Reservations about the reservation controversy

Glory · #1 10-25-2008

Reserve-Deserve

Too much bad-blood has been spilled in the country among friends about the whole controversy regarding the increased reservations. People now divide others as belonging to pro or anti-reservation and automatically determine the other person’s allegiances, thought-processes and ideas in their own heads even before another word is spoken by their counterparts. I belong to the minority of people who do not belong to either of the two sides- yes, there is a third side, shocking isn’t it!

We all are familiar about what the controversy is. So, let’s do some stock taking regarding the protests, the protestors and certain realities.

What are the protestors saying?

Merit should be the only criteria and no reservations should be provided.
Reservations should go because it is an archaic provision that does not foster healthy competition.
Nobody cares about caste today and merit should have precedence above everything.
Reservations have been a curse on India and that is the main reason why India has not done well economically or progressed like other countries because non-meritorious people have been running the country.
It’s time to change the whole system because we have suffered long enough and it’s time to do something and not just crib about it.
The movement is about equality and nothing else.
Do you want a less qualified doctor to treat you?
Do away with reservations, focus on primary education.
What has the govt been doing for the last 60 years?
Show us the figures of who have benefited from reservations.
Only the creamy layers benefit from reservations.
We are not against the backward classes but there are other measures.
The politicians are trying to divide the society along caste lines.
This is a revolutionary. We are the new rebels.

The gist of the whole diatribe- reservations of seats will kill merit and bring about mediocrity into professional practice.

Why are they saying it?

They stand to lose the number of seats as they pursue higher education.

Glory · #2 10-25-2008

What they are not saying:

Caste system is a social reality and needs to be dealt with. We want it abolished.
We have been guilty of being casteist ourselves and we would like to make amends.
The society is already divided on caste lines and we recognise that. We want all lines to be dissolved.
The industry and other professions haven’t contributed towards social upliftment of the needy classes as much they should have to help the govt.

Why are they not saying it?
(The reasons are highly subjective but let me make a few sure-shot guesses)

They are in denial about the caste-system actually existing in every nook and corner of India (barring a large part of North-eastern India-thank god for that!)
Their education has been so flawed that they have not been sociologically sensitised.
They haven’t travelled across the country beyond the major cities with theme parks and beautiful monuments and not with people other than their own caste/class peers.
They have neither read the constitution nor unbiased historical writings.
Their only goal in life is to secure themselves a way to earn a living.

~So what’s the problem? If you haven’t figured it already, lots!

Problem #1- The politicians:
The politicians are obviously playing the caste politics so that they can get votes and earn a good name for taking up humanitarian measures for the deprived and oppressed sections of Indian society. The govt knows that the bill cannot be stopped in parliament for not only is it in majority but also because the opposition cannot protest against it for ear of being labelled anti-dalit.
The reason could be that the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and other primary education programs are running slow and not gathering enough attention of the public or the oppressed classes. Also, it is in the CMP to do more for these sections of society. And providing quotas is really really very simple! This is more so, because the caste system is a social reality and a very integral part of traditional Indian society (particularly Hindu society).

Reservations about the reservation controversy

Reserve-Deserve Too much bad-blood has been spilled in the country among friends about the whole controversy regarding the increased reservations. .....