When Arun Shourie Speaks... - Part 2

In the last article, I had left out some important points in the latter half of Shourie’s talk. One of my friends- Ramana, suggested me to include those points. Hence I made an effort to add some more points, thanking Ramana. I also thank Indraneel for his feedback on my typos and grammar.

In his talk Shourie stressed an important point. The political class, as closely seen by him for 30 years now, recommending reservation has nothing to do with compassion towards the backwards classes. It is purely vote bank politics. To know the true color of these politicians their social practice must be closely watched. For example, which doctors do they go to when they are ill? In one of the cases, a politician wanted a German made dialysis machine, nothing less, and in spite of the machine being an easily operated one, he wanted two Germans to come down all the way to operate the machine. All these at the cost of taxpayers’ money!

And how did the Mandal commission come about? Devilal, the vice president then, had to quit his post in a forged document case. He challenged to gather a mammoth 10 lakh people, supporting him. V P Singh panicked and to nullify the effect of this he brought about Mandal commission. Compassion, heart crying for the poor etc. are sheer concoctions.

To put an end to this stupid caste based reservations, we must come up with alternatives. So what are those alternatives?

1. Reservations must not be given based on caste, religion, birth etc. It must be completely based on secular aspects.
2. None of the jobs, seats in the educational institutions, promotions etc. must be given as an entitlement. Everyone must strive to get it. Else it will hamper the growth.
3. We must provide positive help for enabling everyone to compete and aspire for reaching higher status. Provide better food, space, books, computer facilities, scholarships etc.
4. All the support must be given to the individuals but not a group.
5. In identifying the individual to whom the benefits must be given, secular criteria such as his income, assets must be seen.

Caste based politics can only lead to disaster. Just like there was a backlash because of the reversal of Shah Bano case verdict which ended in the bringing down of the Babri Masjid, this reservation will also result in a backlash. And its effects will be much more than what you and I could imagine. Its time for us to put a halt to this caste based rhetorics which otherwise would spell disaster for all of us.