When all arties unite

E amendment on OBC reservations is ded, but also exposes the limits of politics

he Opposition’s decision to interrupt its disruption of Parliament to support the Centre’s Constitution amendment bill to restore the powers of states and Union ritories to determine backward groups illustrates at ties, and divides, Indian politics. The rare allty consensus on the bill is a reflection of how rvations have come to be the holy cow of Indian tics — no party can be remotely seen to be inst it. It is also a reflection of the power of the er Backward Classes (OBCS) — each party woos heterogenous category and is apprehensive of ng anything that may come across as insensitive s aspirations. And it is a reflection of the limits of imagination of the political class in candidly nowledging the need for a revision in the hitecture of affirmative action in India. he immediate trigger for the bill was a Supreme rt verdict which scrapped Maratha reservations ause it exceeded the 50% reservation cap. But this t the issue the bill seeks to address. In the same dict, the court underlined that the power to ermine classification of backward groups rested h the Centre. But states have had their own lists of Cs, who are then eligible for state-level education employment benefits. The court ruling revoked right, and a plea by the Centre went unheeded. amendment will restore the power of states to w and maintain their own list. And in that pect, the bill is necessary. The Centre cannot be sole authority in determining backwardness, ecially when there are widespread local ations. A caste group in one state may, due to orical reasons of backwardness, classify as OBC, not in another. ut even as the bill is necessary, the political sensus on it — in the backdrop of acrimony on ost everything else — is telling. For the Bharatiya ata Party (BJP), which has successfully cultivated uge loyal OBC base, signalling to the community t it is sensitive to its aspirations is necessary, ecially in the run-up to the polls in Uttar Pradesh. the Opposition, ensuring that states retain the t to determine this list is essential to both serving its base but also ensuring that the BJP s not walk away with coming across as mpioning OBC rights. But beyond the political ulus, what India needs is a careful, data-based, affirmative action policy, for the current hitecture has become a tool of power-sharing

er than actually addressing historic injustice.