Maratha quota can cause unrest

Reservations cannot always guarantee upward mobility

Maharashtra chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, has hinted that his government might announce reservations for the Maratha community. One will have to wait for the details of such a policy and see whether it stands the test of judicial scrutiny. Having said that, the script is not very different from how governments have reacted to agitations demanding reservations in the past.

Communities such as Marathas, Jats, Patidars — all of which have been demanding reservations — have historically been the dominant peasant group in their respective regions. This also means that they are politically influential. Their younger generation, however, has seen a decline in fortunes mainly due to agrarian distress. That their peers from OBCs and Scheduled Castes, even if they are small, might have attained greater upward mobility due to reservations has given traction to the belief that reservations could revive their fortunes.

By announcing reservations, the BJP might be aiming to secure the support of Marathas in the state. However, the gains from such a policy need not be as straightforward as they seem, both for the Marathas and the BJP. The share of the public sector in both jobs and employment has been gradually declining in India. This will eventually diminish the ability of reservations to guarantee upward mobility. Granting reservations to the Marathas in Maharashtra might also catalyse similar agitations by the Jats and Patidars in BJP-ruled states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat. How other communities react to the policy within Maharashtra is another potential fault line. The fundamental question which needs to be asked in judging how governments should respond to such agitations is different. Should they continue to support communities which have faced historical discrimination, or is it all right to extend them to groups who have fallen on hard times due to the inequalities which have come as a side effect of India’s ongoing growth process? The founding fathers of our Constitution treated the former as the main criterion for awarding such benefits.