SC/ST/BCS MUST REJECT THE MANDAL COM. JUDGMENT
We don’t know if we should weep or laugh. W This is our reaction to the latest Supreme Court judgment on the V.P. Singh govt. order on the Mandal Commission Report.
The oppressed Backward Castes who should have actually opposed the judgment are dancing with joy, happily welcoming it. And those upper castes / Aryans who should have jumped with joy are violently protesting it. This is the position as we write this piece.
The Aryan brahminical social order (BSO) which is an expert in managing the contradictions used the court to hypnotise and mesmerise the oppressed BCs and made them laugh and upper castes to go on rampage so that even the conscious BCs are con- fused and sink into silence.
This is what must have happened. Otherwise, how can the nine-member largest-ever bench give such an abracadabra judgment which has the knack of confusing and confounding everybody?
Killing Act: What made the BCs to fall flat is the court “upholding” the V.P.Singh govt. order on Mandal and also rejecting upper caste demand for “economic criterion”. Simple Dravidian folks think everybody is simple. But the Supreme Court is not so simple. We don’t know what promted the judges to come out with such a bundle of contradictions. We are really at a loss.
In this piece we don’t want to go into the other killing acts of the court such as barring reservations in promotions to SC/STs, upholding the 50% limit and making reservations a one-time affair for BCs. All these are dangerous features with which we don’t agree.
Here we want to examine in detail its most devastating effects on the social fabric of the country, namely the “exclusion of the creamy layer”. According to us this is the most damaging part of the judgment administering a body blow to the Back-ward Caste movement which is part of the Dalit movement.
Victory for Aryans: Our judgment on reading press reports is that the court has temporarily killed the reservations and hence it is a big victory for the Aryans. The nine-member bench was packed with members of the same class.
It is only Justice S. Ratnavel Pandian, a BC Thevar from TN, who de- livered the most upright judgment. All others supported the Aryan stand.
The court while defining the “creamy layer” has brought in the ‘economic criterion’ while rejecting the same earlier. It wants to exclude the “economically advanced members of a particular caste”. Is it not bringing the discredited “economic criterion” by the backdoor?
“Caste” (jati) indicates, under the BSO, the status of a particular group. How can the court say that a person (or a group of persons) in that jati is socially, educationally or economically advanced, and “forward”?
Does it not amount to saying that the “advanced” BCs – the “creamy layer” – do not belong to that jati?
Cream theory: In every jati it is the “creamy layer” that fights for its jati. In social engineering, it is called “cream theory”.
This cream has its plus and minus points. Minus point is it has become the “cream” by sucking the essence of the whole jati (like the cream in the milk). If you eat a small cup of ice cream, it is like drinking a bottle of milk. That is its plus point.
Such a “cream” is existing in every jati, including the Brahmins. The very fact that the Brahmins very often complain that they are any number of ‘poor’ among them proves that a section of the jati has become the “cream” at the cost of the rest.
It is this “affluent”, “powerful”, “advanced cream” that always takes the lead in fighting for the human rights of its jati. The poverty – stricken. uneducated, unconscious members of a jati may be revolutionary but they will rarely be the leaders of a revolution.
Dog doesn’t eat dog: It is true that this “cream” while speaking for its jati, working for its jati may try to advance itself but it will never cheat its less fortunate members of its jati, Dogs does not eat dog. The Supreme Court if it doesn’t know this simple thing, it means it doesn’t know the Indian society itself.
This point will become clearer with the example of Brahmins.
In every Brahmin jati – whether Maithili, Marathi, Chitpavan, Kashmiri Pandit, Tamil Iyengars or Gujarati Nagar Brahmins – there are both “advanced cream” and the less advanced dry bones.
“Poor” Brahmins: Just because a Brahmin is “poor”, he does not cease to be a Brahmin. Even the “poorest” of the Brahmin commands the highest of the respect. Social status doesn’t depend upon your bank balance. A Yadava even if he becomes the Chief Secretary continues to be a Yadava – a milkman. Hence the reservation (human rights) are given to a whole class of Yadavas. Then only that jati can go up the social ladder.
Whether it is the “rich” or the “poor”, the Brahmins as a whole are single and united. As Periyar EV Ramaswamy puts it when it rains In Kashmir, the Kanyakumari Brahmin catches cold.
The ruling upper castes (about 15% of the country’s population) have advanced and become rulers only on the basis of this “cream theory”.
The Supreme Court judgment wants to exclude this “creamy layer”. If this section is removed who is going to fight for the human rights of its jati?
The V.P. Singh govt. order pertains to reservations only in employment but not in education. The court judgment, therefore, is restricted to job reservation only.
Mischief of “cream theory”: Only those who are educated and having the requisite qualifications can apply to a reserved post. The uneducated among BCs cannot apply. If the “creamy layer” of a particular jati is excluded, the “affluent”, “advanced” BCs, who alone have produced the educated BCs and have the qualification to apply to these reserved posts, cannot apply. If the “advanced BCs” can’t apply and if the “backward BCs” are not educated and hence have not produced the qualified candidates for the reserved posts, it means the posts will remain vacant and the upper castes can simply swallow it under the “merit pool”. The Supreme Court “creamy layer” theory has only helped the Aryan upper castes.
This is exactly what the upper castes want and this is exactly what the Supreme Court has given. What the court gave in right hand, it took away in left hand. In one breath it says “economic criterion” alone is no basis to please the BCs but in another breath it recommends elimination of the “affluent cream” by imposing the very same eco- nomic criterion. This is contradictory.
Courts can’t decide social issues: Hence the verdict which tries to please every section of the society has to be rejected.
Reservations (meaning human rights) is an es- sential part of social engineering. It is the people who have to decide it. The courts are not the proper machinery to conduct social engineering. In a multi-national country where each jati is a “nation”, no revolution like that in China is possible in India. In such a country, each “nation” can have its own revolution through social engineering alone. Reservation is one of the ways to do it. It is a slow but sure process.
Shudras worse than Brahmins: The well-fed upper castes may get lot of heart burnings but they must know that today’s anti-Mandal upper castes like Marathas, Nairs, Reddys, Lingayats, Jats, Kayasths had led a battle against Brahmins, not even 50 years ago.
At that time they wanted the support of the SC/ ST/BCs and Muslims to fight the Brahmins. Today, these shudra sections after going up the ladder through “cream theory” resent the formation of “cream” among SC/ST/BCs.
If the ‘cream’ formation among SC/BCs is not allowed and social engineering is scuttled, the suppressed sections may explode in a bloody revolution.
The choice is before the advanced sections. The Supreme Court cannot decide the course of history. History is made by the people. The court does not represent the people. (Nov. 23, 1992)
