The human faced Common Minimum Programme, and President Kalam’s speech, are both emphatic in reducing poverty, corruption, and job discrimination in India. These documents read with so much syrup that it is difficult to objectively unglue oneself from the trite but oh! so politically correct messages. If the documents only talked of intention, they could be ignored. But they go much further. For example, the President’s speech outlines legislative plans: “the government is sensitive to the issue of affirmative action including reservations in the private sector and it is committed to faster socio-economic and educational development of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes… Reservation quotas in government, including those relating to promotions, will be fulfilled in a time-bound manner. To codify all policies on reservations, appropriate legislation will be enacted.”

Two important issues are involved. First, the right of every polity, and government, to concretely address the problems of social injustice. In this regard, it is economic backwardness that matters and not caste or sex status. All people should get the benefit of government policy. The second issue pertains to discrimination in the job marketplace. When this occurs, it is the case that those practicing discrimination (e.g. the firms) are incurring a loss by doing so. In other words, they are hiring a caste or sex rich person, and paying such person a higher productivity adjusted wage. The firm could hire an equally productive but caste or sex poor candidate (e.g. a female or an SC/ST person) at a lower wage. The firm chooses to incur this extra cost willfully because presumably it gets utility from being casteist, racist, or sexist. In a democratic society, such utility gains cannot and should not be tolerated.

But how best is such a situation tackled? There are two approaches: first, legal and the second, by force of government. The former is what is practiced in enlightened societies like the US; the judicial system decides the occurrence of discrimination and in due course of time, the practice of such discrimination is eliminated. Lawsuits presuppose that there is a pool of qualified applicants i.e. with the same education and ability. Such may not be the case in some societies and it is instructive to look at the "best practices" prevailing in these societies. For example, in the mid-seventies, Malaysia (with about 55 percent indigenous Malay population, 33 percent population of Chinese origin and 12 percent of Indian origin) was faced with a lopsided situation in terms of availability of educated labor - the Malays had considerably lower education that either the Chinese or the Indians. The government could have taken the route of implementing job reservations in the private sector, but it chose not to do so. Instead, the policy was first to increase the educational attainment of the Malays (both male and female) to bring them at par with the rest of the population; in parallel, job quotas were introduced into the public sector. Just fifteen years later, Malays had the same education profile as non- Malays, and Malay females had higher educational attainment than Malay males. "Affirmative action" policies were tackled in the long-term (10 to 15 years) via education and in the immediate short-term via quotas, for educationally qualified Malays, through the public sector.

It is likely that the Malaysian model is also being followed today in South Africa. Nowhere (other than perhaps Mugabe's corrupt dictatorship in Zimbabwe) that I am aware has the policy of job reservations in the private sector been initiated. There are good moral, legal, and ethical reasons why the CMP advocated policy has not been adopted anywhere else in the world. Such a policy is unfair to all the other citizens; and the rights of other economically backward people (Muslims, Hindus, non SC/ST castes) are ignored with no basis.

What can constitute desirable (short and long term) "affirmative action" policies? First, financial support for those in the bottom 40 percent of the population to attend educational institutions, all the way till the post-graduate levels. This financial support entails both tuition and cash fellowships i.e. no student should be able to state that they were qualified to go to school, but could not do so for lack of resources. Second, the government, if it deems desirable, can put in place "guidance quotas" for minorities in the public sector; but it should ensure such quotas are there for all those discriminated against - women, Muslim, and SC/ST. Third, it should refrain, under all circumstances, to enforce such guidance on the rest of the population. Such a policy will go a long way towards economic development according to Indian principles than the adoption of "in the face only" policies advocated by the CMP.