The six Fundamental Rights guaranteed to citizens by the Constitution of India are:
1. Right to Equality (Articles 14–18)
• Guarantees equality before the law, prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, ensures equal opportunity in public employment, abolishes untouchability, and abolishes titles.
2. Right to Freedom (Articles 19–22)
• Includes freedoms such as speech and expression, assembly, association, movement, residence, and the right to practice any profession or occupation. Also covers protection in respect of conviction for offenses, protection of life and personal liberty, and protection against arrest and detention in certain cases.
3. Right against Exploitation (Articles 23–24)
• Prohibits human trafficking, forced labor, and child labor in hazardous employment.
4. Right to Freedom of Religion (Articles 25–28)
• Ensures freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate any religion.
5. Cultural and Educational Rights (Articles 29–30)
• Protects the rights of minorities to conserve their language, script, and culture, and to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
6. Right to Constitutional Remedies (Articles 32–35)
• Empowers citizens to move the Supreme Court or High Courts to enforce these fundamental rights.
(The Right to Property was originally a fundamental right but was removed in 1978 and is now a legal right… (not a Constitutionally guaranteed one).
There is a powerful political lobby in India today , spearheaded by the left-liberal Wokeist elements in the INDI-Alliance of Opposition Parties, and by its mascot Rahul Gandhi of the Congress Party, who are agitating for Reservation Quotas in the Private Sector (Education, Industry, Business) for the so-called “disadvantaged groups” of India comprising the 65% majority population of Backward, Other Backward Castes and Scheduled and Tribal castes. The demand now is to increase the already existing constitutionally sanctioned 50% quota to levels beyong 65%.
The demand for such Reservation in Private Sector is in anticipation of a nation-wide Population Census Survey which the Government of India will conduct in 2026 through 2027. The results of the Census Report are expected to strengthen the case now being made out for introducing Reservation Quotas (jobs, employment, admissions to guilds, apprenticeship or internships programs etc.) right across the Private Sectors of India for the BC/OBC/SC-ST castes who together combine to outnumber every other caste-grouping in any corner of this vast populous country.
Is the demand for such Affirmative Action Constitutionally virtuous ?
That is a question which is likely to become both a raging, toxic social issue post the National Population Census of 2027. It is also likely to keep the both the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India very busy adjudicating the vexatious issue for decade after decade in the ensuing history of India.
Why ?
The answer and reason in very brief essence have been outlined quite well in an Op-Ed written by the noted Economist, Surjit Bhalla. The Ex-IMF official has slammed private sector quotas as ‘worst idea’ and warns against the push for the affirmative action that Rahul Gandhi and INDI Alliance are now clamouring for.
Quotas in the private sector , Bhalla warns direly, could lead to all-round inefficiencies, endless legal disputes, and a chilling effect on entrepreneurship in general right across India. It is all just bad, bad economics.…
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Surjit Bhalla could be right but then he’s not going to stop Rahul Gandhi and the INDI Alliance of motley, fissiparous group of opposition political parties of which he thinks he is the great leader by virtue of the position in Parliament he holds … that of Leader of Opposition.
However, what could probably stop the Reservationists is the legal argument that such a Quota system is intrinsically , ab initio unconstitutional since it is grossly violative of at least three out of the 6 Fundamental Rights that the Indian Constitution guarantees it’s citizens.
The Rights violated are as follows:
1. Right to Equality (Articles 14–18) is violated because Quota Reservation in the Private Sector clearly ushers “discrimination on the ground of caste” into the private-sector domain for the ostensible if not implausible reason of ensuring equal opportunity in public employment. We must all carefully note here the nuanced language of the Constitution. It envisages here affirmative action only in public (sector) employment. It does not permit affirmative action in private (sector) employment.
The argument that the public sector is shrinking in India and hence the Reservation Quota system must evolve in our time to ensure representation for marginalised communities in the country’s now dominant employment sectors is just crass political rhetoric … It is not a serious Constitutional argument.
The Supreme Court of India itself had many years ago upheld and affirmed the cap on Reservations to be held at 50%. Why did it do so?
It was only to ensure that the private sector enjoyed in full measure its fundamental right to equality and to be able to conduct its own economic affairs and business enterprise in an environment of constitutionally engendered balance of opportunities. That was how it was conceived by the Constitution that the private sector would work with the public in tandem in pursuit of larger national goals and interests.
In other words , the Court held that a 50% reserved space each in the nation’s many economic sectors allotted to the Public and Private Sectors represented a fair, reasonable and just measure of “guaranteeing equality” inter alia between the two. It is precisely that “balance of equality” that will now get trampled upon by the Government if it goes ahead to enact law introducing disruptive Job Quotas in the Private sector.
2. Right to Freedom (Articles 19–22): This guarantee under the Constitution entitles the private sector to the freedom and the right to practice any profession or occupation.
Such freedom means really the right to conduct its business and affairs lawfully and without prejudice so long as no detriment to national interest is caused in any direct manner. This right of the private sector is to be enjoyed fully without interference from the government and never under any kind of duress exerted upon it by the government’s public policy-making or posturings.
3. Right against Exploitation (Articles 23–24): Although this Fundamental Right herein envisages only exploitation in such specific terms as human trafficking, forced labor, and child labor in hazardous employment, it is wholly blind, alas, to the present-day, emerging realities of naked and impune abuse of power by governments, both elected and unelected.
Such insidious abuse takes many dangerous forms today such as arbitrary public-policy diktats, politically motivated legislation and — under the disguise of pious sloganeering about “social justice, social engineering and social empowerment” — the mindless imposition of specious economic theories too on plain economic common sense.
The concept of Reservation Quota in the Private Sector is veritably an onslaught on the Fundamental Rights of an entire large section of honest, hard-working and tax-paying population of India. All it seeks is to be left alone to lead its quiet life… a life wherein it can hope to succeed in seeking economic prosperity while thriving on private enterprise, on market-driven efficiency and by means of the prudent allocation of the productive resources of society.
Rahul Gandhi’s concept of Reservation in Private Sector, however, is based on the asinine principle of “what is good for the majority caste in India is good for the rest of the country” , which he pronounced in his infamous quip at a public rally a couple of years ago: “Jitni abaadi, utna haq”.
If Rahul Gandhi’s doctrine of “jitni abaadi, utna haq” becomes Constitutional maxim too, then it would tantamount to nothing but “brute majoritarianism” in the economic life of all India.
The INDI ALLIANCE of motley opposition parties that echo the Rahul Gandhi doctrine are often heard raising their shrill, hysterical voices and furious fists against what is a constant theme in the political drama enacted by them right across the country in every State. It is the theme they call “Hindu Majoritarianism”. It is incredible indeed how they will have the gall tell us all: “Well, that’s Politics where Hindu Majoritarianism is pure evil. But this is Economics… and here, the “OBC/ST/SC Majoritarianism” is as pure as Constitutional gospel!”
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So, what does all this tell us?
It tells me, at least, that it is high time the Constitution of India recognizes that there has indeed emerged in modern India such an evil known as “governmental exploitation” through “oppression by demographic majority“.
This kind of naked exploitation is one of a kind. It ought to be brought into the ambit of Articles 23-24. It is the only way the common private citizen of India, who while going about his business quietly in the private sector, is guaranteed not only the Right to Equality under the Constitution but also the legal protection he deserves from a government trying to create conditions of grave social hazards in his life.
A Constitutional Amendment to the three Articles on Fundamental Rights as stated above is truly the crying need of the day for common citizenry in India.
Sudarshan Madabushi