The reportedly reluctant decision taken by the Congress-led UPA-2 government in New Delhi to collect caste data from every household in Census 2011 for the first time in the history of post-independence India, is a politically-driven miscalculation fraught with grave danger to national unity and the country’s faltering development effort. Since India wrested its independence from imperial rule in 1947, six censuses have been conducted, yet never was caste identity solicited by census enumerators.
This policy decision was based on sound nation-building considerations because at the time India attained its independence 63 years ago, it emerged as the most polyglot and heterogeneous nation state in global history, with its population differentiated inter se by race, religion, languages, cultures and caste. Yet while heterogeneity was welcomed as enrichment of composite Indian culture, perpetuation of the Hindu caste system which had condemned millions to degrading and dehumanising lives on the basis of accident of birth for several millennia, was unanimously rejected as unacceptable.
Nevertheless in a spirit of remorse and repentance for the iniquities and injustice visited upon the Dalit and Adivasi (scheduled castes and scheduled tribes) people by the rigid Hindu caste system for several millennia, the founding fathers of the Constitution conceded positive discrimination by the State in their favour. Therefore 22 percent of seats in Parliament, jobs in government and seats in State-run educational institutions were reserved for them for a period of 15 years after adoption of the Constitution of India by Parliament on January 26, 1950. When the initial affirmative action period expired in 1965, Parliament unanimously approved extension of positive discrimination by the State indefinitely. Unfortunately, caste-conscious communities became the happy hunting ground of regressive politicians and in the 1980s affirmative action was pressed for — and conceded by the Supreme Court — in favour of a large number of OBCs (other backward castes).
The consequence of these developments is that far from withering away as envisaged by the framers of the Constitution, caste consciousness and particularism have become more pronounced, and the numbers of political parties and leaders practicing caste-driven politics have multiplied. It’s against this backdrop that self-serving and myopic caste-based party leaders have demanded collection of caste-based data in Census 2011.
However this proposal is divisive and anti-national, and should be resisted by all right-thinking members of society. For one, since the general populace is well aware that the Central and state governments are committed to affirmative action in favour of OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis, the number of households claiming backward status is likely to multiply, skewing the data collected in Census 2011.
Moreover caste-related data of the census will be used by OBC, Dalit and Adivasi leaders to claim greater support and demand larger reserved quotas not only in government, but even in private sector companies and schools. The overall fallout of this retrograde proposal will be reinforcement rather than eradication, of caste consciousness within society.
Resist parliamentary pay rise proposal
The spate of writ petitions filed during the past two months in various high courts and the Supreme Court challenging several provisions of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 which came into effect on April 1, have a deep connection with the cavalier manner in which this historic legislation (and several others) was passed by both houses of Parliament last year. With the orderly debate function of Parliament disrupted daily by irresponsible and cantankerous members, the RTE Act, which guarantees every child citizen aged six-14 years free and compulsory education in government and/or private schools, was passed without any discussion or debate.
In the recently concluded Budget session of Parliament, 15 Bills of far-reaching impact were passed without discussion as members disrupted its sittings by agitating over frivolous issues. For instance on May 5, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) 2009 and Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2010 were put to vote and passed by the Lok Sabha without any debate as CPI (M) MPs staged a sit-in demonstration in the well of the house demanding an apology from Trinamool Congress’ Sudip Bandopadhyay for alleged un-parliamentary remarks against Basudeb Acharya of the CPI (M). Similarly on May 7, the last day of the Budget session, the Lok Sabha passed three more Bills — the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill 2010, Employees State Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill 2010 — without discussion as opposition MPs staged walkouts over alleged corruption in allocation of 2G spectrum to telecom companies.
In the Budget session, 117 hours of the scheduled 385 hours allocated for MPs to discuss and debate government legislation were lost due to interruptions and forced adjournments despite the exasperated speaker of the Lok Sabha warning that members are rendering “the institution irrelevant”. The people’s representatives in Parliament seem unaware or unmindful that every minute of parliamentary time lost is Rs.25,000 down the drain. Nor do they seem to be aware that careless and cursory examination of Bills in Parliament offers opportunity to wily bureaucrats who draft laws to invest themselves with vast discretionary powers — a defining characteristic of Indian legislation and root cause of the widespread corruption for which 21st century India has attained global notoriety.
Against this backdrop, a recent proposal — which unsurprisingly has received the unanimous endorsement of members of both houses of Parliament — to sharply increase the monthly remuneration of MPs from the current Rs.16,000 to Rs.80,000 and to enhance their already liberal perquisites, needs to be strongly resisted by all right-thinking citizens. Unless and until the prime business of Parliament — drafting, debating and enacting legislation — is conducted smoothly and with due care and diligence, public opinion should not approve this shamelessly self-serving pay rise proposal.