The 10% Quota in TN – A Different Ballgame

Will Tamil Nadu reject the 10% quota? Why is it different for a state that already has 69% reservation?

Why Tamil Nadu seems to lead the charge in reservations for the oppressed classes.

(Photo Courtesy: Sivakumar S / Dribble)

Historical precedent in Tamil Nadu has been against reservation on the basis of economic backwardness. It is what caused the only political defeat in MGR’s career, and to overcompensate, spiked the quantum of reservation in the state to a whopping 69%, the highest in the country, followed by Rajasthan’s 54%, a distant second.

In 2006, while doctors and other professionals across the country agitated against the Supreme Court ruling of implementing 27%  reservation in central and private institutes of higher learning, Tamil Nadu didn’t raise a single eyebrow, or a stethoscope.

Here’s why Tamil Nadu seems to lead the charge in reservations for the oppressed classes, and how it took a movement, a political disaster, a constitutional amendment, and almost a murder, to get to 69%, while the rest of India capped it at around 50%.

MGR's Anti-Pro Reservation Flip/Flop

By implementing the 10% quota for the economically backward, the Centre under Narendra Modi has done what Tamil Nadu's superstar chief minister MG Ramachandran paid dearly for, in 1980.  The only time MGR ever lost an election was the Parliamentary elections of 1980, in which he faced embarrassing defeat, securing just two seats. Four months later, in the Assembly elections, he won with a thumping majority.  This is what transpired between debilitating defeat, and historic victory barely four months later;

Citing the findings of the First Backward Classes Commission (1970) headed by A N Sattanathan, MGR issued a Government Order on 2 July 1979 fixing annual income for BCs to avail of the benefits of reservation at Rs 9,000 per annum.

In effect, MGR tried to exclude the ‘creamy layer’ (also known as BC .B), a category of backward classes who are affluent, both in employment and education, and among the nine castes (according to the Sattanathan Commission) who take away the benefits of reservation from the rest.

A month later, at the centenary celebrations of Periyar in Pudukottai, MGR spoke of his desire to extend the benefits of reservation to all categories, including general category, on the basis of economic backwardness.

This gave Karunanidhi's DMK enough ballast to sail through to victory in the 1980 Parliamentary elections. He was so emboldened by the win that he convinced Indira Gandhi to dissolve the government in TN, necessitating Assembly elections.

Shocked by the defeat, MGR called K Veeramani (Dravida Kazhagam) – who spearheaded protests by burning the controversial GO and sending the ashes to MGR's office – to a meeting, to hear his concerns. Following this, MGR issued another GO on 21 January, 1980 reversing the income cap on beneficiaries of reservations, and increasing the quota for BCs from 31% to 50%.

Combined with the 18% for Scheduled Castes, this brought the total quota of reservations up to 68%.

History of Affirmative Action in TN

“Brahmans have invariably occupied the first place in the civil administration of the country... Their caste influence is tempered by the presence of a sprinkling of Europeans, East Indians, ‘Other Caste’ Hindus, and Native Christians, but in respect of their numbers, they still have, practically, a monopoly  of Government official service requiring intellectual qualifications.”

The Census Report of The Madras Presidency (1871)

The Census Report of The Madras Presidency (1871) was one of the earliest censuses conducted in India. It revealed that non-brahmins and Muslims were denied political prospects.

By 1895, based on this and succeeding censuses, 49 castes were provided special attention and concessions to education.

In August 1921, under Ramarayaningar's governance, the Madras Presidency issued the first 'communal' GO, which implemented the first caste-based communal reservations in government jobs.

By the late 1930s, and early 1940s, Periyar's Self Respect Movement took centre-stage, constantly questioning the ‘superiority’ of Brahmins and enforcing further reservations to non-Brahmins and Dalits. Incidentally, Ramarayaningar belonged to the Justice Party, which Periyar took over, and later renamed the Dravida Kazhagam.

By 1946, the reservation for Scheduled Castes was increased from 8.33% to 12.33%, and again to 16.66% in 1948, and then 18% in 1971.

MGR's GO in 1980 raised the total reservation to 69%. In 1989, after agitations by the Vanniyar caste who demanded 20% reservation of jobs in the state and 2% at the centre exclusively for themselves, the DMK split the OBC segment into OBC and MBC (Most Backward Caste).

An additional 1% was allotted to Scheduled Tribes, bringing the total to 69%.

'Amma' Brings in Constitutional Sanction

What was until 1992 one of the oldest affirmative action programs in the world running on executive sanctions, finally gained constitutional sanction, thanks to the then-CM, Late J Jayalalithaa's herculean efforts.

Taking into account the suggestions of the Mandal Commission, the Supreme Court ruled, in 1992, that the quantum of reservation should not exceed 50%, and directed that the creamy layer be excluded from the benefits.

KM Vijayan, a senior advocate, filed a case on behalf of VOICE consumer forum, in response to which the Madras High Court directed the state to bring it down to 50% from the academic year 1994-95. KM Vijayan almost paid for this with his life, after he was brutally attacked outside his home while on his way to court. He sustained multiple fractures, and took over a year to recuperate.

By November 1993, the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill was adopted, protecting the 69% quota.

Jayalalithaa then campaigned vigorously at the Centre, even visiting the then-prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, requesting him to present the Bill to President Shankar Dayal Sharma. After the Presidential assent in July, Jayalalithaa kept up the pressure to include it as a Constitutional Amendment in the Ninth Schedule.

By August, 1994, the Tamil Nadu Act (1994), became part of the Ninth Schedule.

The 'Creamy Layer' Carrot and Stick

Two months after Jayalalithaa returned to power in 2011, she passed another resolution through the Cabinet, to not exclude the creamy layer as part of the 69% reservations.

This is seemingly a direct violation of the Supreme Court's directive from 1992, 2006 and again in 2008, when it upheld the 27% reservation for backward classes in educational institutions supported by the Central government. Nevertheless, after it proved costly for MGR, succeeding governments in TN neither raised it as an issue, nor tried to implement the Supreme Court's directive since then.

The recent 10% reservation on the basis of economic backwardness is being perceived as the return of upper caste (specifically Brahmin) hegemony in government jobs and educational institutions. The DMK has historically opposed economic status as a criteria for reservation. As the chief opposition party in TN, it has already begun campaigning against the move.

The question is, will the AIADMK risk adopting or commenting on the policy before the 2019 elections are through? And will Narendra Modi pay the price for this Bill, like MG Ramachandran did in 1980?