JUST WHEN the government thought India Inc was being needlessly mulish in its resistance to jobs for the underprivileged, the latter has come up with something: affirmative action (AA). Now, that's what the government has been talking about, hasn't it? Precisely, said sources. "We have been talking about affirmative action," said a government functionary, adding, "not quota or reservation".
The difference between the two is simply this: while quota sets aside a certain number of seats/positions for beneficiaries, AA is open-ended, with no fixed numbers. R. Seshasayee, the newly elected president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said on Thursday, "Mandatory reservation in any form is not conducive to competitiveness of the industry. It is not acceptable."
Seshasayee, however, said industry needed to take positive action to empower the backward classes and help them develop abilities to compete. "To ensure that SCs, STs and OBCs are able to compete and acquire job skills and as our response to the government's call for reservation in the private sector, we are setting up a task force on affirmative action under the chairmanship of J.J. Irani," he said. The government, said sources, was not contemplating a legislation.