The recent deaths of more than 20 people in police firing has again highlighted the controversy which surrounds the world's biggest affirmative action programme. Gemini News Service reports on the politics of allocating quotas for jobs and places in educational institutions in an effort to benefit millions of disadvantaged Incfians.A controversial scheme to increase affirmative action, designed to overconic the •rigid social hierarchy of India s ancient caste system, is threatening to spark violence as several stales prepare to go to the polls.

•In a bld to win the support of sections of voters, the gov ernments in states such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have unveiled policies alined al reserving up to 70 per cent pf Jobs and positions in educational institutions for lower castes.

Similar schemes recently

triggered off widespread violence in north India. At least 20 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh state In September after police opened fire on agitators protesting against the Implementation of a policy "biased" in favour of Other Backward Communities (OBCs)

The protesters, from nine hill districts of the state, said less than two per cent of their population belonged to OBCs. and government patronage through reservations would reddee Job and educational prospects for their youngsters.

further marginalising the region.

If implemented, they said, people from the plains eligible to take advantage of affirmative action policies would move Into the hills and "colonize" them.

Faced with a state government determined to enforce reservations for political reasons. the hill people have now ■widened their agitation, into demands for a separate state in which they can decide their own policies.

The caste system has been a key factor in political and eco-

nomic domination in India, where more that 40 per cent of the population Ilves, below the poverty line. While publicly eschewing the caste system as "regressive." politicians have always counted on blocks of votes along caste lines.

Bitter caste clashes erupted in 1990, when quotas for the OBCs were first announced by former Prime Minister Vish-wanath Ptatap Singh.

Critics claim that Singh calculated that he would gain politically by legitimising the repressive caste system in the name of social progress' Invoking the 11-year-old Mandal Commission report on the issue. Singh announced a 27 per cent job reservation policy for backward castes.

The Justification was that this would rigtit age-old social and economic imbalances. But. argues journalist Chandan Mitra, the move strengthened ■ the caste system: "It has made genetic heritage the basis for discrimination, sharpening ethnic distinctions .and heightening social tension."'

Party insiders also accused the Prime Minister of Introducing the policy to shore up his position at the head of a shaky coalition. "According to Singh's calculations, the millions who benefitted from his ruling would become his personal vote bank." says a former MP from Singh's centrist Janata Dal party.

In fact, an affirmative action policy already existed. Soon after independence in 1947. in order to speed up social mobility the government reserved 22.5 per cent of Jobs and places tn educational institutions for India's "untouchables" — officially known as scheduled castes" — and the underprivileged tribal population (or scheduled tribes).

In addition, around 10 per cent of state and parliamentary

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