The Tamil Nadu government has opposed the union government’s 2019 decision to give 10% reservation to the economically weaker sections (EWS) of forward communities. The DMK-led government has filed a reply in the Supreme Court, which is hearing a batch of petitions against the EWS quota.

Tamil Nadu, which has a total of 69% reservation for backward classes, has always advocated for quotas based on social backwardness but not on quotas based on annual income. When the Union government introduced the 10% EWS reservation in June 2019, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) opposed it. Here is why the DMK is against reservations based on economic factors:

It would weaken the caste-based reservation

As early as in 2019, in an all-party meeting, the DMK party president MK Stalin mentioned that extending the quota on the basis of economic factors would weaken the caste-based reservation. As per TOI report, in its statement filed before the Supreme Court, the DMK has said that reservations are meant to alleviate social backwardness of people who were socially oppressed and that bringing upper castes into the reservation on the basis of economic factors would be a mockery of reservation.

Cut-off marks

The implementation of the EWS quota in civil services and banking examination questioned the ethics of reservation as the cut-off marks for the candidates belonging to EWS were lower than that for OBC and SC. In the 2019 UPSC civil service exam, the preliminary exam qualifying mark for EWS was 90, while it was 95 for the OBC. Similarly, the mains cut-off mark for EWS was 696, while it was 718, 706, and 699 for OBC, SC, and ST, respectively. "Reservation always seen as a remedy or cure for the ill effects of historical discrimination but the introduced jobs and education were reserved for the upper castes isolating other backward classes to a destitute state" DMK has said.

Questions equality

In Tamil Nadu, only 4% of the population are upper caste communities, the DMK has said. In its written submission filed in the Supreme Court by RS Bharati, DMK organizing secretary, the party said the reservations are constitutionally valid only when made to achieve social equality. The DMK has called reservation based on economic factors as non-constitutional. “What qualifies for reservation is backwardness, which is the result of identified past discrimination and which is comparable to that of the SC and the ST,” the DMK petition says.

It is to be noted that a batch of petitions have been filed in the apex court against the EWS quota and the hearing will start on September 13 by a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit. Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, Justice Bela M  Trivedi and Justice JB Pardiwala are also part of the bench. The entire hearing is earmarked for five days, three days in the third week of September and two days in the fourth week of September.