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The Rediff Interview/Professor D L Sheth

'Several communities who may have been backward once, taking advantage of such a policy, are not backward any longer'

FIRST PART:'Extensions to more communities might well make the concept of reservations meaningless'

When you were a member of the first National Backward Classes Commission, did you not envisage such problems -- political interference -- coming up in the future?

We did. At least during my time on the commission -- 1993 to 1996 -- we constantly faced requests from various quarters and political groups seeking to be on the OBC list.

First, let us understand what this commission is. In 1993, following the directive of the Supreme Court, the National Commission came into existence, along with state commissions for each of the states. These came into existence as permanent commissions, with members having fixed tenures of three years. And these members are supposed to consider requests from people for an OBC status.

This has opened the floodgates! It means any community can go up to the commission and demand OBC status, be it a Brahmin community or a Shudra community. And the commission has to make the judgement that they are backward and not adequately represented in government jobs.

According to the act, the decision of the commission is ordinarily binding on the government. Thus it is not any politician who can decide on backward status but the commission. However, what happens in reality is that since it is the politicians who appoint members of the commission, they enjoy great leverage over it. Naturally, politicians appoint members who are likely to listen to them, and I am sorry to say this, but that is what seems to have happened now.

If dominant castes -- who are often the landlords in villages and employ the OBC and other castes -- start figuring in the OBC list, will this not harm those whom reservations were meant to benefit?

That is a very real problem. Now, reservation is an old policy and has been in practice for decades, especially in southern India. And several communities who may have been backward once, taking advantage of such a policy, are not backward any longer. Such communities and castes should go out of the reservation system, and that is not happening so far.

According to the Supreme Court judgment and the Commissions Act, they are required -- it is mandatory -- from sometime in 2002 to start identifying communities in the reservation list, and see that those who are no longer backward are removed from the OBC list.

Do you see that happening realistically?

That will have to happen since that is the mandate. So the commission will have to start doing it. Now whether that will be accepted and implemented by the government of the day, one cannot say.

But there is one aspect that not many are aware of. Any other community or citizen can go to the commission and state that so-and-so community or caste has taken advantage of reservations for so many years, and according to our understanding, that particular community/caste is no longer educationally or socially backward. Such a statement can be backed by figures listing the number of doctors, lawyers and graduates to substantiate the claim.

This way, the first community or communities that are really backward can ask for the removal of the second community or of communities that have moved up the social scale so that the first community can take advantage of the reservations. For example, one can say that the Sainis are no longer backward. Now all these may happen. The commission has to take notice of such complaints.

But the problem is that often the more backward are not politically organised to make such a complaint and take on the less backward.

Technically, any person or even a non-governmental organisation can request that a particular community be removed from the list. And even though there will be political pressure from the less backward, the more backward will also exert political pressure.

Why not have a categorisation of the most backward classes?

It is already there in most cases but not in the National Backward Classes Commission, which I have not understood. When I was a member, this point was frequently raised that the NBCC must have such a categorisation, so that when a policy of exit comes, those who are least backward could be looked at from that point of view.

However, there is one caveat when talking about the most backward. There is an imbalance between the north and the south. Since reservations have been there for a long time in the south, communities that were genuinely backward have now moved up.

For example, the Ezhavas in Kerala were genuinely backward about 50 years ago. But over a period of time, because of affirmative action, modernisation and the sect movements of reformers such as Sri Narayana Guru, there are any number of doctors, lawyers, etc among the Ezhavas. Similarly, the Lingayats in Karnataka have progressed a lot.

In the north, the whole reservation system came very late, both centrally and in the states. States like Rajasthan, Gujarat and even Orissa adopted this system only some time ago, and even then the percentage of reservation was very low like eight or 10 per cent.

So that one can say that some of the communities in south India are far too advanced to be included in the central OBC list vis-a-vis their northern counterparts. After all, the backward communities of the north need more time to improve their status.

NEXT:'How many of the former untouchables are present in the top echelons of the private sector?'

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