PALACE POLITICS

The impact that two Rajas - Arjun Singh and VP Singh - have had on the politics of the country makes for a compelling study, explains India Today's Neeraj Mishra.

Back in Churhat—fiefdom of HRD Minister Arjun Singh—they hold an interesting theory. The Kunwars (perpetual best man, never the groom) are the most adept at palace politics. Their survival instincts are so finely tuned that they always back the right Raja and can deftly convert a seeming disadvantage to an advantage. Something Kunwar Arjun Singh of the House of Sanda has shown without fail throughout his political career. He unquestioningly backed the Gandhis hoping to reap the rewards at the opportune time. Denied, he has maneuovred the whole political debate to a point where he is seen as keeper of Congress' social conscience. The political heir to the Nehruvian secularist legacy as opposed to a prime minister stuck in stocks.

Another Singh born a few miles away in the House of Manda who attended the same university as the HRD minister around the same time in history amazingly came up with a similar prescription in 1990. A populist move that can unnerve the best, destabilis political equations with the capacity to cause mass upheaval and "division in the society". At least that is what in essence the Supreme Court now feels. Immediately after V. P. Singh's Mandal I strike, his social justice minister Ramvilas Paswan had said, "We would be remembered as great visionaries 500 years hence." Post striking down of Mandal II, Arjun has only this to say: "Modern India can not be denied its potential." Clearly, if feudal backgrounds have caused any latent feeling of guilt, reservation has been their chosen path of deliverance.

In its March 29 order, the Supreme Court has stayed the execution of section 6 of the new Act sanctioning reservation in higher education institutions pushed through in parliament by Singh in December last.
"The Supreme Court appears annoyed at the haste shown in pushing through the legislation while it was still apprised of the matter and had in fact been assured by the government that its concerns would be addressed in the Bill," says Vivek Tankha, former advocate general and counsel for one of the three petitioners on whose petition the court gave the interim order. The SC had expressed two important concerns in August 2006 after the petitions had been filed, that the OBC list based on telescoping of 1931 census appears faulty and creamy layer should be kept out of the purview of reservation. In the Act neither of the concerns has been addressed.

The creamy layer criteria elucidated in the Indira Sawhney case of
'93 was literally emasculated by an aggressive pro-reservation lobby and the provision had to be removed from the draft bill. Even more surprisingly the advise of the parliamentary standing committee on reservation regarding inconclusive data base for OBCs was ignored.
Section 2 (g) of the Act only says that the "OBC list as determined by the central government" would be the effective one. The present central OBC list contains 3,743 backward castes and according to the National Sample Survey even those put together do not comprise more than 32 per cent of the population. Some other surveys put it at 30 per cent. The SC wants clear determinants and rock solid data base so that the socially and educationally backwards are benefited and not those "who queue up to be labeled backwards".

Arjun of course appears unperturbed. Remember, he knows how to convert a disadvantage in his favour. He perhaps worked with the fore-knowledge that such a scenario could arise. In September '06 the Supreme Court had asked the Tamil Nadu government to keep out the creamy layer. In the same month the Law Ministry had advised the cabinet that exclusion of creamy layer should be a provision in the bill. Despite all this the cabinet not only rejected the Law Ministry's advise it decided to march ahead with the Moily Committee recommendation of staggered introduction of quota in IIMs and IITs.
The HRD Ministry worked overtime to increase seat and staff in these institutions and the Budget saw an increased outlay of 34 per cent, mostly for higher education. And all this happened in three months.
The idea was to present the SC with a fate accompli. Quotas have been chalked out, budgets declared, seats increased, retirement age revised to put staff in place and 700 students selected. Now what can you do?
The SC of course did what it did and Singh's bluster of calling it an interim order which may be vacated on April 12 may not work because it is a "complete interim order" and can be revised only if subsequent events necessitate it.

And what can these subsequent events be? The impact could be on several levels. Again reason for Arjun to smile. Politically he could not be on smoother plinth. He has unanimous support cutting across party lines. Sharad Yadav says SC stay order is against the spirit of the Constitution, Ramvilas Paswan asserts it could cause civil unrest, VP Singh wants a national referendum on reservation, DMK actually shut down Tamil Nadu and the Left wants the stay to be vacated. The BJP is confused about its response as it wants to ride both the boats and Congress is torn from within. It knows such agendas have never worked for the party which is primarily a middle of the road unit. Its experiment with the Dalit Agenda in MP had failed miserably only recently. Caste agendas work for regional outfits and that explains Satyvrat Chaturvedi's response to OBC census; 'Congress is against a caste based census because it divides the society." But Arjun and VP Singh know it can build individuals as Messiahs.

The SC order may have several far-reaching impacts. It may now become incumbent on the government to call for a caste-based census. That in itself may force a revisit of the OBC quota in employment in force since 1991. The state OBC lists are set for a revision and this time the creamy layer criteria may ensure a greater focus on economic conditions of various castes. Arjun however knows he has hit the eye of the fish. The deed has been done and it cannot be undone, even by the SC. The prudent way forward now appears to be –get a recount, exclude creamy layer and move on.

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