Politics of opportunism

Political parties in India should lay-off from sectarian promises that they cannot deliver. There are limits to the politics of reservation which has reached a plateau

Ashok K Pankaj  Delhi

The weeklong violent agitation by the Gujjars of Rajasthan, comrades in arms with the Gujjars of UP, Delhi, Haryana, and J&K, ransacked at will the highways, public transport systems including the railways, and recklessly burnt private and government vehicles, mostly in Rajasthan but also in Delhi and UP. The flare-up was finally doused by an assurance from Vashundhara Raje, the chief minister of Rajasthan, after a series of failed attempts at dialogue. The ferocity of the agitation left a number of casualties, mostly civilians and a few police personnel, great disruption to road and rail traffic, hardship faced by passengers and tourists and loss of about Rs 10,000 crore to business, trade and property.

Nevertheless, the agitation is only in suspension, as the three-member commission announced by the government will examine the demands of the Gujjars for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. The message from the Gujjar leaders is clear: more violence is in store unless their demand for social and economic upliftment, ironically, through a downward movement to the ST category, is met to the satisfaction of the community. The issue became more complex with the counter agitation launched by the Meenas, also listed in the ST category, who resisted broadening of the ST list by the inclusion of Gujjars. This reminded of the Mandal agitation — OBCs asserting for reservation and the upper castes protesting against it, both of them using violent agitations.

There are many questions that have arisen from this agitation. Some of them have been around for sometime. First of all, are political and electoral promises meant to be fulfilled or are they simply to woo the voters? In fact, the ruling parties have been treating electoral and political promises with great disdain, as voters are not wont to assessing the role of the governments on their promises, policies and performance. Caste and community based mobilisation allowed this leverage.

First, with the deepening of democracy and greater realisation about the value of votes by the Indian masses, it would not be easy for the political classes to escape their political and electoral promises. For some time, they would be able to do so, at least with the secular goals promised at the level of individuals. But it would be difficult and with heavy political cost to make big promises to certain castes and communities and forget about it after acquiring power. The mobilisation for secular goals would still be restricted by caste and ethnic cleavages. This is because castes and communities in India can be easily mobilised for sectarian goals, as sectarian consciousness has increased in the post-Mandal phase.

Second, why is it that in most cases governments remain unmoved by the demands of sections of society unless and until it takes turbulent and violent agitational forms? The agitation by the Gujjars is not incidental. Rather, it was in the making for the last six months as leaders of the community were trying to convince the Vasundhara Raje government about the legitimacy of their demands and reminding her about the electoral promise the BJP had made to the Gujjars during the 2003 assembly elections.

Third, how long can the political class manage this politics of reservation that in any case seems to have been stretched beyond limits? The 50 per cent ceiling fixed by the Supreme Court in the famous Indira Sahney judgement, known as the Mandal case, has left little space for quota politics. Nonetheless, politicians have managed to keep the issue alive largely through the policy of inclusion and inter-category shifting. But since the OBCs list is crowded and the level of competition is relatively high, the less developed castes are not comfortable within the list. Besides, the competition within the SCs and STs is limited to few castes. Hence, inclusion in the SC/ST list is a more profitable position.

However, the issue of caste-based reservation has reached a plateau and raking up the issue for purely political purposes will not yield benefits. Rather, it would become politically and administratively unmanageable, as vested interests of the beneficiaries will flex their muscles. Indeed, the agitation for inclusion or inter-category shifting might lead to a counter agitation, as it happened in Rajasthan.

Fourth, the notion of OBCs, SCs and STs as a homogeneous category stands firmly challenged — not by outsiders but by the insider castes itself. Rather, differentiation within the group has widened and a vertical split is increasingly visible, more so at the political level. The Samajwadi Party (SP) and Kurmi-dominated Apna Dal in UP, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Janata Dal-U (JD-U) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar are examples of this vertical caste split. The differentiation between the Mallas and Madigas in Andhra Pradesh that made the government create two categories within the scheduled castes, later aborted by judicial intervention, is another example. Socio-economic surveys indicate that the OBCs, SCs and STs are not homogeneous categories, though the common element of social deprivation has allowed their political solidarity. Even this is getting weakened.

For years to come, these broader issues have remained unsettled amid the populist pursuit of vote-bank politics. The reservation issue that has triggered a new phase of identity-based mobilisation in India would stay for some time, as politicians' ingenuity had been able to keep the issue alive. The recent decision to extend OBC reservations in educational institutions in the central sector and the proposal to extend job reservation in the private sector are born out of political ingenuity. It does not really reflect sincere commitment to the social and economic empowerment of the marginalised communities.

The BJP in Rajasthan is caught in a difficult situation; the choice will not be easy. If it concedes the demand of the Gujjars, who constitute about seven per cent of the population, the Meenas with 14 per cent population would leave the party's support base. Even then, the BJP can't be sure of the Gujjar votes, as the killings in police firing and the Raje government's dilly-dallying is a spectre that will haunt the party for years to come. The BJP government has earlier annoyed protesting farmers in Rajasthan; there have been indiscriminate police repression and firing; a number of them have been killed in police firing in Ganganagar district last year. Surely, Raje has not carved out a bed of roses for her party in Rajasthan.

Indeed, the message is clear: political parties in India should lay-off from the sectarian promises that they cannot deliver. There are limits to the politics of reservation which has already reached a plateau. There are inherent dangers as well. The political class better learn this lesson sooner. Instead of fleecing the dead horse of reservation, they should concentrate on more substantial issues like the strengthening of the party system, and egalitarian, policy-based politics. That would help politics and democracy more.

The writer is Senior Fellow, Institute for Human Development, Delhi