The great Indian race to be backward…to the bottom
All political parties backed the law for 27% reservations for a whole new class of population that amount to over a quarter of a billion. They certainly did not want to alienate this population for electoral purposes. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the law is constitutional because the fathers of our constitution clearly advocated reservations for the downtrodden in order to better equip them in society. That they also stipulated these reservations to be gradually withdrawn over time is a forgotten issue.
The Supreme Court also deprived the creamy layer from enjoying reservations. The creamy layer include the socially and economically well-off “other backward” classes people. But of course most politicians that come under the OBC are critical of this ruling because the Court has basically deprived them and their kin from enjoying reservations. Therefore, the DMK from Tamil Nadu and parties from Bihar and UP are especially geared to include the “creamy” layer so that the sons and daughters of the rich and famous OBCs can also go to the best universities in India without being meritorious.
There is already a persistent tendency among Indian communities to get their castes declared to be “backward”. This clamour to be backward can probably not be seen anywhere else in the entire world. We recently witnessed the clashes between the Meenas and the Gujjars because the former is backward officially whereas the latter is not. The protests were from the Gujjars to also declare them backward. Isn’t this really funny? Now with the establishment of reservations for the OBCs, the race to be backward will only intensify. More and more castes and communities want to be backward, at a time when India is witnessing unprecedented progress in all areas.
The Government is not inadvertently encouraging an extremely unhealthy trend. The Congress and the entire UPA will undoubtedly use this law as one of the big achievements of their term and considering the ambition among Indians to be backward, they have now garnered 27% of the popular vote.
Where will this trend lead to? What do you think?
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This is really unfortunate. We know Mahatma Gandhi had disagreed even to treat separate the Harijans, (SC/ST)telling they will be alienated from the main stream. So also Nehru also didnt advocate reservation in employment or education telling they will be inferior and this will have a long term negative implication.
The constitution envisaged only reservation for SC/ST constituencies as their own representative will be voicing their concern in the legislative bodies. The Educational and social backwardness clauses were introduced just for political mileage and this trend continues for ever driving India most backward among the world.
i am afraid all the shining economy and sensex boom are helpful only for the 10% upper class and the ultimate sufferers of all these evils are going to be the 90% of the poor class who are having a daily income below 20/-Rs per day and this has been reitrated by Mr.Rajinder Sachar himself and he also advocated distributing the 27% quota for the poor among other caste as well instead of allowing Creamy layer to enjoy considering the economic status.
In fact the real solution id economic resrvation doing away with all caste/religious distinctions.