Reservations are here to stay

The Supreme Court judgement on the OBC reservation issue should not surprise anyone. After all, the Supreme Court’s job isn’t to make laws but merely to ascertain whether existing laws were broken. And in the present case, the Supreme Court decided that nothing in the Indian Constitution prevents Arjun Singh from adding a 27% quota in government institutions. Again, I have to agree — the Constitution itself has been weakened to such an extent through laws and precedents that it will be surprising if any law is ever again judged uncontitutional.

For those who are concerned that this will devalue the IIT and IIM brands, slow down development, heighten inter-caste animosity and reduce opportunities for much of the population without really helping the rest — well, of course you are right, but fret not! As Aristotle The Geek points out, the market will do its best to correct the situation.

So much of recent history can be viewed as a case study of the market systematically correcting (at least some of) the ills caused by ill-advised government action. Isn’t that ironic?