Reservations....
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Guess whats is the much debated and the controversial topic on recent times.No gifts for right guess.and it is OBC quota reservations.
According to Mr.P.Radhakrishnan(told in an interview with rediff.com's shobha warrier), the seeds of reservation policies were sown by the british.They wanted to improve the lives of oppressed Muslims of their time and they called it as "Representation" and not as "Reservation".Then came Babasahedb Ambedkar, who bought in the idea of "Reservation" and moulded it and worked on including it in constitution. And regarding the criterion for the backwardness,Radhakrishnan says,"There was a lot of debate on the issue as some leaders wanted to have an economic criterion for reservation. But 90 per cent of the Indians were poor at that time. So, the argument was that reservation for all is reservation for none. It will not become an exception. So, they decided to club social backwardness and economic backwardness."
It all happened nearly 60 years back.The population has grown and the gap between social backwardness and economic backwardness has widened.People in the backward community has come out of the coccon and spread their wings in various public sector fields.and there are many brahmins who went down...And the situation is not totally upside down,though.Still "Dalit" communities are oppressed and not given equal opportunity and the political parties which raises their voices of concern during the times of election are really interested in the vote bank and not in the realistic improvement in the Dalit people's life.There are thousands of political parties that came into existence,shouting for "Dalits" and printing Ambedkar's photo in their party's vinyl hoardings.Mandal Commission came and Goswami was gone.And the situation is "Are Brahmins the new Dalits of India?"
And now parties are more concerned about OBC's.Because of the open secret, 'they form the lion's share in the "real voter" population".After 60 years they want 69 percent reservation for the OBC quota and according to Radhakirshnan, "In Tamil Nadu, 87 to 88 per cent of the population come under the reservation bracket. Groups are included in the list arbitrarily by the politicians in power. In each group, there is a creamy layer and they grab the opportunities." And the condition is no different in other states in South India and most other states in North too.Aren't we in square one again.According to him, even Ambedkar wanted the so called, "Reservation policies" to be in force for only 10 years after implementation.Due to the weakened and corrupted political system we had after 10 years of independence, and which continues till now, there are many hidden agendas behind the reservation implementation.
And I become Sharukh khan now and have two questions for everyone,
"Why shouldn't we consider the "economic backwardness" alone as a criterion for the reservations?
Whether that can be restricted to a certain oppressed groups or just to consider their family's economy level is another question of debate though.But, this will really help the poor to come up in the society, and the real need of reservation be served properly.It will also help in bridging the divide between rich and poor.
Why the politicians who are talking on bringing up reservation in education,can't work on improving the primary and secondary education system in the villages and build more government aided schools and colleges?Without
Without improving the basic education system, how come we can expect the improvement in the education levels of oppressed and poor by just giving the reservations.
Who's gonna answer, can't win dho crore rupiah... At least can open the eyes of mob,religiously fighting for the reservation implementation.
And no body is concerned about the really oppressed and minority groups, "Muslims", for which the British really started this special quotas.The case is in the hands of Supreme Court and the results are much awaited like a India - Pakistan cricket one dayer.Students are awake and with the print and TV media stalking the issue very closely, the decision will be good for the nation and for the needy.
posted by Unknown @ 9:24 PM,
