Where's India's Ward?

WHEN polls are nigh, can the issue of Muslim reservations be far behind? In that context, I recall a chance meeting I had with Ward Connerly, America’s self styled equality neo-con who believes in, and works for, a color blind society in the United States. I bumped into him at a university campus in the mid-west down south of Chicago where I was on a short term study visit in 2006.

It was a wet snowy morning making a visit to the library look like a taxing effort. A Connerly lecture was planned in the next building. It sounded interesting so I went. In the auditorium was a multi-racial, vocal, and energetic crowd with eagerness writ large. Another five minutes and a rather short and stocky black man walked in, a coffee cup in hand. Without waiting for the house to get in order, or the formalities to be introduced, the man started shooting from the hip, as they say in America. It turned out to be a story telling session.

Much like our reservations for the depressed classes, America has the policy of affirmative action mainly for its black population. It provides for a certain percentage of preferential allotments to them in government jobs and college admissions. Connerly wants this policy to be done away with, because he believes that minus the crutches also, the blacks can survive and succeed in the system.

He gives his own example in each talk he holds. Once while flying to a destination, a white man sat next to him with an air of superiority till they opened a chat. The conversation led to realization between the two that Connerly was in fact economically much more successful than his white co-passenger. The dynamics changed immediately. The air of superiority in the white male went missing totally by the time they had landed. He recalled other anecdotes from his life emphasizing how it was not what he was given (shit) but what he took out of it (success and determination) that was important.

The reaction of the crowd was to be seen. As Connerly chided the students to be proud rather than apologetic of the black culture - “black culture my ass” came a loud riposte from a black girl - tears in her eyes. Others showed varied degree of frustration and anger. A section of whites, Hispanics, and the Asian crowd showed approval. It was a stark introduction to the true realities of American society. Never ever have I seen such open expression of hostility even by our dalits here!

But despite such reactions, Connerly has succeeded in bringing about anti-affirmative legislations in two states – Michigan and California. Both are in the nature of amendments that have prohibited government institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity, specifically in the areas of public employment, public contracting or public education. Something akin to that would be removal of the reservations clause from our Constitution. After the talk, I rushed to him and asked how difficult it was to sustain his philosophy given this opposition. In his characteristic style he waved it off saying, “my supporters are growing.” 

That brings me to my proposition for this post. India needs a Connerly now. The only question for us to sort out is that whether first we find a Connerly for the Muslims or the Scheduled Castes. I would here stick my neck out it better be Muslims. Even if we fully endorse the present predominant political wisdom that they have faced institutionalized discrimination, its history does not go further than 1947. So, unlike the SCs, where the grudges go millennia behind, Muslim perception of hurt is fairly recent. Seems rather impossible in the present scenario when the clamour for more reservations for more categories is growing rather than diminishing in our polity.

So who would bell the proverbial cat? Indian left seriously believes that Muslims have been reduced to second rate citizens as a Hindu conspiracy. Congress, though pays lip service, is the lead implementer of Muslim reservations (beginning with Andhra?). Connerly is a self-confessed Republican. So it seems that an Indian avatar of him should come ideally from the BJP. He openly supports segregation and maintains that it does not come in the way of his belief in the equality of races. BJP would be too comfortable with the idea. Connerly argues that positive discrimination for some amounts to negative discrimination to those who lose out despite being in merit. An argument that is echoed in the demand for example of our own economically weaker sections among Brahmins, for which, ironically, even Mayawati has supported the idea of reservation!

And if it has to be BJP, who would it be in the present set up? As Connerly is married to a white woman, Shahnawaz Husain comes closest to that prescription, but falls woefully short on other departments needed in a proselytizer. Narendra Modi fits the bill of a mass proselytizer, but he is no Muslim or Dalit. His case would be that of adding fuel to fire on the issue, even post-Sadbhavna. BJP might have to ponder on this. The nation waits till then.

Disclosure: I write this under the spell of my upper caste, middle-class belief that if all reservations need to be done away with in the long run the beginning time is now. There is no empirical support to the belief.