Reservation in India…! Communal dictatorship revisited with democratic protection

Reservation in India…! Communal dictatorship revisited with democratic protection

Lemme start off with a question. Why is reservation required and what is the purpose of reservation? The answer is pretty straight forward – The concept of reservation was perhaps put forward to uplift the downtrodden classes in the country. In the past, caste and creed formed the basis of social positioning of the individual. At those times, it made ample sense to facilitate reservation based on caste and creed or the downtrodden masses and the whole lot was associated with the so called lower castes and communities. Over a period of time, the downtrodden masses have been uplifted much and facilitated a comfortable and affordable lifestyle. However, the process of reservation still continues and is catered in such a way that these castes and communities can take it for granted for posterity. That definitely does not make any sense at all and in turn is very unfair to the other sections of people in the country.

The so called backward communities and classes have progressed much in this country educationally, financially and politically. In spite of all these, they enjoy the boost of reservation and build a secure empire. On the other hand, the educated class, the working class and gets cheated many a times owing to the undeserved credits and opportunities being bestowed on the so called down trodden classes and backward communities, which in reality are not those any more.

Let me explain what I mean by those statements. I mean to say that the so called backward classes in Indian society have been enjoying the benefit of reservation right from independence and this has helped them much to move up in the society. I do not understand why they still need to enjoy the benefits even after fulfilling the requirements.
They have achieved whatever they were unable to in the past owing to the social and financial setup in their community. Why is it that they are still guarded by the policies of reservation? Let them now compete with the fellow citizens and achieve in a fair game what they want instead of using the reservation as a tool for moving up the ladder, which is shameful and totally unfair.

The main problem lies in the fact that reservation in this country is linked to and based upon the caste and creed of a person and not his income. Btw, In spite of all these who said India is secular? Let us discuss that in a different piece of writing as I do not want to deviate from this topic. My point is that the reservation criteria should be linked to the income and expenditure of an individual rather than his caste, community and creed. This model of a system will ensure that the people who gets benefited from the policy of reservation are the ones for whom it is intended. I believe that the system of reservation is intended to the upliftment of people who cannot move up in the society due to financial concerns. It is a fair deal on the part of the administration to support the financially backward classes in the country, till the time they become financially secure. Once they become secure financially, the reservation options for them needs to be withdrawn and they should compete with the others in the society to lead a life.

What is happening in the present scenario is that some communities get unduly benefited from the system of reservation in the country. Let us take for example the scheduled castes and tribes in the country. There is no linkage of income to the reservation facilities offered to these to the income and expenditure of these communities. It is assumed and can be taken for granted that anyone from these communities is eligible for reservation and thereby gets an undue advantage of it. I say that the income and expenditure needs to be taken into account when assessing the financial statement of an individual because nly then can we ensure that we tap all his income and ascertain that there is no black money handled by the individual.

The assessment of the individual’s reservation status needs to be diligently monitored on a yearly basis. Once the income reaches a level where the individual can sustain his family and career, the reservation needs to be withdrawn from that point onwards. Similarly if a rich and affluent person becomes bankrupt that he needs to be eligible for reservation till the time he gets back for a comfortable financial position in life. That is the way we can ensure equality to all the citizens.

I am not against reservation but I am much in support a fair reservation policy to people in need. People in need are the ones who are financially backward and not the ones who self label themselves as backward communities. Backwardness should be decided on the basis of income and expenditure and not on the basis of the caste, color, creed and sex.
I personally know of people from SC and ST classes who adore high positions in the society. They earn much more than their peers and contemporaries in society. Inspite of that, they are covered by the blanket of reservation which their children enjoy. This is very unfair to the other classes of people in the country as they are denied opportunities when the reservation folks get preference.

I have still not understood why inter-caste relationships are covered by reservation policies. Perhaps, it was introduced post independence to ensure equality and wipe out the barriers of caste and religion. Good at those time but seems like an itching sore thumb these days...! We live in the twenty first century and not in 1947. Such policies give an undue advantage to some people and deny rightful opportunities to a major section of the society. The youth of this country gets negatively affected by the advantage that the so called reserved classes get. Rightful opportunities are denied many a times to people who deserve it and in turn the many eligible people from the reserved classes get those opportunities. This is not a fair deal at all.

In the present scenario, it is practically impossible for a common man to reach the heights of his career in the public sector. This is because of the curse of reservation upon him. All the top positions in the government and public sector are reserved for the reservation class and hence your community and caste scores over caliber. This is very unfortunate as
Talent, Caliber, Potential are not considered and regarded for progression up the ladder. The government should try to make life fair for people who are impacted by the unpredictability of life and not let some communities and castes take undue advantage of all these communalist façade of the largest democracy in the world.

The danger of this trend is that this will aggravate communal bonding and opportunistic politics in the country. The reserved classes gets to clutter their folks together in the name of helping the community and in the already communal country, this will further squeeze the secular blood of the nation. It is unfortunate that any youngster or any job aspiring candidate in this country considers reservation as an arrogant and dictatorial challenge to their aspiration and passions. The government has no right to ask the people of this country to compromise on their passions and aspirations by using the control wand of reservation. Instead, they should ensure that the reserved class do not get carried away and becomes megalomaniacs owing to the security bestowed upon them by the unfair system of reservation in India powered and driven by the constitution.