VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 265 Date: 21.01.2019
THERE WAS NO ISSUE OF THE VOX POPULI DATED 14.01.2019.
Contents:
1. The BJP Government's Shoddy Governance
2. The Corruption Cycle : CBI - CVC - CBI
3. The Ploy Of The 10% Upper Class Quota Is Just An Election Gimmick
The BJP Government's Shoddy Governance
On issues related to governance this government led by Narendra Modi stumbles often and more often than not badly. Consider the impact of the Citizenship Bill in the North East region. The dust had not yet settled on the National Citizen's Register Issue with multiple extensions to the deadline and the many serious controversies linked with it when the Citizenship Bill was brought in, which in fact somewhat negates the former. Not only that with the public outcry mostly by the politicians and the intelligentsia the government has gone and filed sedition cases against three persons. This will only add fuel to the fire. After all this we have Ram Madhav, one of the office bearers of the BJP, trying to trivialise the matter as if to suggest that the custodian of all wisdom on all matters now is the BJP. On matters of sedition the government seems to be having a penchant for it. What with Kanhaiya & Co. of the JNU slapped with it which apparently seems to be foisted on them deliberately. The government through the police was also pulled up by the judge for not seeking the due permissions before filing the sedition case by asking them whether they have a legal department or not. This shows up the rawness of the government in cases related to sedition lending credence to the belief that they plucked the case out of thin air. Moving on to more mundane matters, there has been controversy unnecessarily created in the Indian Council of Child Welfare - ICCW children bravery awards which they have been giving away for 60 years or more which included the children participating in the Republic Day parade seated on the back of an elephant. These are memorable events for the children which this government has put into uncertainty with children selected for this year's awards by the ICCW already in Delhi but unsure whether they will be able to participate in the parade or not. The reason for this is that the ICCW has been pulled up for some financial irregularities and is on the government's black-list. Not only this the government has gone ahead and announced its own bravery awards for children. One does not know whether the children on this year's government list of these awards are the same as that of the ICCW or it is a different bunch. Only the Republic Day parade on 26th January can clarify that. Why the government could not ask the ICCW to drop their awards this year if it was announcing their own is something that is beyond comprehension and particularly not to bring the children for the Republic Day parade. Thus this government generally gives the image of being a bull in a china shop when it comes to implementing anything irrespective of it impacting small children and even up to elders, riding roughshod and trampling upon the sentiments of all the people.
The Corruption Cycle : CBI - CVC - CBI
The summary dismissal of CBI Director once he was re-instated by the Supreme Court smacks of injustice but giving credence to the charges brought against him by the CVC, for which we really have no choice, one would tend to believe that it is better to have officers like this, away from influential positions. Connivance and misuse of official position seem to be apparent in the charges brought against Verma and giving the opportunity of natural justice to such people will be doing a disservice to the system which enjoins fairness and propriety in our administrative procedures to deserving people. The case also reflects how rotten our system has become where the premier enforcement agency of the country, the CBI, is run by persons like this. Compounding these problems are the incumbent government's tendencies to majorly interfere with the prominent institutions of the country. Like in the CBI, by bringing in a parallel power centre and a likely promised heir-in-the-making in Asthana. This led to the CBI going further downhill with in-fighting that was splashed in the media for months at a time. The rot does not stop here. Like it is said that the woods are dark and deep so also are these corrupted worm infested agencies that comprise our government. In this same CBI case, the CVC K V Chowdhary who sat on judgment on Verma's matter was himself accused of corruption and visited the house of Ranjit Sinha, ex-Director, CBI of the 'caged parrot' fame multiple times as recorded in the register kept there. Once he was cleared thereafter by the CBI was he able to take up his posting as CVC, in which position he then sits on judgment on Director, CBI Verma and charges him with misdemeanour and corruption! Can we say that the wheel has turned a full circle where people charged of corruption themselves call others corrupt? Also an apt fit for the idiom - Pot Calling The Kettle Black! With this we cannot but come to the conclusion that in contemporary India everything is purchasable.
The Ploy Of The 10% Upper Class Quota Is Just An Election Gimmick
The 10% quota announced by the government last week for the economically weaker category among the upper classes and across all communities is a retrograde step. When Charan Singh as Prime Minister had proposed to rejuvenate the bullock cart as one of the points of his economic plan, it was said that he was trying to push back the country by a decade. By the same yardstick, this new quota is going to take the country back by 50 years, half a century, that is.
We as a society have been against the caste system and concerted steps have been taken to rid our society of this slur. However, our political class has been trying to keep the caste system alive in different ways. Our politicians are stratifying our society by the creation of vote banks, instituting quotas etc. The quota for the upper classes has been a long standing demand by the people in this category but had been refused a number times because it would not be maintainable particularly in courts, if challenged. This very same fate awaits the present quota announcement. Quotas have already reached 50% and more in the SC, ST & OBC categories, which is the limit set by the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments. But States like Maharashtra have gone ahead and announced more quotas in excess of this limit for categories like Marathas. This if you add this 10% to the existing quota in force you will come to close to some 70-80%. If so there is no meaning in the quota since it becomes then a question of allotment of the vacancies be it in jobs or in seats of educational institutions.
The practical difficulties that are encountered with the quota system and reservation are very acute. With sometimes no qualified candidates among the quota category, the jobs or vacancies go unfilled and are prone to repetitive procedure for filling up, delaying the completion of the exercise. Even as has been seen in IIT & other educational institutions or even in jobs, the quality of the candidates or selected persons is not good enough leading to difficulties in maintaining course curriculum or administration.
Not only that even within the 50% limit, it has been found that almost with every State there are certain communities who want to get into the SC, ST & OBC categories or some who want their categories moved from one category to another. Thus where the basic 50% quota categories are under pressure and in a practical sense found unworkable then what is the reason to introduce yet another upper class category.
There is also a conceptual misuse of the quota system particularly when it comes to college admissions or while seeking jobs where affluent OBC's avail of the quota allotted to them at the cost of the General category who having more merit or secured more marks are deprived of seats or jobs.
Thus the best thing would have been to eliminate all quotas and allowed meritocracy to rule. There are enough grounds to present this argument since we have tried close to seven decades with the present quota system and if it has not worked, then there is very little chance of it working at all. If we allow merit to be the basis for our society then the pace of development of our country could possibly improve and we would be able to get out of the stranglehold of poverty and deprivation faster. There is already an example in favour of the argument since most Indians who leave the country to work abroad, do much better for themselves and also in comparison to other migratory nationalities in their country of domicile. That is the reason why we see Indians at the top of many Fortune 100 corporations in the US. The medical fraternity in many of the Western countries are also dominated by Indian professionals.
But the unfortunate part is that the control of quotas and reservation is in the hands of our politicians who will not relinquish this Brahmastra that gets them elected, from their hands. And these are the same vested interests which will resist the introduction of meritocracy in our country.
If you look at this whole issue in another way, there is no meaning in announcing the new upper class quota. It is just a gimmick to sway the minds of the upper class people preparatory to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The quota has also no relevance since no new government jobs exist or are likely to be created with the present economic scenario. This BJP government came riding in on the plank of a lean government and a government that works. But that promise was long forgotten when Narendra Modi himself announced some time last year recruitment for some 1 Lakh jobs. This again when Modi & the BJP have also distanced themselves from the promise made in 2014 of creating 2 crore jobs per year in the Indian economy. Therefore we should not fall for this trap of the upper class quota which is nothing but a bribe to get your vote but start a movement to eliminate all quotas and reservation from every sphere of activity in this country.
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