Letter
to the EDITOR
Reservation
for OBCS
In a
landmark judgement, Supreme Court struck down the notification to include Jats
in the list of Other Backward Classes. The government notification was purely
on political grounds with an eye on the vote bank. Supreme Court’s observation
that caste cannot be the sole decider of backwardness of a class is pertinent. Politicians
cutting across party affiliations joined hands to oppose the judgement. It is
the ‘boon’ of Indian politics that they will come together forgetting their
ideological differences (if at all there is an ideology) on matters of mutual
interest and issues of national importance. A classic example is the solidarity
shown while passing the bill for increase in pay and perks of MPs. It is
unfortunate that more and more powerful groups are clamouring to include their
caste in the OBC category. India may be perhaps the only country where people
want to become backward.
Our
founding fathers, while drafting the constitution had enunciated a reservation
policy for a limited period, for the emancipation of those who were socially,
educationally and economically backward at that time. Over the years, many
families have availed the benefit of ‘backwardness’ for the second generation
and some even for the third generation. How is it that the son/ daughter of an
IAS officer, doctor, engineer etc can still considered being backward and avail
the backward class concession? The benefits of reservation are cornered by a
few influential people and the condition of the poorest of poor remains the
same. Thousands of talented youngsters are not able to pursue their
studies/passion in any field due to acute poverty and there is nobody to
support them.
The protagonists of reservation policy do not seem to
realise that, this policy has of late
become counterproductive because reservation creates a sense of
complacency leading to inefficiency. This irrational and illogical policy is
largely responsible for the gradual erosion of efficiency especially in our government
offices.
Politicians want to keep people backward by providing
reservation and freebies to protect their vote bank and to keep them under
their citadel. If a country like Japan with meager resources can become one of
the most advanced countries of the world, there is no justification why a
country like India with a reservoir of resources (natural, mineral, forest,
water, human etc) should lag behind. Common man should come out of the clutches
of these politicians and wield their power to force their elected
representatives to work for the welfare of the nation instead of working for
own and party’s welfare. Otherwise our students of economics and commerce will
continue to chant the age old slogan that India is a rich country inhabited by
poor people.
It is high time to stop reservation and instead provide
all facilities and incentives to the real backward class people (including
economically backward) so that they can come to national mainstream and compete
with others in all walks of life. Otherwise the backward classes will remain
backward as long as the reservation policy exists. Caste based reservation is
primarily responsible for spreading the virus of casteism and communalism in
the country. We should remove the column ‘caste’ (and religion also?) from all our forms.
E M Adithyan
22nd
March2015
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal-679576
Kerala
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