The intense media coverage of Mandal II may have succeeded in making this a national and emotive issue, but it does not seem to have made much difference to the established, pro-reservation, national mood on this subject.

Public opinion evidence of the last decades has always shown that the Indian public offers solid support to all measures of affirmative action including reservation.

It is no different after Mandal II, if one goes by the latest The Indian Express-CNN-IBN Poll conducted by market research agency AC Nielsen.

The popular verdict in this poll is 57 per cent to 37 per cent in favour of the government’s decision to extend quotas to higher education for the OBCs (the remaining 6 per cent did not have an opinion).

Given the over-sampling of urban educated and well-off respondents in this survey, it can be guessed that if all sections of the population were to be fairly polled, the verdict will be 70 per cent to 30 per cent for the quota.

This is exactly what it was six months ago when a national representative sample was quizzed on reservations in the CNN-IBN-HT State of the Nation Survey.

When asked to choose whether reservation in higher educational institutions will lead to equalizing of opportunities or a loss of quality and merit, 63 per cent opted for the former and only 34 per cent for the latter.

It seems that in this instance, the politicians and political parties read the public mood right. But the political class seems to have under-estimated the maneuvering space available to it for fine-tuning the system of reservation.

... contd.