It’s raining quota promises in Karnataka: Congress meets BJP’s SC-ST-Lingayat-Vokkaliga outreach by lifting quota cap to 75%

While parties clamour to increase quotas or to provide freebies, they have done pretty little at the ground level to empower the oppressed classes.

While the revised reservation matrix announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government  in Karnataka with an eye on the ensuing assembly elections has been challenged before the Supreme Court, the Congress has added to the confusion by promising to increase the quota to 75 percent if voted to power.

On the eve of the elections, the government increased the quota for Scheduled Caste (SC) from 15 percent to 17 percent and Scheduled Tribe (ST) from 3 percent to 7 percent. While the 32 percent existing quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) was retained, the 4 percent reservation for Muslims was abolished and distributed equally among Lingayats and Vokkaligas, increasing their share to 7 percent and 6 percent respectively. With this, the total reservation, excluding the 10 percent Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota has gone up to 56 percent breaching the 50 percent cap fixed by the apex court in the Indra Sawhney v. Union of India case.

In Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra, the Supreme Court laid down three criteria for reservations, popularly called the triple test: setting up a dedicated commission to conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness; specifying proportion of reservation required to be provisioned in the light of recommendations of the commission; total reservation for SCs/STs/OBCs shall not exceed 50 percent. Though this judgment was in the context of local body elections, it has an overarching impact on reservation as a whole.

BJP’s Reservation Strategy

The reservation for SC and ST was increased on the recommendations of the Justice HN Nagamohan Das commission, while the quota for Lingayats and Vokkaligas was hiked based on an interim report hurriedly submitted by the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission (KSBCC) and not on the basis of an empirical study by a dedicated panel as mandated by the court.

The decision to scrap Muslim quota was challenged in the Supreme Court which, while questioning why the state did not wait for the final report, observed that the foundation of the decision-making process was "highly shaky and flawed”. The state then gave an undertaking that admissions or appointments would not be made in pursuance of the impugned government order (GO).  In effect, this means the BJP cannot take advantage of the new reservation policy during the elections.

Karnataka has urged the Centre to include the revised policy under Ninth Schedule of the Constitution that contains a list of central and state laws which cannot be challenged in courts. Tamil Nadu had adopted a similar route when it increased its quota to 69 percent, which nonetheless has been challenged before the Supreme Court.

However, the Ninth Schedule may not give a blanket protection as the Supreme Court had in IR Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu held that a law even if included under the Ninth Schedule could be subject to judicial review if it goes against the basic structure of the Constitution.

The Congress Counter

Even as it is becoming clear that the present GO may not stand the test of law, Congress leader Siddaramaiah has announced that reservations would be hiked to 75 percent if his party formed the government. The former Chief Minister seems to be drawing strength from the Social Economic Survey (Caste census) conducted by KSBCC in 2015 when H Kantharaj was the Chairman.

This massive survey conducted at a cost of nearly Rs 170 crore by 1.6 lakh personnel covered over 1.3 crore households in the state. While the report was never officially released, according to data which was leaked, Lingayats and Vokkaligas are not numerically dominant in the state as previously believed, while SC/ST/OBC formed a majority. Siddaramaiah believes that reservations should be in proportion to the population of each caste.

Look Beyond Quotas

Besides, the Supreme Court’s observation while upholding the 10 percent EWS quota that the 50 percent cap was not sacrosanct (though the majority highlighted Indra Sawhney verdict’s 50 percent cap on SC, ST and OBC reservation) has come as a glimmer of hope for various states, which have been demanding a rethink on this ceiling in view of the changed population dynamics.

While parties clamour, each one louder than the other, to increase quotas or to provide freebies, they have done pretty little at the ground level to empower the oppressed classes by providing them with free world-class education so that they can stand on their own feet and not depend forever on the crutches doled out by politicians.

It is said, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. But that is not a scenario our politicians would envisage because for them the poor, Dalits and OBCs are no more than vote banks to be milked during every election.

Gautham Machaiah is a senior journalist and political commentator based in Bengaluru. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of the publication.