grave reservations

hurrah to the supreme court, for showing us that it has the guts to stand up to the dirty game that goes on, in the name of politics.

i refer to the recent staying of the reservation policy that arjun singh tried to push through, with the full complicity of the parliament.

reservation is a sensitive topic, i agree. however, it seems to me, that most people forget the first passage about reservation, that was written in our constitution. baba ambedkar himself wrote, that he envisioned the reservation policy to continue, for not more than 10 top 15 years. unfortunately, with the kind of votebank politics that is practised in the " world's largest democracy", we are stuck with a legacy, that, in the words of the SC " promotes backwardness".

if the intention is to remove the admittedly barbaric practice of caste ism, then the reservation policies are not the best way to go ahead. imagine this, when a child gets admitted to school, his caste is noted. when he fills his board entrance forms, his caste is noted. when he enters college, his caste is noted. and if the congress party has it's way, soon, when you enter employment, your caste will be noted.

so, at every crucial step in life, your caste identity is given more prominence than yourself. way to go!!!

blatant flouting of the constitution is seen everyday. for eg. one of the provisions of the reservation policies, is that at no stage, should reservation exceed 50 % of the seats. however, the state of tamil nadu has " enjoyed" nearly 65 % reservation policies since independence.

many people think that anti reservation thinking is a manifestation of a pro forward caste mentality. far from it. barring rajasthan, in no state will you see the forward castes pressing forward for a reservation for themselves. why? because, one of the main reasons for the huge exodus of many forward caste students to the USA and UK, is that college seats are open to all students.

i also see a situation in the future, where the battle for dominance between the MBC, OBC, SC/ST will see politicians try to weasel out with further reservations. no one will attempt to take the correct way.

build more schools. pay parents to send children to school in rural areas. increase the number of seats in colleges. ensure that faculty are qualified enough to teach subjects. have a more student friendly education loan program. abolish mention of caste in the public sphere. let us all learn to become ourselves first.

then again, it's too much to ask a monkey to learn swimming you know. expect to see more protests, bandhs( our lovely state leads again. tomorrow!!), interviews with people who would otherwise never come on national news.

3 cheers to the caste-ing ouch!!