In principle, one tends to welcome the Modi government’s move to make provision for 10% reservations in seats in educational institutions and in jobs in favour of the economically backward classes (EBCs) that remain outside the purview of current quotas. However, the proposed quotas for the EBCs are radically different from the earlier two phases. Phase one focused on the victims of caste, the SC/STs. The second phase or the Mandal Project brought in the OBCs who were mere left-outs of the caste system.

The current phase three or the Modi Project seeks to benefit those who are at the top of the caste heap, the UCs, who’re not the victims of caste system but its perpetrators. What’s more they, like most other Indians, are the victims of state failures to provide quality education as well as to create enough decent jobs. Therefore, the case for Quota 3.0 is obvious. It will accord much-needed legitimacy to the whole social justice project. But the policy move raises three ironies and one conundrum.

Supreme irony is the near certainty that OBC and EBC beneficiaries of quotas will carry the stigma of being meritless. Being poor among their respective groups, their obvious inability to access quality education will not only qualify them to claim quotas but also condemn them as less qualified than their peers, a burden SC/STs have carried so far.

On the other hand, the creamy layer among SC/STs and open category candidates who are well-endowed economically and socially (hence can equip themselves with better education) will remain an enclave of merit and competence. The condition will persist for a long time given the astronomical number of aspirants from OBC/EBCs and the minuscule number of jobs and seats in educational institutions.

Secondly, the same social groups who ridiculed the quota system as ‘vote-bank politics’ have now become the recipients of quota benefits. Moreover, the policy change has been effected by none other than BJP which was at the forefront of giving voice against vote-bank politics.

The third irony is that the stage is being set for claims and counter claims of backwardness by EBCs to be eligible for quotas. This will be a major contestation with potential to cause political and social tensions.

Consider a possible scenario: No doubt, the economic criterion to restrict quota benefits is hoped to remove the creamy layer but it will only work at a macro level. Can an upper caste, say the Brahmins, who are or thought to be well represented in government jobs, be allowed to use the EBC route just because there are poor Brahmins? If the answer is affirmative, the system is staked against those castes, such as Jats, Marathas and Patidars who are not only under-represented but have been agitating for quotas in the first place.

If we slide one step down, we will find sub-castes among the castes mentioned above to be fighting like the Kilkenny cats. Even more troubling is that the ‘facts’ on which claims are made are mere assumptions for there are no official data on the subject. And conducting caste census to bring clarity is feared to divide the society!

Finally, the conundrum. One is at a loss to fathom the government’s thinking on matters of caste discrimination and remedial measures like quotas to ameliorate the sufferings of victims of caste. The 124th Amendment seeks to delink quotas from their raison d’etre, namely disabilities caused by caste discrimination as the qualifier. The 123rd Amendment, its predecessor, not only accorded constitutional status to the National Commission for the Backward Classes but literally equated OBCs with SC/STs as victims of the caste system. After this amendment became law in 2017, under the Constitution of India SC/STs are as better off as OBCs and the latter are as worse off as the former.

This blurring of clearly defined social and legal differences will have far-reaching consequences. Should one treat the exercise as a bold attempt at social reform, or as a cynical politics of divide and rule? It will be a pity that the intended beneficiaries of Quota 3.0 would have to wait a long time, certainly beyond the forthcoming general election, to reap its fruits. Again, just like its two earlier versions, the proposed quota system will benefit a few to the consternation of many.