The games our leaders, ministers and politicians have been playing since all these years, in the name of “reservations” to the so-called poorer sections of the society, is now very much in the open.
The reservation system, on the whole, has today, taken a wider proportion and is more often “misused” even after the 70 years of India’s Independence. The system, as it stands today, prevents those students even with a high percentage of marks (especially those belonging to the upper caste and are not covered under the reservation policy) from getting admission and employment as their right. This is because, in the field of education and government employment seats and vacancies are reserved for SC/STs and other beneficiaries, anywhere between 70 and 80 per cent. This is atrocious since most deserving students and candidates even with percentages as high as above 90 and extremely brilliant academic records are deprived of their seats in the engineering, management and medical colleges & institutes and employment too. And, now with the new provision, the SC/STs will get promotion under the quota policy. In other words, efficiency, merit, sincerity and performance will have no meaning and just by taking advantage of the quota policy, the SC/ST will get promoted to higher grades, even if one proves to be inefficient and an ‘under-performer’. Whereas the truly meritorious and sincere performers have to wait for their turn as per the policy of the government or the organisation, this will give room for many juniors and under achievers becoming the “boss” or superior to many senior and class performers who are sure to get more demoralised.
What is happening, therefore today is that every caste and tribe wants to be categorised as ST/SC or at least under the OBC – so that the benefits under the “reservations policy” can be availed, irrespective of the economic and financial background. Today, it has become a matter of privilege to be treated as an ST or SC, which was not the case at least about a decade ago. The extreme extension of reservation by the Indian political leaders and the government, just to appease one community after the other, repeatedly, has now led to the “deprived caste or class” demanding reservation as a matter of right. At this rate, the day is not far off when the real upper caste strata (like Brahmins etc…) also take their turn to demand to treat them as “ST / SC”, because, today, they feel the heat and are the real ones who are deprived of admissions, jobs etc, due to “over patronage” of certain caste and communities. Moreover, in our country, it seems, there is no end to the longest list of tribes and caste – every year one caste or the tribe or the other keep rising up to demand reservation!
(This is the first part of the Diary and the rest of the article will be published tomorrow.)
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
