On the Roster System the Voice of People’s Party (VPP) is riding a tiger from which it would be difficult to dismount. A lot is at stake insofar as the Roster System for the State Reservation Policy implemented in Meghalaya is concerned. For political parties looking for an issue to curry favour with a section of constituents and with an eye on the 2024 District Council elections and perhaps even the Lok Sabha elections the Roster System first pointed out by the Meghalaya High Court comes as a god-send. But at this critical juncture statesmanship is called for rather than political brinkmanship. The propensity to make political capital out of an issue that threatens to divide the three tribes is uncalled for. But for a people governed largely by rhetoric and emotions any appeal to reason is futile.
Let’s face it the Government of Meghalaya too was taken by surprise at the non-maintenance of a Roster System to keep a record of the seats availed by the tribes for which they were reserved and also whether the unreserved seats (15%) too were filled up. At the moment the focus seems to be on whether the seats reserved for the Khasi-Jaintia community would henceforth be availed of by those from the Garo community or the minor tribes, or the unreserved categories of people who could not avail of their share of reserved seats for reasons beyond their control. To do so with retrospective effect would be a no-brainer since there have been several notifications from time to time to maintain an equilibrium and fill in vacancies that require to be filled up for the purpose of smooth governance These notifications have come not just within the state government but also from the Centre when seats for certain categories of backward tribes and castes were raised and in other cases subtracted, depending upon how many from that section of population have benefitted from the reservation policy and which are the previously unrecognised categories of backward tribes/castes that need reservation to be able to come up to fill up vacancies in the government sector.
Today there is a new reserved category of people who fall under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) for whom 10% reservation is granted over and above the existing 50% reservation for SC/ST/OBC categories. This was contested by several groups in the Supreme Court but the matter was finally laid to rest in November 2022 when the apex court upheld that the 103rd constitutional amendment of the Constitution for providing legal sanction to carve out 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections from unreserved classes for admission in educational institutions and government jobs is just and equitable. The Supreme Court ruled that the 50% cap on quota is not inviolable and affirmative action on economic basis may go a long way in eradicating caste-based reservation. This constitutional amendment pushed the total reservation to 59.50% in central institutions. Reservations therefore are not meant to be static and not a right to be claimed to perpetuity.