Isn't it a shame that 68 years after independence Hindus are still divided by caste. Violence in Gujarat has resulted in the death of 9 people, with buses being burnt by mobs, curfew in places and the army being deployed to keep calm. This is because Patels are demanding Other Backward Class status for reservation in higher education and government jobs. The irony is that Patels are relatively wealthy compared to other sections of society, have relatives sending money from abroad and are known as 'Patidars', which means land owners. The agitation for reservation is being led by 22 year old, Hardik Patel, who passed his BCom exam with 49.6% marks and required grace marks to pass certain subjects. Why should an OBC candidate get admission with 44% when a Patel misses out with 90%, he asks. Good question, but it would have more strength if he had passed with 90%. He is promising a 'dabang', meaning violent, agitation unless there is reservation for everybody or an end to reservations. We support that. Gujjars have been promised 5% reservation in government jobs in Rajasthan where Meenas have had a monopoly with Scheduled Tribe status. The Supreme Court denied reservation to Jats. Naturally, there is a deep sense of injustice leading to anger. In Delhi 225 out of 550 seats for MBBS, that is 50%, are in the general category, which means for everyone, while in BDS only 17 out 40 seats, that is 42.5%, are in the general category. To restore calm there is talk of excluding the 'creamy layer', which means those whose annual income is greater than Rs 600,000, from OBC but not from SC or ST. That just further subdivides an already divided people. It is infuriating that our government is following the same divide-and-rule policy of the British instead of uniting us. Having gained power through reservation OBCs are now persecuting dalits in Bihar and the police have been deployed to protect them, leading up to assembly elections in October. The answer is to ban all castes and treat every citizen equally. Will it work? Will all Hindus suddenly embrace each other as brothers? No. It will take time. Already most educated young people in cities do not know or care about caste. That is because they are more bothered about getting good jobs and enjoying a good life. With rising prosperity, good infrastructure and education villages will also be transformed. But there will be extreme opposition to banning caste. Lower castes will object the most because they are gaining from reservations and politicians will instigate them because they win elections by dividing people. Good can never come out of bad policies. It takes guts to get rid of them.
2 comments:
I beg to differ from you. We're not divided just diversified. Accept and move on. Change is a process and not an event.
That said, guts has nothing to solve the long lasting issues of reservation, caste. India's major problems can never be solved fortnightly. Once given cannot be taken back. All those issues needs little changes which does not alter the look but changes the characteristics.
To my eyes, to hinder the agitation of certain communities we can use some cutoffs while weiging them. Why should the 90% mark of general category should be compared with 50% of OBC or SC/St? It's not a reservation but discrimination. Meanwhile, Both cannot be weighed in a same scale as well. We can have some cutoff range to compare both. We can compare 90% to the 85%. we can have a common margin to compare diff category which reduces the pain. Rather scrapping we can furnish it further. Who'll oppose?
If you can't simplify something complicate it further. At some point, it'll reach the original state. But i don't suggest this.
Good night
When the pie is finite a bigger piece for one will mean a smaller piece for another. My point is that laws enacted for winning elections are a fraud on the people and must be repealed. We need real democracy where politicians and civil servants are there to serve us and not our masters dictating our lives. Our nation can never progress if it is in a straitjacket of stupid laws which only help the politician. Instead of uniting us they divide us to keep us weak and poor. We Indians are too docile. Perhaps some dabang protest will wake us up.
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