Ashok’s chakra

The BJP has immediately alleged that the Gehlot government’s move to give 14 per cent reservation in government jobs to the economically poor among the forward castes is intended to ‘‘divert’’ people’s attention from the Congress regime’s ‘‘failures’’. The BJP’s assessment is completely correct. But that’s not the real explanation for the party’s indignation. The main reason for that is this: The Congress government has just done what the BJP has long been planning to do. And in this poll season, timing is crucial. As Rajasthan politics hurtles towards assembly polls later this year and then general elections next year, the Congress is widely perceived to have given itself a headstart.

Welcome to a brand new act in the politics of backwardism. This drama promises gripping fare — from competitive backwardism political parties have raced to pre-emptive backwardism. The shrinking pie of government jobs is to be sliced into ever thinner wedges, to be distributed among increasing numbers of clamorous claimants. When it began, the policy of reservations was seen as a means of assuring historically disadvantaged groups a place in the mainstream. Now, it is an irreversible dole for which even the ‘‘forward’’ groups are aggressively lobbying, as in Rajasthan, to be certified backward. It is the quick-fix that has assumed a life of its own, overtaking and leaving the ‘problem’ far behind. In the noise orchestrated over reservations in government jobs, nobody is allowed an honest assessment of what the policy has achieved over the years, at what cost. Nobody must wonder why politicians have still not framed those other policies that could have transformed the lot of the disadvantaged in more creative and lasting ways — more investment in education and health, for instance. We must not ask why the grand idea of social justice has shrunk into a corrupt policy that is arbitrarily used by cynical regimes to pacify restive vote banks.

The Gehlot government’s announcement signifies not just an expedient politics but, worse, a political dead end. There is still a long distance to go before it can enter the statute book — the Constitution will have to be amended. But the proposal affirms that our political class still does not have the will or the vision to go beyond the slogan and frame policies that deliver social justice.