India, Feb. 6 -- This week's column makes an argument which is best understood in three parts.

The glacial pace towards equality

This author was a student in Jawaharlal Nehru University when what is now known popularly as the Mandal 2.0 moment came in 2006. Arjun Singh, the then education (or human resource development) minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government announced the extension of reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to all centrally funded higher educational institutions. Hitherto, these benefits were only available in government jobs.

Now, there are enough legal/constitutional provisions to debate the issue of reservations for OBCs. The fact that it continues to be caveated with a "creamy layer" cl...