In Gorakhpur district in eastern UP 12 out of the 21 SHOs of local police stations belong to a single community, known to be favoured by the SP government in power in the state.In a similar instance of perpetuating vote bank politics the previous BSP government created cabinet rank posts replete with stipends from every district of the state, where again members of a particular caste found undue favour.These examples illustrate how in the garb of affirmative action, certain communities enjoying political clout and backing have cornered the benefits of reservation policy in India. And even within these communities it is only a stratum of super-privileged that have cornered the lion's share of reservations. With Ambedkar Jayanti being celebrated across the country today, it's time to reflect on whether reservation policy is working as envisaged.The recent Supreme Court verdict also opens an opportunity for a dispassionate and comprehensive relook at the entire gamut of issues relating to the reservation policy. Striking down the inclusion of Jats in the OBC list, the verdict throws a serious challenge to the political class. It calls on us to reboot our imagination on the question of social justice and rejig the larger socio-political architecture of India.The judgment rules that caste can no longer be the sole criterion of social justice and reservations. It also seeks to question 'historical backwardness and injustice' as a valid and desirable marker of backwardness. In fact the court has only given judicial legitimacy to the widely held view that caste reservations are not effective as a tool of social justice in recent years and have only been misused to serve the political and electoral interest of political parties. Besides, they are needlessly divisive.This is not a plea to debunk the entire basis of reservation policy as originally conceived. It has largely achieved its purpose where the idea of affirmative action was adopted for protecting communities socially discriminated against and correcting centuries of injustice. It has brought about a social churning since it was first implemented. But over the last two decades or so it has been misused and is undermining its very purpose.The manner in which reservations have been implemented ensured that first generation beneficiaries in terms of jobs, education, economic opportunities and political representations perpetuated themselves and their progeny. With time, those who had already gained the advantage in terms of better education and socio-political empowerment managed to corner most of the benefits of reservations.This way reservations has spawned its own elite, who prevent social justice from filtering downwards and as a result defeat the constitutionally intended philosophy of reservations to bring about widest possible socio-political empowerment. Due to their entrenched political positions they have successfully scuttled any debate on the efficacy and desirability of the reservation regime as it stands.A second factor relates to monopolisation of the benefits of social justice by a few politically and socially dominant caste groups at the cost of more needy but less politically organised and vocal caste groups. It's worth pointing out that certain dominant caste groups amongst the OBCs have been historically better off economically, educationally and socially vis-a-vis other castes and have squeezed the latter out of the benefits of reservations and political empowerment.There is considerable economic and political data to prove this assertion. A similar argument can be made about the SC/STs too. It is hard to ignore the heartfelt yet not so explicitly voiced discontent amongst the more underprivileged castes and tribes in these categories in the entire Hindi belt.Based on my daily interactions with a large number of people of all age groups, I have felt strong undercurrents of resentment prevalent not only among upper castes but also amongst lower castes that have failed to benefit or have been sidelined by the more aggressive and electorally numerous and vocal sub-communities of their own castes in grabbing the benefits of reservation.There is an urgent need to review which castes even within the once disadvantaged or backward communities have benefited and grown economically, socially and politically and which ones have been untouched by this process of empowerment. The political class as a whole will have to take note of this. The court has spoken of transgenders but we must think of the minorities and sub-minorities too. What about, for example, poor and disadvantaged Christians and Muslims?The divide today in India is no longer caste but class. Reforms together with developments of more than 60 years since Independence have changed the social scene dramatically and today divisions have come up along class lines even within the same caste.However it would be erroneous to conclude that the masses are apathetic towards the very idea of social justice. A more accurate analysis would point out that the way in which social justice has been implemented has generated this indifference.The time has indeed come to move ahead of an ossified categorisation based on caste, which has succeeded only in marginally improving the lot of the underprivileged. A new socio-economic bloc has to be identified cutting across all castes and religions, where only the deserving who actually need uplift should come under affirmative action. It would be a fitting tribute to B R Ambedkar, original architect of the reservation policy, who was not just a leader of one particular group but of the underprivileged as a whole.(The writer is a Congress leader and former Union minister)