Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the Centre for Policy Research, in the Indian Express, on the women’s reservation bill guaranteeing 33% seats in the lower house of Parliament and legislature for women:
“Behold all, the rise of Quotocracy! Experience the bliss that is this new dawn.
“Quotocracy is distinct. Voters by turn are obliged to vote for someone with particular ascriptive characteristics…. Quotocracy has its own principle: victimhood. No quotocracy can be sustained without it….
“Quotocracy has consensus: all divisions between left, right and centre are dissolved by quota. And those who oppose quotas are accused of treason…. Quotocracy creates a new distinction between public and private. Privately you may oppose quota, but you politically act on that belief at your own peril….
“Quotocracy has its own conception of justice. It is not equality, or capability or fitness or fairness. It is simple arithmetic: 33 here, 22 there, 50 for the rest. And since arithmetic can be complicated there is no point doing fractions and subdivisions….
“Quotocracy prizes group think. You are your group. Quotocracy is premised upon ascription. You are what the state certificate says you are: SC/ ST or OBC. You can be this and no other…. Quotocracy makes constitutionalism subordinate to itself. So what if some states exceed 50 per cent and the courts for fear are unable to pronounce a verdict.
“Quotocracy redefines the scale of values: excellence is a ruse for domination, self-reliance a tactic for injustice and so forth…. Quotocracy thrives on historical amnesia. The British used two tactics: divide and rule. And they said that we were infants because we could not think outside of caste and community. We were incapable of self-government…. Quotocracy likes divide and rule. And it also thinks we are incapable of self-government.”
Read the full article: Our wonderful quotocracy
Also read: CHURUMURI POLL: Impact of 33% women’s quota?
‘Women’s bill will only increase State’s power’
Tags: Churumuri, Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Sans Serif, Women's Reservation Bill
15 March 2010 at 12:00 pm
Unfortunate that while these left leaning intellectuals are also exhibiting the same duplicity as the Yadavs. They were not so anti quota in 2005 and 2006 when the 27% OBC quota was a burning issue. Indeed they were largely in support.
It’s also unfortunate that Churumuri seeks to focus upon this rhetorical piece by Pratap Bhanu Mehta and not another more reasoned and logical one where he discusses how we are trying to ensure proportionality in a territorial representation system and how a proportional representation system is better to ensure representation from all identities.
15 March 2010 at 12:31 pm
Atleast one voice of reason.
15 March 2010 at 12:52 pm
Nice article. When will the law of unintended consequences (or may be not !) come full circle in our so called democracy?
15 March 2010 at 3:03 pm
It’s obvious that we are incapable of governing ourselves as we have demonstrated in the last 60 years or so. The quotas have miserably failed to ensure social justice and this quota will not do a great deal of good either.
15 March 2010 at 3:04 pm
For all YSR fans -
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Scrap-YSRs-schemes-Plan-panel/articleshow/5681324.cms
“Scrap YSR’s schemes: Plan panel”
15 March 2010 at 4:30 pm
Will it ensure allround development, progress of the people of all those coming under quota and those outside the quota?
15 March 2010 at 4:52 pm
Most developed countries have good representation by women in legislature, not through Quotas ofcourse. Being third-worlders, left to ourselves, we won’t let enough women represent us. What to do? Bring a quota for representation of women in legislature, so that our legislatures/parliaments appear no less evolved in their demography than those in the first world. This is called counterfeiting or’ Kota’ in the localese. So it is ‘Kotacracy’, an one-dimensional counterfeiting of a senate or parliament of a developed nation.
15 March 2010 at 6:19 pm
What ever may be his short comings, give Narender Modi a stint at Delhi and all will be corrected in a few years.
15 March 2010 at 8:32 pm
It seems that no politician wants to evaluate reservation policy to establish that reservations actually helped anyone.
I would like CPR or TISS or IIAS to publish in a peer-reviewed journal a controlled, comprehensive study of the relationship between caste-based reservations and socio-economic status, covering reservation’s potential impact on (1) purchasing power, (2) rural GDP, (3) allegations of discrimination, (3) academic/professional achievement, etc.
so far, i am not aware of any such study. i am unclear if there is any correlation or any causal relationship between reservations and socio-economic status.
it seems logical that only if a study shows significant gains should we think of expanding the reservation regime in any direction — including to favor women.
16 March 2010 at 12:20 am
Mysore Peshva,
I am doing some digging. I found a few papers, I am not sure they are available as ‘open source’, I may be able to extract and mail you the papers if you are interested.
Note here, I am only pasting a few excerpts from the paper, you want to dig into the data and methods used etc. you can read the whole paper.
Also these may not be directly related to your questions, but may give a better picture none-the-less:
1.
GENDER, CLASS, AND CASTE SCHISMS IN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES: THE CURIOUS CASE OF INDIA’S WOMEN’S RESERVATION BILL
Sakuntala Narasimhan
Feminist Economics 8(2), 2002, 183–190
”
Reservations to co-opt women into decision-making positions (181 women into parliament, against the present 49) could help arrest such marginalization trends, by giving women a greater voice in policy-making.
An earlier legislation, the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments, for reserving one-third of seats for women in local administration (at the village and district levels, known as panchayats) introduced in 1991, resulted in nearly 1 million rural women occupying decision-making posts for the first time ever. One-third of the posts were, in addition, reserved for women of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (respectively SC and ST, the lowest among the disadvantaged communities). Most of these women were – and are – illiterate, poor, and unfamiliar with the mechanisms of governance, and some have indeed been elected as “rubber stamp” candidates for aspiring male relatives (who use her as a dummy) but recent studies have shown that the women learn the ropes quickly, given a little training, and indeed function more effectively than males (Freddie Stephen and Nadar Raja Sekaran 2001). Many states (Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tripura, Bengal) even have all-women panchayats. Despite illiteracy, poverty, and patriarchal socio-cultural handicaps, some of the women have shown extraordinar y self-confidence and initiative.The WRB merely seeks to extend this empowerment to the state and national levels.
…
”
And in the conclusion she has:
”
Inducting women into decision-making levels in parliament through reserved seats is one way of promoting affirmative action, but despite Constitutional guarantees of gender equality, the women’s reservation bill has failed to become law, because divisions along gender seem stronger than those along caste–class lines.
…
”
…A Constitutional remedy would, thus, help because the social alternative would take a long time. Setting aside seats would not be more undemocratic than affirmative action in the US (for example) because the women would still be coming in through elections.
…
”
This paper was written in 2002 – and many of her notes about the class-caste divide are showing themselves to me as ‘bang on target’ in the recent happenings in our lower and upper houses.
16 March 2010 at 1:48 am
perhaps pratap bhanu mehta means “ptochocracy,” latin for government by beggars — as opposed to “plutocracy,” or government by the rich, which india currently has.
16 March 2010 at 4:56 am
mysore peshwa,
There is a post in ‘The Law and Other Things’ with a similar discussion and links ( and mention of ) some resonable articles:
http://lawandotherthings.blogspot.com/2007/04/insights-on-academic-research-in-india.html
I thought that the article by Thomas Weisskopf in EPW ( misspelled in the post) was good.
16 March 2010 at 11:25 am
The bottom line about all Quota is that – It is reverse discrimination.
In trying to right a wrong, you are wronging the right of equality promised in the constitution.
The disgraceful thing about the concept of social/economic/gender backwardness is that, it provides a leverage in the hands of vested interests to drive a wedge within the society, in deciding who is less equal and more equal. Thus there is always competition to be ‘backward’.
Having said that, I do understand some folks have special needs (for example people with physical/mental disability), and need some special provisions. Such people need reservation (such as special parking areas, seats in buses and other provisions to help them)
But, what of people with only social/economic disability?
I think the biggest equalizer in society is economic status. A Shiv Nadar is not discriminated Against, even if he is from a SC/ST community.
So, The focus should be on making the economic disability the sole criteria of support (not reservation) in education. For all poor students, govt. should provide economic assistance to study up to a minimum of Graduation levels. This should be done irrespective of caste/religion. In other words – Provide quality education for all.
Other things will take care of itself over couple of generations (which is the duration of reservations we have had by now, and it hasn’t solved anything).