Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Reservations Getting Messy

Posted : May 19, 2006 at 11:55 pm [IST]

The anti-reservation protests of medicos and student in professional institutes shown on TV channels reminds me of pre-independence brutality of police against the public. Can’t there be some restraints or a better way to deal with these young people? Do the politicians of this democratic country feel that they can carry on with all sorts of their silly decisions to divide the country or sell it if they wish so? Do they think themselves as the wisest men of the world? Is the vote bank everything for a political party and its leaders?

Why do they want that caste identifications get propagated all along and everywhere for everything? Do they wish to have identity cards for individuals with different colour codes for different castes? When most of us don’t like our caste to be our identity, why do they wish to force it?

I remember when my son was preparing for IIT entrance, some five six of his friends used to study together. I don’t think they knew each other castes. Suppose they know it and they also realize that some one of them even with lower scores may get selected because of his caste, will they keep on studying in that group?

And when most of the marriages are based on relations developed during the college days, will the identification by castes make the friendships easy or difficult?

Can one imagine consequences of this division of the country by castes and where will it lead, if the SC quota is to be divided in existing and practiced 1000 and more different castes among SCs? So will be the case for castes among OBCs and then a large number of distinctly different tribes of the country. And there is all liklihood of such demands if the politics of division by the politicians is allowed to be perpetuated.

I spent the whole life in factories. I never asked anyone about his caste. I never had to maintain or report any data of the employees based on castes. Then why are the politicians trying to get back this identification by castes? Will it not be a hurdle to team working that is the necessary factor today for the timely completion of any project and its quality?

Some Good Readings
Multiply, don’t divide
Teach us a new lesson
Alternative model, a quota for all
The risks and rewards of corruption
Govt’s ‘formula’ no solution: Murthy
India, Known for Outsourcing, Expands in Industry

- Indra

Category: Indian politics |