Stirring a hornets’ nest

The Supreme Court has to tackle the question raised by the Calcutta high court today, whether an OBC graduate is eligible for reservations in higher education, and the government has to sort out funding needs of Central institutions to be able to implement this new regime. But there’s more.

Earlier this month, the justice Usha Mehra commission submitted a report recommending subcategorization of scheduled castes for apportioning the SC quotas among them. It has been intensely lobbied for on the grounds that stronger castes were cornering the benefits. But politicians such as Ram Vilas Paswan have strongly opposed the idea, saying it would damage Dalit unity. No surprise, as a united Dalit vote bank is a crucial constituency—so what if there’s inequitable garnering of quota gains within the vast, heterogeneous group panning the country.

This conflict will only intensify—Mehra’s report has just stirred a hornets’ nest.

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