Thursday, May 31, 2007
A total of fourteen people including a policeman died on Tuesday and a further four died yesterday in riots in Rajasthan. The deaths came about as a result of police firing and the murder of a policeman by Gujjars, a community or a caste in Rajasthan. Yesterday a number of policemen went missing and whether they will return safely is in doubt. The trouble came about because Gujjars, who belong to ' Other Backward Classes ' or OBC category, want to be included in the Scheduled Tribes or ST category which is a lower grade in our government caste list. The Gujjars are farmers and cattle rearers and poor. By being downgraded to ST they will be eligible for a higher quota of government jobs reserved for ST and SC ( Scheduled Caste ) sections of society. At present Meenas in Rajasthan are cornering a large number of government jobs because of their ST status and have become quite prosperous. The Meenas do not want to share their spoils with the Gujjars because their share will become smaller and are lobbying to deny the Gujjars. If the Gujjars win will the Meenas start to riot? Will other OBC groups start agitating for similar reclassification? Jats in Hryana want to become OBC, inspite of being of higher caste, because Jats in Rajasthan have been given that privilege. The rewards are huge. Cushy government jobs with little to do and guaranteed pensions. Scope for earning large amounts in black money. Children will get admission to prestigious institutions with poor marks and more. Mayawati, who is a dalit, recently won the UP election. Will Mulayam Singh who is a Yadav see an opportunity to start some trouble? Fortunately Yadavs are a divided community but the potential for trouble is there. The politicians in India have been following a divide and rule policy learnt from the British. Creating states by language, appeasement of minorities, quotas for artificially created castes and so on. The genie is out. Is there any politician capable of putting it back in?
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2 comments:
Dr. Deb,
I personally think there's only one way forward from here (short of abolishing this stupid quota system- but even my optimistic self can't imagine a politician with the muchos huevos grandes for that kind of thing)- give in to every demand. Ultimately when every stupid caste, creed, color and such is decreed scheduled, we'll be back to what is effectively an un-quota'd society.
As far as the divide and rule policy goes, reminds me of an old yes prime minister episode, where a (former) british colony is potentially going to turn communist.
Sir Humphrey: It's a pity we didn't partition it before giving them independence, like we did Palestine and Cyprus and India and Ireland...
Sir Richard: But all those countries are at civil war.
Sir Humphrey: Precisely. no bad thing- they'd be too busy fighting each other to cause us any trouble. Save us from having a policy about them. Just like Palestine and Cyprus and India and Ireland...
Thankyou Zornslemon. India was a country of little kingdoms and zamindars before the British lumped it all together to facilitate their rule and the high of winning independence has kept us together so far but with criminals in charge who knows what will happen. Ironic that Sir Humphrey united us and our lot are ripping us apart.
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