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Journalism of Courage
For official committees to recommend that a policy they have been asked to fine-tune be reviewed after some time is pretty rare. Committees tend to assume that the importance of their remit indicates permanence of the policy. The Moily committee therefore deserves plaudits for recommending a re-look at the quota regime after 5 or 10 years. Such a periodic review gives enough time for all stakeholders to assess the worthiness of a policy that has multiple administrative, social and political implications. Therefore, as and when the new quota policy is implemented the review clause should be built into it. But even if an undertaking is given now will it be kept 5 or 10 years down the line? Will there be a genuine, objective review?
It is necessary to ask this not because the original undertaking on reservation 8212; it was to last for 10 years 8212; was not kept. The bigger more substantive point is that the whole history of welfare policy and social justice programmes in India displays a marked tendency of government policies acquiring very long shelf lives. Policies and programmes are very often renamed or rejigged but infrequently given a burial after a dispassionate assessment. This is of course a result of politicians thinking that there8217;s no credit in announcing the death of a bad welfare policy and the administration in general being disinclined to admit that its social engineering skills aren8217;t always adequate.
