10% Reservation for General Castes
It is now clear that the declaration of 10% reservation for "economically weaker" section of the general castes among the population at the fag end of the tenure of the present BJP government is nothing but an election gimmick. Even the ideologues of the capitalist classes are openly terming this as blatant populism of the BJP. It is even apparent that the immediate trigger of such an act of populism has been the defeat of BJP in the recent elections in three important states of the Hindi-belt, through which the aggravating problem of unemployment has come to the fore. Further they have also identified that the concept of "economically weaker section" of general caste as defined in the Act (annual income less than ` 8 lakhs, landholding less than 5 acres, etc....) is also utterly ridiculous. Here also the general perception is that the Act has been promulgated just to placate the economically upper stratum of the general caste. Whether this would be approved by the law of the land has also been questioned in the media. So, not much discussion is needed about all these things. Rather, we need to focus on some other questions.
The first question is, where are the government jobs for which one after another reservation is being declared? The fact is that right now the problem of unemployment and underemployment has really become an uncomfortable issue for the government and its defenders. Recently the news which has created a massive uproar is that the Modi Government is not allowing to publish an official survey report made by National Sample Survey office conducted during July 2017 to June 2018, where it has been confirmed that "India's Unemployment Rate Hit a 45-year high in 2017-18" (Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/indias-unemployment-rate-hit-a-45-year-high-in-2017/18/articleshow/67768454.cms). Setting aside the statistics, we may get a glimpse of the present hard reality through some more fact check. On January 20, 2019 the web edition of "India Today" had the headline like this: "7000 apply for 13 waiter jobs requiring class 4 passed candidates in Maharashtra, most are graduates". (Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/7000-apply-for-13-waiter-jobs-requiring-class-4-passed-candidates-in-maharashtra-most-are-graduates-1434939-2019-01-20). The job is intended in the canteen at the Maharashtra secretariat, the Mantralaya, so this is a government job! From here, we further come to know that "Recently in Maharashtra, 10.5 lakh people had applied for 852 vacant police posts. Similarly, one crore unemployed youth applied for 10,000 posts in the railways." Again government job! On September 2, 2018 the same journal has informed us that "81,700 graduates apply for 62 peon posts in UP Police". (Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/81-700-graduates-apply-for-62-peon-posts-in-up-police-1330116-2018-09-02). Another instance of crowds of youth scurrying for merely a few government jobs! This is the real state of affairs of the government jobs for which one after another reservations are being declared, either by some or other state governments and the central Modi government!
The root cause of such devastating condition of unemployment and also underemployment lies in a significant presence of pre-capitalist mode of production relations in this country till now. It was not abolished with the departure of British rule. Post-1947, capitalism in India did not advance on its own strength, thus shying away from the necessary task of sweeping away all the remnants of feudal and pre-capitalist production relations. However initially for the time being, growth of large-scale government and semi-government enterprises had helped in job creation. But since late-sixties of last century, this process started to falter. The problem of unemployment started to aggravate much since then. Further with multiplying of problems in the economy, a number of factors pushed the Indian ruling classes to implement the policies of Globalization and neo-Liberalization. Once again promises of newer opportunities through investments and spurt in industrialization leading to job creation were floated before the masses. Private sector enterprises were projected as provider of lots of new jobs. But it is now established that in this period of globalization in India the so-called economic growth has been attained at the cost of jobs. And post-2008 economic crisis, the situation has further worsened.
Until and unless the market becomes accessible to the lowest echelon of the masses (the existence of remnants of pre-capitalist relations is a big hindrance to that), employment opportunity for the largest section of the workable population of the country becomes nothing but a daydream. Not only that, since the contingent of unemployed is very high, underemployment and adverse working conditions etc... has become the bitter fact of life.
Anyway, the moot point here is that the problem of unemployment and underemployment is so grave now in India that it may lead to sudden unrests. In this situation, "10% reservation for general caste" has the potential to divert the anger and grievances of the unemployed and underemployed youths, where one section may fight against another. Glimpses of such have been recently seen in case of wrath of the local OBC youth of North Gujarat against migrant workers, who were mostly Dalits. If sections of masses get involved in such conflicts due to unemployment, then that would primarily help the Indian ruling classes to divert the attention of this vast aggrieved unemployed section of society away from the root cause of the problem and destroy the possibility of them rising in struggle against the actual cause.
So, it is evident that this measure taken by BJP is not merely a populist one to woo the upper caste young voters, but is part of a bigger design to divert the aggrieved unemployed and underemployed youths of India from the actual target?the Indian ruling classes, who are the really responsible for the problem.
In addition, another possibility cannot be completely ignored. It is true that right now, "10% reservation for the general castes" is not affecting the existing benefits of reservation of the SCs and STs. But at the same time, it is also true that the original criterion of reservation as a measure to help overcome "social backwardness" is thus being shifted by introducing a newer criterion?"economic backwardness" through this measure. In this context it is also pertinent to note that there has been a persistent campaign of BJP-RSS-Sangh Parivar against the reservations for the Dalits and other backward castes for a long time. Under the circumstance, we are also apprehensive about the fact whether through this measure the BJP-Sangh Parivar is also advancing towards diluting the recognition of the fact that there exists "social backwardness" along with the "economic backwardness" for the lowest stratum of the caste hierarchy, and in the process thus derecognizing the aspirations of the lower stratum of the Dalits and other backward castes.
While BJP is playing their card of dividing the aggrieved youths, other parliamentary political parties are no different. They are also very much part and parcel of reservation politics with equal vigour. In addition, they are constantly playing with the card of providing some immediate reliefs, so that the anger of the masses subside and get covered-up for the time being.
In fact, the Indian ruling class is right now at crossroads. At the one hand, they have no other option but to carry-on with further attacks on the working class-peasantry and the other toiling masses which would only lead to further joblessness. At the same time they are also very much aware that all these attacks have the possibility to aggravate the problem further for all these sections. And consequently, the masses may choose the path of struggle rejecting the leadership of the established parties. Hence at this juncture, it is the best option for the ruling class of India to divert their attention and this can be a very good measure for the same.
India is in the midst of a bourgeoning economic problem. It is more and more getting seriously afflicted with the problem of severe distress in the lives of the workers and peasants, the problem of unemployment, of sky-rocketing price-rise and many more. The power-mongering political parties are celebrating their picnic sitting on top of this volcano, celebrating bonfire by conveniently dividing the toiling and exploited masses with the issues of religion-caste-nationality-regionalism-gender. However, as the time is ticking away with things getting more complicated, it seems that they have forgotten that volcano is more and more edging towards eruption. It is a matter of time.
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