The Economist window dresses quota proposal

Much as I hate it, I subscribe The Economist because it complements my business education. This liberal mouthpiece finally published a story titled Caste and cash (subscription required) on the reservation issue.

As a matter of fact, I was quite curious as to whether The Economist will cover this story at all. On one hand they do like Affirmative Action. On the other, the monstrocity called reservations as it exists in India must baffle them out of their wits. So, I made a bet with my friend that they will simply ignore the issue. Mind you, this magazine pretty much publishes any sensational news at any corner of the world. Some recent India coverage include even state level elections.

So, finally I see that they have broken their silence. I was surprised when I read the story. They basically gave the story a new spin:

INDIA's business leaders have recently been enjoying the benefits of becoming internationally competitive, after decades of leaden regulation. Now, they have taken fright. The reason is an inferred warning that the government is thinking of setting quotas for the number of people from the poorly-educated bottom end of the Hindu caste system they should employ.

Then the article elaborates on the speech by PM at the CII conference and Azim Premji's now famous reaction. As far as our PM's atrocious demand that private companies do more, this is what they say:

Mr Singh had been characteristically mild. All he did was urge companies to assess “the diversity in your employee profile”, and commit themselves, voluntarily, to broadening their workforce and to taking a more active social role.

Well, all Mr Singh did was to expectorate, micturate and defecate upon the rights of the few enterprising individuals of our country. Note the emphasis on "voluntarily". Yeah, it is about as voluntary as pouring molten lead down someone's throat.

“Scheduled” castes and tribes—the lowest groups in India's caste system—have had claim to just over 20% of government and other public-sector jobs since 1950.

Sounds like they are prevented from taking up employment. Adding the caste word to this statement gives it a sensational spin to the casual western reader.

Buried deep in the article, an almost unnoticeable sentence mentions about the quota in educational insitutes:

In a separate initiative, the human-resources ministry has horrified industry, academia and students by proposing a reservation of 27% of places in universities and management and technical institutions for “backward castes”, on top of the 22.5% already reserved for scheduled castes and tribes.

And finally, the punchline:

The threat of quota laws will not easily be dismissed.

The one sentence in the whole article I think is dead on.