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Can a very senior bureaucrat’s grandson and great grandson be treated as “backward” for promotion, and that too in perpetuity The crucial observation from Supreme Court has once again thrown open the debate on the quota system in promotions.
A five-judge Bench constitution headed by chief Justice Dipak Misra has observed that there is no problem with entry-level reservations, but what is worrying is the accelerated promotions of SC/ST employees without looking into the status and merits of the employment.
The Centre is siding with the existing reservation system for promotions in government jobs.
Attorney general KK Venugopal told Supreme Court that once a caste is given the SC/ST status, there is no need for a case-by-case adjudication.
The government also urged the top court that the 2006 judgement in the M Nagaraj case should be reconsidered.
In this case, Supreme Court had held that reservations in promotions can be allowed only if there is quantifiable data to back it, even as it prescribed certain conditions for extending such benefits to SC/ST employees.
The Modi government may be politically right in seeking to retain quota for SC/ST candidates in promotions, but the crucial question remains: At a time when the country is preparing for a big leap, can quota come in the way of competitiveness, especially when it comes to high-ranking administrative jobs.
On ET NOW’s India Development Debate, political party leaders, senior journalists and Dalit activists tried to provide answers to this burning question.
Here are some interesting takeaways:
PANEL VIEWRAGHAV AWASTHI, LAWYER RSS MEMBERWe don’t know yet what the judgement would be.
All that the SC has said is let’s figure out whether there are some people who deserve a helping hand.
This is something Dalit thinkers and activists should be welcoming.
Point of reservation is to ensure those who are at the bottom of the pile are not left out.
This debate cannot be framed in generic terms.
Everybody agrees there has been systematic discrimination.
NARENDRA TANEJA, SPOKESPERSON, BJPThe questions asked by Supreme Court is nothing new.
There is discrimination against SC/STs, if they become IAS officers or even if they rise to the level of joint secretary.
Our caste system and this discrimination against SC/STs is so deeply rooted that even if you rise to that level it continues.
And the question is how many of these familes are enjoying these benefits in the second and third generation levels You can count such families on your fingers.
KANCHA ILAIAH, ACTIVIST FOR DALIT RIGHTSSo long as the caste system survives in civil society and caste-based discrimination survives as it doesn’t exist only among the poor but also among the rich and the generational upward mobile people as well.
as long as this systems remain unequal, this reservation, whether at the entry level or at the promotion level, needs to continue.
R JAGANNATHAN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, SWARAJYA MAGAZINEThere has been a multigenerational discrimination so it will take time to end it.
Ambedkar would be horrified if this is the way reservation is implemented.
The idea is for the last man.
I think we are talking of a situation where we are going to perpetuate rift within Dalits also.
Nagaraj judgement was excellent framework.
But no one wants to bell the cat.
We are listening to vocal sections of Dalits, not the marginalised sections.
