It is unfortunate that once again reservation has become the subject of mindless debate and agitation. In this debate, the same old logic is being put forward. Concerns about merit are being expressed in a manner so that it appears that SC, ST and OBC students do not have any merit at all. One understands the despair among those who will be affected by reservation for OBCs in Central educational institutions.

But at the same time, we cannot ignore the socio-political reality of India. In a caste-ridden society, where 85 per cent people have been denied opportunities of betterment, reservation is a positive discrimination mandated by the Constitution of India. The Government of India is duty-bound to provide reservation for OBC students in its educational institutions.

The Constitution has been amended to provide reservation in private educational institutions as well. Then how can the government deny reservation in its own institutions? It is true that the government has to issue notification for reservation, but it is wrong to say this decision is the ruling party’s solely. On the other hand, there is a political consensus on reservation, with no political party being against it. That is why it is wrong to say that only the ruling party should take credit for this reservation.

The fact is that a conference of State secretaries was held on 12 January 2005. It resolved to protect the interests of the weaker sections of society by suitable reservations in educational institutions. In the first half of August 2005, the Supreme Court gave its judgment on the PA Inamdar & Others vs State of Maharashtra & Others case. The verdict stated that the State cannot impose its reservation policy on minority and non-minority unaided private institutions, including professional ones.

On 17 August 2005, through a call attention motion, the Lok Sabha, unanimously entrusted the human resources development minister with the task of protecting the interests of the students belonging to the weaker sections of society, in terms of their admission in unaided private educational institutions. On 23 August 2005 in a meeting chaired by the HRM in Parliament, the leaders of various political parties, by consensus, resolved for the need to remedy the situation through, if necessary, a constitutional amendment.

On 27 August 2005, the Conference of the Ministers of Higher and Technical Education endorsed the views expressed at the meeting of all political parties in Parliament. In the following two and a half months the proposal was firmed up after consultation with the political parties.

On 20 November 2005, the Cabinet approved the draft bill for a constitutional amendment. On 20 December 2005, the bill was introduced, and after debate, the Lok Sabha passed it on 21 December 2005. In the Rajya Sabha, the bill was introduced on 21 December 2005 and passed on 22 December 2005 after debate. On 20 January 2006, the President gave his assent to the Act, which was brought in force by the MHRD through a gazette notification the same day.

After that, the process to implement this constitutional provision was started, but it was hindered by the election to five State Assemblies. It is the commitment of Indian Parliament — and mandated by our Constitution — to ensure positive discrimination so that suppressed merit can be given the opportunity to realise its full potential.

The situation being witnessed now, where we find our youth agitating against this policy, is the outcome of the failure of the government in the last five decades. Had OBC students been given reservation in jobs and educational institutions from the very beginning, right from the Fifties, and the reservation policy for the SCs and STs implemented honestly, the need for reservation would have disappeared by now. India would have become a just society. But we are still an unjust society.

The IIM is an example. IIMs have 22.5 per cent reservation for SCs and STs, but not even 3 per cent of the seats are being filled up. OBC students were denied reservation for a long time and SCs and STs were not allowed to enter many places, despite reservations for them. Education is a State subject and in the States, reservation is already there. The present agitation is about reservation in IITs, IIMs and AIIMS. Hardly 7,000 students get admissions in these institutions, and the seats reserved for the OBCs will not be more than 2,000. Not much is at stake here, but a section of the media is projecting this as a matter of life and death for the youth of our country.

There is consensus about raising the number of seats, so that students from the general categories do not lose their opportunities. But some vested interests are provoking the students to oppose this move. In Mumbai, an event management company was found to be involved in the movement. I understand the anguish of the students belonging to unreserved categories. They are against reservation because it restricts their opportunities for admission. They do not have faith in the government’s promise that the number of seats will be raised. In fact, it is the government that is to be blamed for this. For the last many years, no new IIT has been established.

The same is the case with IIMs and Central Government medical institutions. The government spent hundreds of crores of rupees to host Asiad 1982, but not a single IIT was built after that. Rs 10 thousand crores are being wasted to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010; why isn’t this money being spent to open new IITs, IIMs and AIIMS like medical institutions? The government should stop wasteful expenditure and divert that money to open new institutions and create an atmosphere where students from non-reserved categories do not lose out in case there is an expansion of reservation. There are many engineering colleges in India which can be upgraded as IITs and the opportunities for general category students can be raised manifold for getting quality engineering education.

Agitation against reservation has exposed the weakness of our education system as well. It has failed to provide our students the real picture of our caste-ridden society. Our national objective should have been to eradicate the caste system, and our education system should have educated our students about the evils of the system. Reservation itself is a fall-out of the caste system. To end reservation raj, we as a nation should strive to break the caste system.

(Sharad Yadav is the president of the JD-U)