The preparations for the upcoming general elections are on in full swing and every single day is occupied with one or the other inevitable political activity in the country. The distribution of the tickets is at final stage, the plan for the mega rallies is being drawn, anthem songs are being rolled out; new adverts on TV are being broadcasted by different major political parties, every other day. In the midst of all of this, the Indian National Congress came out with their vision document, the manifesto, on Wednesday, for the next five years.
Just an evening before the manifesto was to be launched, interesting news started being flashed all over the news channels. It said, quoting the sources, "Congress is going to push reservations in private sector". Hell broke out and every news channel briefly discussed the issue.
The following day, before the launch, most of the journalists were tweeting against such a proposal/ idea by the Congress - full of criticism. This news ensured that most of the people in India get glued to their television when the manifesto was being launched. Alas, no such announcement was made during the launch by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi or Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. No one talked about it. Why? Such a big and important issue, involving millions of stake holders, but no one specifically spoke about it?
Then began the furious reporting by almost all the channels - with a copy of manifesto being flashed by the news reporters, confirming that the Congress indeed was pushing the reservations in private sector. The scenario on Twitter by journalists was not different, questioning the move.
It is very important to point it out here that the Bihar BJP Chief, Sushil Modi has favored the reservation in private sector, click and read. In fact Dr Udit Raj who recently joined the BJP too supports the reservation in private sector and the BJP's official website says - click and read here.
Now let us look at what the Indian National Congress's manifesto says on this subject. On its page number 23, S.no. 12 says, "The Indian National Congress is committed to creating national consensus on affirmative action for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the private sector". The following point i.e S.no. 13 says, "We will take steps to ensure that all reserved posts are filled and a special drive will be undertaken to fill all the backlog vacancies in reserved posts in government and Public Sector Undertakings".
This is precisely the reason, why senior Congress leaders didn't talk about the issue during the launch, since the issue itself doesn't exist.
The S.no. 13, surely talks about the reservation, however, it clearly is concerned with the PSUs and also doesn't talk about any new form of reservations but the effective implementation of the ones that already exists, thus to cover up the backlog in PSUs only.
The eyes were jammed on two words, in S.no. 12, "affirmative action". According to almost all the journalists it meant reservation for the SC and ST in private sector - or so they presumed. "Affirmative Action" technically means the practice/ policy of improving the educational and job opportunities of members of groups that have not been treated fairly in the past because of their race, sex etc., therefore, not necessarily reservation. No one bothered to understand what improving job opportunities could mean. It could well be related to skill training, something that the manifesto already talks about i.e providing skills training to 10 crore youth and provide them with employment opportunities in next 5 years. The "affirmative action" could very well mean the advancement of vocational education that the MOS HRD, Shashi Tharoor and the former Union Minister for HRD, Kapil Sibal have repeatedly emphasized on in order to create better employment opportunity for the youth.
In all probabilities, by mentioning affirmative action even if the Congress literally meant reservation in the private sector, it also says that the party is committed to creating 'national consensus' on affirmative action. This further suggests that whatever the methodology be, the reservation (hypothetical) wouldn't be forced upon by the Government (majority or not) but a sort of referendum would be pursued to build a consensus - for or against the affirmative action. If people of India would want the reservation in private sector, they would get it or else not.
Another view to look at it is - just a month ago, on 20 February 2014, the government cleared a proposal for setting up of the much-awaited Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), a statutory body to check discrimination of minority communities in jobs and education. The EOC was one of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee whose report was tabled in Parliament in 2006. Though the EOC will address the grievances of people from the minority communities (only) if they feel discriminated against by government agencies - the plan is also to extend such a commission for the SC and ST with a purview of private sectors too, to ensure better employment opportunities - against the existing instances of discrimination.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has already sought information from 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission and also the EOC, on the same. The 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission's proposal is to strengthen the existing commissions, by providing adequate legal authority, manpower and infrastructure, to safeguard the rights of the stakeholders rather than bringing it under the purview of the EOC and therefore had proposed Amendments to Section 14 of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Also, it is to note that there are other things in the manifesto that deserves some attention - Right based approach for the 2/3rd of population (Approx 80 crore) to bring them up into the middle class by providing economic and social security via Right to Health, Pension, Housing, Entrepreneurship etc. The plan to ensure 10 per cent growth rate in the manufacturing sector. The proposal to invest $1 trillion to upgrade India's power, transport and other development infrastructure and how the power generation has 'doubled' in last 10 years. The plan to connect all towns and gram panchayats with high-speed broadband within 18 months, while the mobile subscription has increased to 95 crore from mere 3.36 crore in last ten years and during the same period the tele-density in rural areas has increased 26 times. How the Congress plans to ensure bank accounts for every citizen in next 5 years and so on and so forth.
Alas, none of these things, things that are actually related to the future of middle-class urban youth like myself, are being considered/ discussed/ questioned by anyone; perhaps, because it kills the thrill.
(Gaurav Pandhi, a Social media activist and financial consultant)
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