Quota-my country’s political choice

Justice,equality,emancipation,belief-somewhere my life gets dull and lambasted when such heavy utopian phrases scribe in the air. For long, India has bragged of its stance of being the world’s largest democracy. The pulp of the fact being that about 800 days from now my country will go on to celebrate its 70th year of independence-a great feat for a country whose fate to disintegrate was coupled by the western pandits years back. But still,for me the idea seems to portray little of the great republicanism and loktantra we talk about in our addas of Kolkata. The right to vote has been granted to every individual irrespective of class,caste,creed. Even the barometer of religious choice which has produced havoc many a times has not been a factor as far as the right to universal adult franchise is considered. Though the great extra constitutional conscience keeper called Subramanian Swamy has vouched for not giving franchise to the Muslims if they don’t agree to their Hindu ancestry.

The right to vote and right to education both have been superficially woven utopian verbatim. While children from the age of 6-14 have moulded the socialist pattern born out of the 42nd Amendment,1976-still the cause of creating a democratic nation creates a mental void. While the top institutes boast of meritocracy, typical reservations seems to flow as some kind of dole which a part of the population deserves even after 68 independent springs. While the Prime Minister gives a call for equality,while RaGa talks about farmer suicide,little do we feel obliged to take on the political whims of blatant opportunism and shameful dignity. The story of Ramsay McDonald’s Communal Award in 1932 august was quashed not by logical thinking,but by doubling the number of seats,being British sponsored to the Dalits through the Divide and Rule propaganda. As the country endowed itself the modern methods of liberalistaion and market economy post 1991,the political mileage regarding Quota-logy has remained ecstatic,lively and a cornerstone of controversy.

When my country is talking about facebook and twitter,following pics on Instagram you hear a certain Mayawati bluffing at Devyani Khobragade’s Dalit ancestry. How many of us knew that the controversial diplomat was a dalit before Behenji pitched on the issue? Isn’t that a coveted gesture of spiralling India into the tomb of fissures and aftershocks? The Dalit cause with a greater social base propelled a new political party called Bahujan Samaj Party under Kanshi Ram. The Congress has used this formula of –poor,Muslims and Dalits as a correct thesis in winning elections during the Indira period. Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and eminent economist moderately attacked the myopic vision of the law makers as far as reservations are concerned. Most often, the candour of caste is taken into general view and consideration. But what about the class? The downtrodden Dalit woman who is labelled as a Dayan in 21st century India-what great prospect can the reservations and quotas paint about her?

Does she understand what reservation stands for? What great locomotive can she be provided so that she can fight against a social evil of indifference and backwardness? How can an educational quota ever help a family which gets displaced from their native village just because they refuted the diktat of discontinuing education? Can a social apartheid ever have a political solution? Aarakshan, a film by Prakash Jha showed how immodesty has crept into the idea of the educational system. The character of Manoj Bajpayi and Saif Ali Khan represented contrasting ideals, contradicting self-interests, but a monologous problem of identification. While the poster reflected the two Indias-50%  for the open category and 50% towards the reserved,political onslaught looked inevitable. The Uttar Pradesh Government under Mayawati banned the film. The Badals of Punjab showed little traits of Ranjit Singh’s aggression fearing bloodshed and went for a ban. The Dalit fringes were ecstatic as they shared maximum visual space.

They seemed to boil in the fact that Saif Ali Khan’s royal background was misfit to cast him as a Dalit in a film. The JDU,the party for whom Prakash Jha fights every lok Sabha and loses invariably perhaps should also now critically ruminate-the great Nitish Kumar promoted a Maha Dalit to the post of Chief Ministership not again on the basis of merit or substance but on the account of vote bank politics. The BJP which is very preachy of the fact- Development for all, appeasement for none also is not averse to quota politics. During the period of Rajnath Singh’s stewardship in U.P sub quotas were made to accommodate the less priviledged.The Andhra Government has already made a world record of sorts by having a reservation of 2/3 in the state. The Tamil Nadu Government has reservations based on religion. Though, according to Smriti irani such religious reservations are not permitted in the bylanes of the Constitution. Even the UPA bill on Jat reservation was quashed by the Supreme Court.

Author’s crisp thought: The Delhi University first cut off for the undergraduate students are out. For changing a stream it has recorded a cut off eligibility of 100.75%. When we repent about the fact that not a single university excluding the IIT’s are featuring in the top list of world institutes,we have to blame the quotas and quota-logy for that. Well the Congress did try to implement its 4.5% quota for minorities even in the IIT’s. I will only say what Justice Sachar said post the congress genetical endeavour of dole distribution in the pre-election season

“Such promises (Reservations) will not help the backward section of minorities. It is like befooling them. These people are making tall claims just to win elections.Instead of promising to give reservations, the government should focus on basic issues of improving administration and governance.[33]
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