
In fact, things have been wrong since the very beginning. The Constitution had provided reservation only for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes for a limited period of 10 years, but the government of the day amended the Constitution to extend it further and successive governments, through various amendments not only went on extending the SC/ST reservation but also introduced other caste-based reservations with the sole purpose of creating new, and expanding the existing, vote banks. It is therefore futile to expect the present government to follow the spirit of any court order that comes in the way of its politics. The efforts of the government are always towards dodging or nullifying such court orders through administrative orders or Constitutional amendments. This is not the first time that the court has ordered keeping the “creamy layer” out of the ambit of OBC reservation. The political establishment has just moved the goalpost.
Caste-based reservations are illogical and against the Constitutional guarantee of equality. If reservation is necessary, it should be made sure that beneficiaries are economically backward. The Supreme Court has held that children of IAS officers, those holding Constitutional posts, senior people in state-owned undertakings and in the armed forces are in the “creamy layer” category and hence non-eligible for reservation benefits. Children of all those who are or have ever been ministers, MPs and MLAs should also not be eligible for reservation benefits. They are the best of the “creamy layer”.
M C Joshi, Lucknow
Unfair deal
It is all right that the Tatas have decided to set up the Nano project in Gujarat. But the industrial giant should not be allowed to do real estate business at the common man’s expense. Taking advantage of the race to grab the Nano project, the company, even after finalising to set up the mother plant near Ahmedabad, is still dangling the carrot in front of other states to grab prime land in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by assuring that it will set up major ancillaries in these states. The land that is being offered by Andhra Pradesh is very close to Hyderabad and the 1,000 acres offered by government of Andhra Pradesh will be worth a fortune after a few years. Even in Dharwad in Karnataka, the land offered to the Tatas will be worth a huge amount in another 10 years. The Tatas already have 300 acres of excess land in Dharwad, given to them by the Karnataka government 15 years ago, that has not been put to any use. This land should be taken back — the Tatas should not be allowed to hold on to it for another 15 years and then sell it to make a fortune at the cost of the poor farmers who are the land’s real owners.
P S Shetty, Mangalore
