'India's reservation policy a threat to prosperity'

Berlin, July 8: The greatest internal threat to India's economic prosperity is its reservation policy, The Wall Street Journal, Europe, said in its editorial today.

''If the caste riots outside New Delhi this month teach anything, it's that the greatest internal threat to India's economic prosperity is reservations, or affirmative action to heal all forms of economic and social ills,'' the paper said.

The policy is also antithetical to the way India's founders envisioned how their country would evolve. They foresaw an equitable society unshackled from its socially stratified past, and the Constitution provides for equality before the law, it said.

It also, however, enables state governments to legislate affirmative action-type policies as they see fit. Caste, which was to become a thing of the past in modern India, has become just the opposite, the paper said.

By defining castes and other backward classes and extending them additional rights, state governments validated and entrenched them.

''Because most well-paying jobs and university seats were often occupied by upper-caste minorities many states took the opportunity to kick them out.'' ''Today, neither the Congress Party nor the Bharatiya Janata Party dares to utter a word of protest against reservation policies because it's considered a political suicide.

''As both parties fail to provide social services to citizens, they have to rely on coalitions to gain national office. And that leads to more populist politics.'' Reservations are such an entrenched part of India's political fabric that it may be impossible to roll them back. Instead, it is smarter to focus on making these policies irrelevant over time by empowering citizens through education, the paper said.

If people have the skills to access private sector jobs, they will likely eschew public sector give-aways. ''But that's hard to do when primary education is spotty, at best, and the state restricts private alternatives.'' ''Meanwhile, things may be about to go from bad to worse. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he will consider extending reservations to the private sector.'' The Confederation of Indian Industry, is in defense mode, proclaiming that that it will institute affirmative action, first, before thegovernment mandates it.

''If policy makers want to get rid of poverty and social divisions, the best way to do that is through equality of opportunity, not of outcome. If not, then this month's caste riots are just the beginning of their problems,'' the paper said.

UNI