Bulwark of
Constitutional Rights
In India,
there is a constitutional provision for
affirmative action through reservation
in legislatures, government jobs and enrolment in higher educational institutions
for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes , Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and also the economically backward
classes. Though introduced for a limited period initially, this policy has been
continued with more and more sections of society brought under reservation
In the
recent few years, however, a debate is taking place on the desirability of
continued of reservation . As the demand
- supply gap has widened in higher/ professional education and government jobs, the protagonists of reservation
are agitating for more and more
sections of the society. The counter- view in
the debate is reservation and lowering of qualification standards for seats and jobs promotes and perpetuates
anti-meritocracy .
Caste/
community based reservation being not enough, there is also growing demand for reservation in jobs in some states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka ,
accounting for about a third of the country’s geographical area, for “ locals” i.e those who have been living within the
boundaries of these states respectively
for a certain period. This is in total negation of a basic tenet of our
Constitution viz no discrimination based on place of birth or domicile. In his
insightful article titled “One Nation, One Constitution?” ( The Times of India Mumbai , 7/9/2019) , Robin
David says “ In the end, it all boils down to populism versus Constitution.
Will any political leader or party have courage to stand up for the
Constitution against this popular move?”
Who then
would protect constitutional rights of citizens? “ If human beings have rights, is there a
court which is duty bound to protect them the moment those rights are violated?
Is this court the Supreme Court?” asks Dushyant in his Edit Page article in Mumbai Times dated 6/9/2019
