Exploring the Complexities of Reservation Policy
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-63-64, May-Aug 1991)
With the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the issue of caste based job reservations once again came to the fore. The Janata Dal government had come under vicious attack when in August 1990 it declared its intention to implement the recommendation of the Mandal Commission that 27 percent of government jobs be reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). As a counter measure the BJP intensified its Ram Mandir campaign so that they could disprove the assumption behind the reservation policy that the Hindu population is a vast heterogeneity with many conflicting interests. The ferocity of the anti- reservation movement along with the communal violence that spread as a consequence of the Ram Mandir movement brought down the V.P. Singh government within months of assuming office…