More than forty years after this prophetic debate we seem to have reached square one as the Supreme Court, for the umpteenth time is seized of the matter, while many legal luminaries of the country partake of their paradise.
Meanwhile, many attempts were made to grant reservations to the backward classes. In recent years, each time such a decision was taken, there was strife in the streets. The latest was the result of the Central Government’s announcement setting aside 27 per cent of jobs for backward classes, following the recommendations of the ten-year-old Second Backward Classes Commission Report (otherwise known as the Mandal Commission Report). It led to disturbances in some parts of the country whose most bitter reflection, perhaps, were the self-immolations. It is evident that in the four decades after the Constituent Assembly made its provisions, the issues have become more complicated and the contentions more violent. The executive, bureaucracy, political parties, courts, media, academia — have all become hopelessly embroiled in the controversy. In the process, democratic institutions have got subverted from within. The issue of reservations thus became inseparable from the decay of democratic institutions. This report on Law, Reservations and Agitations is thus also a report on the democratic processes in the country.
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Disputed Passages: A Report on Law, Reservation and Agitations
