On March 29, the Union Cabinet approved the delinking of backlog of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe vacancies in government jobs from the overall 50 per cent ceiling on reservations ... If the entire Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe quota has not been filled in year one, it will be carried over to year two and so on ... The Parliamentary Committee for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (has) recommended a constitutional amendment for reservations in the judiciary, If this is allowed, there is no ... reason why the Union Cabinet itself should not be subjected to caste-based reservations ... The Indian state is closing its doors to homegrown talent. The 50 per cent limit was an eminently sensible one that reconciled social justice. with meritocracy. Now the balance is gone; forever.

Without a strictly economic parameter the quota system can never be foolproof. What it has done is to create a sub-elite among the traditionally indigent classes. There is no provision, for instance, to prevent the same family from using the reservation facility for, say, more than three generations. It is ridiculous to treat the daughter of an SC secretary to the Government of India at par with the son of a Dalit labourer ...

Injecting a dose of rationality into affirmative action will only hasten the journey to social equity. Rather than take piecemeal decisions on reservations, shouldn't the Government study the Indian experience with the quota system in its entirety? ...