INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - MAY 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

UPA WINS THE DAY FOR ARJUN

 THEUPA leadership, has given its nod to the Mandal II proposal and said the enabling legislation will be passed by Parliament during the monsoon session.

 The government is planning to set up a committee of vice chancellors of centrally funded institutions for preparing a report to prepare the road map for implementing the new quota regime. The committee will be asked to submit its report by August 31.

A statement issued after the meeting said, “In the interests of all sections of the student community, the number of seats in educational institutions under the purview of the central government will be increased.” This is unlikely to mollify the anti-quota protesters.

Tuesday's decision indicates the nature of pressure that the Congress was having to bear from coalition allies. It be recalled that the CWC meeting, which discussed the issue, had endorsed GoM's stand that the implementation of quota would “take a while”. This reflected an anxiety in the party not to precipitate the issue at this juncture.

The assessment of the party was rooted in the assumption that implementation of the quota proposal would widen the emotional distance between the Congress and the upper castes. Besides, the proposal is being resented by India's growing middle classes — a constituency that the Congress has of late been trying to cultivate.

That the government may have to give in to pressure from caste-based parties and the Left was clear when the issue was taken up at the UPA-Left's meeting this morning.

While DMK chief Karunandhi had raised the demand for a quota Ordinance in a letter to the Prime Minister on the eve of the second anniversary of the UPA regime, the demand was endorsed by PMK chief Ramadoss on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister, through defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, circulated a ‘short notice' on the government thinking on the implementation of the quota proposal. The short notice was in response of a demand from Left leaders, who at last night's anniversary dinner expressed their unhappiness over the manner in which the students agitation and the quota proposal were being handled by the government.

The Prime Minister's short notice spelt out the government's road map, based on GoM proposals, for the implementation of the quota proposal. It said the government was ‘committed to implement' the OBC quota but ‘without hurting anybody's interests'. The note further said, according to the government's study, it would take ‘three to five years' to implement the OBC quota by increasing the number of general seats. For this, the government would also need huge expenditure to meet the infrastructural needs. According to the note, an estimated additional expenditure of Rs 7,800 crore (as non-recurring expenses) and another Rs 2,002 crore (as recurring expenses) would be required. To mop up this additional expenses, the note said, the government will have to impose some fresh cess. At this stage, the PMK leader protested against the manner in which the government was allowing ‘a small section of students in metros' to block the quota plans. He said reservation is already in place in south India and asked why such a proposal cannot be brought for the rest of the country. Asking the government to act firmly, he said the proposed quota is “meant to benefit a large section of socially backward students across the country”.

At this stage, the Left leaders, who have been backing quota but without inclusion of the creamy layer along with some other allies, asked the Prime Minister to firm up the government resolve to implement quota. They went to the extent of saying that the agitation of students is being “fanned by the corporate sector”, which is wary of the quota proposal reaching the private sector.