Reservation – why, its achievement and its failure to deliver

Well before we slam the politicians and all let’s look in to the past and observe why was the reservations done in the first place and its present impact.

In the past(before independence) its true that the higher classes enjoyed more benefits - I mean what all the titles like Rai Bahadur, and etc were mean tot create a social unrest which was utilised to its best by the British.

It seems that to reverse things a bit and also appease the SC/ST s reservations were made. Moreover the census of 1932 too showed that the SC/ST s and OBCs were larger in numbers. So it can be said that for general appeasement of masses it was also a political step by the Country makers at that time. Moreover with the proximity to USSR at that time the word "equality" may have sounded different at that time.

Reservations were made not only in castes but also between states at lets keep J & K out of this since it had its own problems to deal with.

If we look into most of the Government PSUs made after independence we would observe that they intentionally kept Maharashtra and West Bengal out of it purview since they were the most developed states during in and around independence. Former being the seat of the commercial capital and the later being the seat of the country's capital in the past. Rather New Delhi being the capital of India only for 96 years whereas Calcutta was the capital from 1772 to 1911 - 139 years.

Now initially there was a time frame for implementing the "social upliftment" - the term coined by all those pro-reservation politicians (may be that includes everyone except Sidhu pajji) now. After that time frame got over it was found that they still lag behind so it was increased and more time was given but it reached its peak with the "Mandal commission".

Now after 60 years of independence if "social upliftment" has not been achieved then it clearly indicates the process thus chosen was wrong. Reservation always meant to deny the deserving from the pie and give it to some who doesn't deserve it. Frankly this whole drama is appeasing the masses but there is a flip side of it. It's this that General Category class is still ahead. It meant that due to competitions for fewer seats the generals are getting better day by day. And they are still ahead despite of all the reservations against merit.

Who is actually benefiting, are the labour class of SC/ST s benefiting? NO!!! The service class is biggest and perhaps the only benefactor. The people whom we meet everybody in our offices, schools, parks, restaurants belonging to this class are "THE" biggest benefactor.

Reservation in my opinion should be made for every one who heralds from a lower economic status for one-time for either govt. jobs or govt. educational institution. Once availed it cannot

be used for the next 3 generations and that too after calculating the economic status. This would ensure that it comes to an end one day.

There is another point I would like to make is why did politicians suddenly warmed up for reservations in premier institutions and private firms. Well, during Mandal commission, our present PM Dr. Manmohan Singh did introduce something called "Liberalisation". Credit to him for having such a long-sighted concept, slowly it became apparent in the late nineties early millennium that there aren't sufficient jobs in the government sector and most of them were going after private firms - that meant that reservation in government sector is not that valuable any more. So this is the only way out. But kudos to Private firms and IIMs, IITs and not forget the medical fraternity who has the biggest influence in the social setup who stood up against this "social menace". But above all the Supreme Court who proved time and again that it would not be the part of cheap politics.

Sad, indeed. But the thoughts crossing my mind while I was standing there in the rally was

democracy is working in India — this is how the people tell the leaders they elected about what

they feel should be done. It’s a different issue that leaders will choose for the people what they

think is best for them.

With coalition governments now the norm, agendas of the parties involved are decided before we

go to the polls, and we know which party is going to do what in the next five years. This bit

about increasing reservations, however, was not on the agenda of the Congress as far as I can

remember.

However, I support reservations, but they should only be based on economic considerations.

Also, some reservations can be made for rural population.

There are many cases where well-to-do people belong to the OBC or SC/ST or any other class,

and inspite of having a good environment to study and get into good colleges, youth from this

class are found to exploit exactly these reservations.

In fact, leaders get voted in certain areas, I hear, based on promises made by them that they’ll

declare a specific family an OBC family if that family votes for them. (Joint families in India

aren’t uncommon and they do have a large vote share.)

My take:

– Support reservations at the primary schooling level. Till the 12th standard. Build more schools.

– Support some reservation for EBCs (Economically backward class) and people from rural area.

– Do not spoon-feed people who’ve already made it past the 12th. They should fend for

themselves. If they weren’t good at this level, they won’t be much better off later.

– Reservations (not based on merit) at the post-graduate level (IITs, IIMs, AIIMS) is ridiculous

— no way this should be implemented.

– For EBCs, provide monetary support at any level. (Making sure merit is not compromised)

– Remove the concept of castes. In a learned society, no one is inferior or superior. We have to

get rid of this. No one should ask for the castes. Unless it’s for things like statistics that identify

how a tribe has been evolving, moving around, etc.