OPinionatED
or
VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat as
Aam Admi
Issue: 172 Date: 17.10.2016
Contents:
1. Backward Class, Minority Status &
The Quota System
2. Trump In Self-Destruct Mode
3. Kashmir Going The Palestine Way
Backward Class, Minority Status &
The Quota System
With the Maratha agitation moving from
city to city and region to region in Maharasthra it is increasingly important
that we review the backward class issue which is the single most important
demand of the agitating Marathas. It is quite unusual that the Marathas, the
ruling class whose domain some centuries ago extended almost across the whole
of India should seek status of a backward class. They ruled over the people to
whom they are going today with a begging bowl seeking concessions and
protection. It is not only the Marathas but the Kshatriya community from other
States also considered the ruling class in the past had been clamouring for the
same status.
In fact the term is becoming quite
popular now what with, the Jews once a money-lending class and considered
normally quite rich along with the Parsis – another educated and generally
financially comfortable community, all seeking to be included in it. Even in
some States the Brahmins have been asking to be given backward class. Manu must
be shivering in his grave or his ashes must be doing the whirling dervish dance
upon hearing of this! For some of us it is difficult to fathom the reasons
behind such pleas.
What do these communities hope to
achieve by getting backward class status? Is it quota for jobs, admissions to
educational institutions or for starting their own colleges or for any other
purpose? Normally in a society people aspire to elevate their status both in
terms of prestige and wealth but somehow Indian society seems to be going the
other way where people are clamouring to be equated with the lesser privileged
and weaker class of society for whom the backward class status was
conceived. In a sense the aspirations
pyramid of the Indian people seems to have been inverted. In fact even within
the backward class category there is competition to be named as low as they can
get in the scale, meaning an OBC (Other Backward Class) wants to be
re-categorised as SC (Scheduled Caste) and sometimes the SC wants to be
classified as ST (Scheduled Tribe). Thus every community wants to go as low
down the scale as they can get.
Where the backward class status was
brought into force to provide opportunities to the weaker sections of our
society to improve themselves by providing reservations in admissions to
educational institutions and thereafter jobs in government, today these same
people are alarmed with the demands of almost all communities around them
seeking the same status. It is not that the protected sections of our community
have all been able to better themselves because of reservation given to the
minorities. The fact that after almost 70 years of India’s independence we are
still continuing with reservations for backward class communities raises the
question whether this policy has at all worked or not. With every community
seeking backward class status then this status will automatically get
eliminated because by then everyone would have belonged to a ‘backward class’.
Recognising these trends and the fact
that reservation for the backward classes has not worked, we should abolish all
quotas. But even then considering that as a society we need to be humane and
encouraging, there is a need to introduce reservations for the economically
weaker sections. These are people who are not financially well off to provide
for themselves and/or not give the opportunities to their children to better
themselves. This categorisation can easily be done on the basis of income and
whether they are in the Income Tax category or not. These concessions will be
time-bound meaning for the duration of the education course or for a period of
5 years and after that the particular concession would lapse. It will be given
in the monetary form like exemption of fees at edicational institutions or
whatever. There would be other monetary benefits provided to people
irrespective of their age for basic subsistence like a dole or social security
for a limited period of 3 or 5 years except for senior citizens with no income
it could go for longer terms or until they are alive. However, one would need
to apply for this facility. There would be no quotas for jobs or seats in
college which would be done purely on the merit of the candidate. This method
would incentivize people to strive to better themselves but at the same time
have society lend a helping hand to them when in need.
However, a note of caution needs to be
struck here. This kind of system will not see the light of day in free India in
the present times because every single party would oppose it. The reason for
this is that every political party has a vested interest in continuing with
quotas and backward class status and it is with this tool that they create vote
banks that help them in their elections. Like it is said that sometimes we
ourselves are our greatest enemies. The politicians while paying lip service to
the betterment of the backward classes work actively to ensure that these same
people remain backward, illiterate and ignorant so that they remain continually
dependent on the politicians. This is unfortunately the single biggest drawback
of our democratic system. But it is time that we broke this Gordian knot and
did away entirely with reservations and quota system in our society.
Trump In Self-Destruct Mode
Donald Trump is seeing a systematic and
calculated attack to diminish him in the eyes of the American people. It is in
the nature of a character assassination and one must say not without a large
part of it being contributed by the man himself. Credit needs to be given to
Hilary Clinton for orchestrating this grievous barrage against Donald Trump on
her way to the US Presidency. Not only that Trump has been walking into this
trap and increasing the frequency of his statements which tend to get him more
entangled in the swamp of sex and sleaze that is being spread around him. The
attacks on Donald Trump are a challenge to him and the manner in which he
handles them will determine his performance in the elections next month and his
ability to be the US President. If he surmounts these challenges it will be a
credit to his campaign which one has to say at this present moment in tatters.
But given Donald Trump's present form chances of any optimistic outcome for him
are rather remote. But the points in favour of Trump in these personal attacks
are the allegations of groping etc. are unverifiable and from women who
themselves are suspect and lack credibility. These incidents have been quite
some time in the past and can be easily discredited. Trump can claim that
he has changed since those times. Many a hopeful as well as incumbent US President have successfully used that argument. As for Donald Trump not paying income tax because he had lawful
deductions from his business losses. This is a common enough practice even in
the US to take advantage of every deduction that a citizen is eligible for in
saving personal taxes and as Donald Trump himself put it - it is smart to do
so. Nothing wrong with that but you have to project it right. But in spite of
these concessions that one could possibly give Donald Trump, his campaign has
been consistently going downhill as if he is riding a roller coaster on the
downward spiral that is running out of control. The other analogy with regard
to the Trump campaign is that of a terrorist wearing a bomb belt bent upon
blowing himself up before Nov 2016.
Kashmir Going The Palestine Way
We have another youth die in Kashmir last week
because of pellet gun injuries. This death adds to a long list of those who
died because of the use of pellet guns by the security forces in the troubled
State. Apart from the fatalities many have lost their eyes because of pellet
injuries. There was a time when the
police and paramilitary forces were trained to shoot below the waist
particularly at the legs at times of strife and when crowd control was to be
achieved. However, these days looking at the kind of injuries that
agitationists are getting, one would believe that the instructions are – Shoot to
Kill. This comment is not necessarily valid for only Kashmir but is true across
the country where police have to resort to firing to control law and order
disruptions. Otherwise how is possible for so many in Kashmir to get injuries
from pellets on their faces and backs. Thus the first thing that our higher-ups
in the Home Ministry and the police and paramilitary establishment is to train
their personnel on the ground to shoot only when it is absolutely necessary and
then only to contain. The shooting must not be to inflict maximum damage since
after all we are dealing with human beings and that too our own people who for
reasons best known to them have gone astray and/or have had to take to the
streets with no alternative option.
The
injuries and fatalities caused by the pellet guns have further alienated and not
the least because the police top brass and the Home Ministry are talking in
different voices. To emphasise this
point, Rajnath Singh at the height of the present agitation after the death of Burhan Wani and when he went to
meet the people there said that the pellet guns would be withdrawn and
alternate crowd control devices like chili or stink bombs would be used. Promptly
a couple of days later the DG CRPF said that they would continue to use pellet
guns and there was no alternative to that. For God’s
sake, co-ordinate your statements, gentlemen! The public anger by such
ham-handed action gets raised to a higher pitch from which it is difficult to
bring it down.
As it is if one sees pictures on
TV of the youth and children in Kashmir throwing stones at the security forces
one is reminded of the Palestinian people fighting for their rights in Israel.
There is an eerie analogy between the two cases, both the Palestine and Kashmir
issues commenced at around the same time and have been simmering for six
decades or more with no solution in sight. However, there is an essential
difference and that is the Palestinians were fighting for their homeland while
here the Kashmiris are our own people even though they may think different. But
we have to make serious steps and somewhat out-of-the-box initiatives to win
over the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri people particularly the youth who
seem to be at the forefront of the agitation. This would be to take off all
security personnel from the streets of Kashmir, withdraw the draconian AFSPA
act which gives the Army overriding powers and encourage efforts in consonance
with the local elected government of Mehbooba Mufti to bring in normalcy. The
Army can be stacked near the LOC and the official border with Pakistan to
prevent infiltration of terrorists. This will be the only method possibly to
prevent Kashmir sliding down the Palestine way.
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