Views on 117th Amendment Bill

asg

We all know what the political parties think about the 117th Amendment, and in all probability it'll be passed by the Parliament.

I'm curious about what you all on this forum think about it, given that we all are trying to be part of the system..

Partho

I seriously doubt the efficacy of reservation, after more than 60 years of providing positive discrimination, i don't see any improvement in the condition of Dalits in India. Reservation policy is being used by parties as vote bank only. If we really want to improve the condition, we must come up with policies that actually provide inclusive development.
In my opinion RTE is a big move in this direction. Reservation in jobs (with consequential seniority) must not compromise with efficiency as mentioned in our constitution. If passed, in my opinion it will lead to greater animosity between Dalits and rest of india. Access to opportunities for their empowerment must be provided, rather than serving it on a platter. I strongly feel the current reservation policy is making them incompetent and restricting their growth by making them highly dependent on reservation.

117th Amendment will further divide the nation, and the so called 'Democracy' will 'Rule'.

Please note: I am not against Dalits or any community, In fact i wish to live in a society where everyone is equal and live in harmony and peace and not divided on the basis of caste, creed or sex.

robinolds

I would say nationalizing education and creating a cadre of Indian Education Services is the solution . When each kid in India gets same standard of education then there will be no need of reservation down the line. Very narrow point of view but surely is effective.

At present, 117th amendment aims to substitute article 16(4A) to provide reservation notwithstanding anything in article 335 which provides for not compromising efficiency of administration. All this is to circumvent three guidelines provided by SC in Nagraja case :

1. to show backwardness
2. to show inadequate representation
3. to show no effect on efficiency

Malafide intention or Lethargic attitude of Bureaucrats
This is not a very difficult task to show less representation and backwardness for any SC or ST at any level of the services. Of course, for safai karamcharis(manual scavengers) they are represented more than their share....so for safai karamcharis govt. cannot give them reservation in promotion but in all other services even with an exercise of some days, quantifiable data could be attained to prove less representation. This is a clear example of lethargic attitude of our bureaucrats who are not willing to present data to Supreme Court and hence help in not providing reservation in promotion to SC/STs.

Representation guaranteed
One may think that this amendment is illogical. Govt. should justify providing reservation in promotion by giving data. Without such an exercise, things may move into haphazard way. But in amendment it is clearly stated that reservation in promotion will be provided upto the extent of the percentage of reservation provided to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the services of the State. Hence, by default adequate representation is guaranteed.

Regarding Efficiency
This really makes too much of valid noise. Basic assumption is that an SC/ST official will be less efficient compared to a general category official. After all, what will justify this? ACR will do the job for this purpose. So, a standard could be set that it should be above average consistently to get promotion. But in India, performance appraisal is not objective, infact it is so subjective that it doesn't matter if one performs in job well or not what is important is that if one is able to make his/her boss happy. So, this efficiency point doesn't make much sense in India. Unnecessary victimization is very common. It is obvious as to why would a general cat. boss would screw his SC/ST-junior's ACR.(Jealousy, Hate, partisan, prismatic-sala etc. etc.)

asg

Hmm....I too agree that there should be reservation for SC/ST. It's quite obvious that they are underrepresented and are discriminated against. I don't think that it'll affect the efficiency.

I have one concern though - that reservation once given is almost impossible to take back. We know that. And once there is reservation for SC/ST, there will be a demand for reservations for OBC. It is inevitable. I'm a li'l skeptical about that, because there is a lot of politics behind who to include in OBC and who not to - each state has it's own list (right?). It will only muddy the waters..

rm1

Reservation has always been tool of 'vote-bank politics'. Why can't we look things in a more comprehensive way? Don't we criticize the clause of separate electorates under Morley-Minto reforms and all that? And howcome caste based reservation a solution? If at all there has to be reservation it must not lead to creating larger gaps in the society. I personally know that efficiency is affected, as state governments have already such reservation in place. If efficiency is compromised, it won't help anyone. Reservation cannot be on 'whole community' basis, it has to be on an individual basis. Per se not against reservation, but I certainly don't advocate it to be caste based; all those who are underprivileged and economically may be given the required assistance to bring them upwards in the ladder rather than; just give them some reservation and back off from other responsibilities of having a more 'equal' society.