Economist Kaushik Basu pointed out an obvious fallacy in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s move of allocating 10 per cent reservation to ‘economically weaker sections’ (EWS) in the general category.
In a tweet posted on Thursday, January 10, Basu said, “The new system of reservation holds 10% of jobs for applicants from households with annual income below Rs. 8 lakhs. Nearly 99% of Indian households fall in this category. So this is, effectively, a quota for all. But isn’t a quota for all, a quota for none?”
The new system of reservation holds 10% of jobs for applicants from households with annual income below Rs. 8 lakhs. Nearly 99% of Indian households fall in this category. So this is, effectively, a quota for all. But isn’t a quota for all, a quota for none?
— Kaushik Basu (@kaushikcbasu) January 10, 2019
On Tuesday, January 7, the Parliament made the 124th amendment to the Constitution. Thereafter, on Wednesday, January 8, the Parliament passed the Constitution Bill approving the EWS reservation.
The bill has been slammed as an election gimmick, and legal experts have opined that it would not stand a judicial challenge as the Indian Constitution does not allow reservation on only economic grounds.