Reservation Policy

J V Deshpande’s note on reservation policy (‘Reservation Policy: Real Issues’, EPW, April 29) is yet another instance of blaming the victims. The main thrust of his argument is that if the dalits and the minorities are not adequately represented in institutions of higher education, they, in their present state, do not deserve to be there. Conveniently, he leaves out the OBCs in this argument. To acknowledge them as part of this argument would amount to conceding that there is no creamy layer among them capable of competing effectively in open competitions.

Deshpande, of course, believes that there is a creamy layer among the OBCs. He laments about the “daughters/sons of the IFS/IAS officers, of professors and doctors from BC/OBC categories claiming reserved places in institutions of higher learning or recruitment to government jobs”. As he believes in the presence of a creamy layer among the OBCs, one would expect him to respond to the question raised by M S S Pandian (April 22) why the ‘creamy layer’ among the OBCs who, by definition, should be able to make it in open competitions, do not in fact make it. But he chooses not to respond to this question. Deshpande does not address the core issue of Pandian’s contention that open competitions are in practice mediated by considerations other than merit, which in this case is caste.