As news agencies flashed the SC verdict this morning, I felt a little disappointed. Because two wrongs never make a right. ‘Centuries of oppression’ can never be undone by ‘decades of vote-bank politics’. All political parties rushed to welcome the decision. I knew what kind of crap Congress and Left would dish out but when BJP came out with a ‘me too’ kind of statement, I felt like going back and launching my own political party. And I indeed, spent time thinking about a logical and sensible political agenda that should be the basis of a new political movement.

But somewhere deep down I was also shaken because I wondered how come the wise men at Supreme Court failed to rise to the occasion and bell the reservation cat that has been let loose by our political caricatures. Sense of despondency came because since I am convinced that it is beyond combined intellectual capability of our political buffoons to analyse and address the problem of caste injustice in a sensible way, so my only hope was that SC would use this opportunity to set things right. But after taking 4 months since closure of arguments, if all SC could come up with is just a nod to quotas then it would have been really sad.

I must have slept as a troubled soul, had I not chanced upon this piece on rediff during my usual surfing routine.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/apr/10quota10.htm
And, if this is true then my confidence in judiciary has increased by leaps and bounds. Let me outline what I found heartening:

“You cease to be OBC when you are educated and attain graduation. Test of the OBC is social and educational backwardness. It says "and", that means if you are not educationally backward you are not OBC. The court has accepted the argument that if you are able to graduate you are not entitled to reservation."

I would say this is a remarkably intelligent and logical point. Way back in 2006 when I was still at IIMA, my biggest grouse against reservations was why reservations in Post-graduation? If you can get into an IIT by merely flaunting your surname, do you still need more crutches to get into a post-graduate degree. If you can’t walk on your two feet after 16 years of state-supported crutches then your are not disadvantaged but just plain incompetent. And if indeed SC in its judgment has carved out reservations in post-graduate courses then it’s one of the most wise decisions I have been witness to in my lifetime. Frankly, it was frustrating to see how nobody can notice something so illogical.

"The 1993 criteria to decide 'creamy layer' amongst OBC section says that people with landed property, all government employees above Class II, all OBC families with monthly income of Rs 20,000 (gross annual income of Rs.2.5 lakh and above ) etc. are barred from availing any reservation from now onwards,"

This is again a welcome decision though I have my fears that in the ‘land of jugaad’ (India) people would find a way to hide facts and forge documents to create an alternate reality to circumvent this clause. But well courts can do precious little about that. But I am all for reservations for economically backward and even if only economically backward OBCs would benefit from this ruling, I think it’s still good. What would have really pained me is son of an IAS officer studying at most expensive public school seeking an admission to IITs by claiming backwardness. Only backwardness I can notice in that case is moral backwardness.

I found another interesting information in a article in Indian Express:
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Yes-to-affirmative-action-no-to-mindless-quotas/295151/

According to this piece:

“it is a very welcome judgment as the Supreme Court has given its nod to a new survey, which takes into account not only the caste but also the economic indicators to decide backwardness.”

Now if indeed SC has suggested that government undertakes a proper census to (i) Assess actual percentage of OBCs & (ii) redefine “backwardness” by taking into account both caste and economic factors. It is again a nice thought but as they merely suggested this to GoI and gave them absolute powers to determine who should be OBC, we can be absolutely sure that Government of India would do absolutely nothing about it.

And finally I also read somewhere that SC has indicated that impact of reservations on society needs to be reviewed every 5 years and list of beneficiary casts be revised. Noble thought once more but unfortunately we know our political apparatus would hardly do anything meaningful to meet the spirit of this recommendation.

But cheers again to SC for clarifying the meaning of backwardness and saving at least the institutes of highest learning from being sacrificed on the altar of vote-bank politics.

PS (Friday evening): My latest understanding is that the graduation being cut off point for backwardness is only part of Justice Bhandari's judgement and probably GoI will not be obliged to follow it. Sigh.....