Opinion Express View: Congress and BJP manifestos for Karnataka fall short of what the state needs

The Congress manifesto for Karnataka, like that of the BJP, is rich in welfare promises and development goals. However, the eye-catcher is the part on reservation — the party has stated it would increase quotas to 75 per cent to accommodate the interests of SC, ST, OBC and minorities. The party has also said it would restore the 4 per cent quota for Muslims, that was removed by the BJP government. As for the subquotas the Basavaraj Bommai government introduced in March, the Congress manifesto states that it would place the Justice A J Sadashiva Commission report on internal reservation in the first session of the legislature itself. The party has also reiterated its support for caste census, which is emerging as a common political slogan of the Opposition.

Reservation in employment and education is a powerful instrument to address structural inequalities that persist in the society even 75 years after independence. The southern states were pioneers in instituting quotas to radically transform a society defined and deformed by the logic of graded inequality. The troubling legacy of caste and its limiting influence on representation, for instance in the bureaucracy, was first flagged in the kingdom of Mysore more than a century ago in 1918. The then maharaja, on the recommendation of a committee headed by the Chief Judge of the Chief Court of Mysore, implemented reservations to end the dominance of Brahmins in public service. This policy of using quotas to further the agenda of social justice continued post independence. But it was Congress CM, Devaraj Urs, in the 1970s, who turned reservation into a political instrument for not merely social inclusion but also to rip apart the electoral consensus that favoured certain dominant castes. Since then, parties and governments have been wielding this more as a blunt instrument to dispense patronage to core constituents and deny opportunities to rival groups. The BJP’s Muslim quota move, wherein the four per cent quota for the community was removed and distributed among Vokkaligas and Lingayats, was an instance of quota being weaponised to polarise and patronise. The Supreme Court stayed the decision, however, the stage was set for communities to make claims and counterclaims for more representation through reservation. The Congress, which recently became a cheerleader for caste census and proportional representation in employment and allotment of resources, hopes to corner the BJP on quotas, believing that caste as a marker of identity could trump the party’s faith-centric Hindutva agenda.

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The political outcome of this joust is anybody’s guess. However, this reductionist view of reservations, wherein social justice has been reduced to a percentage game, reveals the intellectual bankruptcy of these parties. The tendency of political parties to bat for polarising agendas, where communities are pitted against each other or are told to compete for crumbs, only helps to divert attention from the more substantive challenge of enlarging the opportunity pie and levelling the playing field for those who want to get to it. Karnataka deserves a better politics, and social justice politics needs more imagination — and courage.