03 June 2007

Of sacha saudas and reservations...

I sometimes wonder how easy it is in India to incite people to paralyse the normal functioning of affairs, some religious leader dresses up as Guru Gobind Singh and then people from other side start burning vehicles on the road. The funny thing being that the vehicles don't even belong to that religious leader. So when an obviously irresponsible religious leader does a stupid act and then refuses to apologize for it, it is the duty of all true Sikhs to start burning the state property.

And it is amusing to see that finally the leader did apologize and the controversy ends but why the hell could he not apologize earlier and avoid so much destruction!? Or did it satisfy his ego that buses were burnt for his sake or does it glorify his image in front of his followers that the guru didn't relent easily. And now to keep the news channels busy (not that they always need issues to make headlines) we have yet another issue. This one though a little more serious.. The demand of the Gujjar community in Rajashtan to be placed under the ST category. But this is bound to happen. Reservation was only a temporary solution to a very complex problem of the Indian society, which is too extensively segregated on the basis of castes, and some of these being socially curbed by others historically. However over the years no government took any sincere steps towards putting an end to this temporary fix called "reservation". Instead political plays were staged to appease the minorities, further adding more castes and creeds into the "scheduled" castes and tribes. And when governments, contrary to abolishing it, further increase the reservation percentage, the people who are right now in the so called "general" category (which somehow seem to be more deprived today) will feel insecure and would want themselves to be named under the socially backward castes and tribes. I wonder if some day even the brahmin will demand reservation.

The thing that these people fail to realise, or rather don't want to realise, is that long gone are the days when an individual's caste and economic status were synonymous, today a person belonging to the OBC category might not be poor and one belonging to the religious upper caste might not be rich. Hence children of those who have already benefitted from reservation should not be given the same benefits. Steps should be taken to gradually withdraw people from the reservation list, rather than adding more people into it!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

well written frnd!!!!
in dis small blog of urs u have very efficiently pointed to the colossal crisis dat our country faces today and i fully agree wid the solution uve provided at the end......its indeed an issue dats dividing our society and would leave us nowhere. Its gud dat students like u realise dis...
jus dat the powerful minds of our nation behave more responsibly and realise where their acts r leading the country......

My Foot? said...

DAMN these reservations and riots! everyone knows its wrong, but no one can do anything about it...
Politicians consider it their duty to ruin our country's future, and most of the public is more than willing to lend them a helping hand..
feel so helpless! x-(

harshavardhan reddy said...

do u remember the one time when some students put up some remonstrations against these reservations. nice effort there. but the fact that they were opposed by another group of students is pathetic. when the elite of the society doesnt realise where the country is goin, when will the masses do..
so, we are kind of helpless in this case. just pray the condition doesnt worsen, let alone abolishing reservations.

Harshita Chouhan said...

every1's opinion matters. th more ppl realise tht reservations need to b abolished or at least restructured( though i must say even tht is totally unnecessary. i mean reservations better b totally abolished 1ce nd 4 all else th politicians will agn distort thm to suit thr interests) th better.nd changes cn happen-no need to lose hope well written.

Pradeep said...

sad situation...more so,cos no political party seems to have the courage to condemn the act of violence due to the fear of losin votes of particular communities...votebank politics n reservations r provin to b a major hinderance to the country's progress...

Anonymous said...

in context to gujjar voilence......leave abt reservation funda .......1st tme we noticed the responce of pple when thy were cheated by their own so called elected leaders...n no of tmes polticians make promises ...break thm ...pple do nthng ......ths thugh d wrong way ...they i thnk made realised ploticians thkbefore mkg promices.. ad been a metro student we see only the one side of coin ..ie reservation should be abolished...mny mny esp tribal communites need it ..though failed to utilise aftr so many years of independce....bt ya it should be restructure...