The demand for reservation in various jobs is increasing day-by-day ... There is a demand to extend reservation to Christians and Muslims. The Jats organised a big rally in Jaipur and demanded reservation for their community ... The majority too is in minority in six states ... If this demand is conceded ... the next demand will be of job reservation in there states ... In this situation the alternative is either to have 100 per cent reservation on the basis of different criteria or discard it completely.

There should be some logical base for reservation ... Parliament derives it authority to create reservations in various jobs from Articles 15 & 16 of the Constitution. It is altogether different that clause (4) of the Article 15 was added by the Constitution(First Amendment) Act, 1951 Certain exceptions to the right created by clause (1) and (2) of Article 16 flow from clauses (3), (4), (4a) and (5) of the Article. But these exceptions have become rules now ..

The judiciary has ruled that reservation cannot go beyond 50%. But it is futile as many Acts are being incorporated in the Ninth Schedule making reservation to the extent of 70%. Moreover, there is a move to introduce constitutional amendment to raise the reser-vation ceiling beyond 50%. The Supreme Court held in Indira Sawhney's case that reservation will not be effective in promotions. But thanks to politics, the 77th Amendment was brought to bypass the apex court judgement.

There may be other suitable and meaningful ways of uplifting the weaker sections. SCs, STs and OBCs should be given the advantage of good education or sound vocational training and not the easier option of quotas, so that they come up to compete with others ...

The concept of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution and ruling of reasonable classification laid down by the Supreme Court in various cases has not been followed. The general categories thus are meted on unequal treatment in this race for reservation ...

(Source: I. Husain and J. H. Siddiqui in The Nation and the World, 1 October, 1999)