Well well, a lot of activity has been going on in the comments section in my absence. I think it's time I spoke out too.
Firstly, whatever your caste maybe, it does not matter to me.. Why should it matter to me?Why should it matter to anyone? Why do we need to divide ourselves on the lines of caste in the first place?Yes, these divisions already exist and have probably existed from time immemorial. But do we need to carry them on to the future? Nobody's blood is impure because he is from a different caste..why do we even let such ideas get into our head?
Now, I don't believe that these protests are staged. I don't think people have stayed hungry for days because of some 'event management' and i do not think that a man gave up his life in Mandal -1 for event's sake!So please don't degrade someone's effort..
Yes, noone denies the fact that the backward classes have been opressed for centuries. and there is a genuine need to do something for them. Even in today's time, in many parts of the country people don't treat them equally.. which is very unfortunate. But reservation is not the solution. And that is the whole point which you're missing. Yes, we need action.. but why should it have to be only reservations? Do u think having reservations in IITs and IIMs would actually do them any good? Don't we first need schools to be set up for them? The government is just shirking its responsibility by taking resort to such populist measures. First let us make an effort to atleast provide them with primary education.. Go to the interiors, set up schools.. get kids admitted to them before you can talk of getting them into higher education.
You say they are disadvantaged because they cannot afford costly coaching institutes. Do you think all uppercaste people are rich? Why discriminate on the basis of caste here when the criteria is actually economic backwardness? Give them financial aid, scholarships, incentives.. anything.. but why reservations?
What is our ultimate aim? Isn't it equality? But reservations is only going to increase the divide.. increase the resentment.. If one class has been opressed for hundreds of years does that mean you have to do the same to someone else to get even?
As for Mr. Arjun Singh and just how much he knows, just read this news article to see his justifications and how hollow it all sounds..
Firstly, whatever your caste maybe, it does not matter to me.. Why should it matter to me?Why should it matter to anyone? Why do we need to divide ourselves on the lines of caste in the first place?Yes, these divisions already exist and have probably existed from time immemorial. But do we need to carry them on to the future? Nobody's blood is impure because he is from a different caste..why do we even let such ideas get into our head?
Now, I don't believe that these protests are staged. I don't think people have stayed hungry for days because of some 'event management' and i do not think that a man gave up his life in Mandal -1 for event's sake!So please don't degrade someone's effort..
Yes, noone denies the fact that the backward classes have been opressed for centuries. and there is a genuine need to do something for them. Even in today's time, in many parts of the country people don't treat them equally.. which is very unfortunate. But reservation is not the solution. And that is the whole point which you're missing. Yes, we need action.. but why should it have to be only reservations? Do u think having reservations in IITs and IIMs would actually do them any good? Don't we first need schools to be set up for them? The government is just shirking its responsibility by taking resort to such populist measures. First let us make an effort to atleast provide them with primary education.. Go to the interiors, set up schools.. get kids admitted to them before you can talk of getting them into higher education.
You say they are disadvantaged because they cannot afford costly coaching institutes. Do you think all uppercaste people are rich? Why discriminate on the basis of caste here when the criteria is actually economic backwardness? Give them financial aid, scholarships, incentives.. anything.. but why reservations?
What is our ultimate aim? Isn't it equality? But reservations is only going to increase the divide.. increase the resentment.. If one class has been opressed for hundreds of years does that mean you have to do the same to someone else to get even?
As for Mr. Arjun Singh and just how much he knows, just read this news article to see his justifications and how hollow it all sounds..
45 comments:
Good to cya back. :)
I did read the article and he sounds so non committal and at times even indifferent.
Why cant let the best man win. I agree when u say that infrastructure at primary level needs to be improved.
Decisions taken without supporting earlier facts n blocked mindset creates a stir like this
I hate politics! I have no comments on what politicians do for a living.
By the way, if you are thinking of intercaste marriage, do let me know.
Cheers!
hey mind-boggling post there neha!
I really hope some politicians give a thought or atleast think like how you are thinking!
That would defly resolve this issue....!
I agree when we start looking at reservation issue in the light of caste...the whole purpose of some of those selfish politicians gets served who want to make it a political issue n churn out some votes for them..
I sumtimes wonder in pain that how come our policy makers are so immpractical...creates so much of maliase inside!!
the foundations has to be strong...i agree nehal...make primary education strong!! what gov needs to do is make primary education, coaching for professional courses free/subsidized and when appearing for main exams pitch every1 on equal footing !!
Pradeep..u cant shy away from facts saying that u hate politics..this may effect the future of country and which s no way diff from urs !!
Politicians talk abt bringing social security by introducing reservations..i wud like to quote the real picture...
1. Ppl who actually avail reservation are shy to tell that they come under category of reservation..!! So the very purpose of bringing social equality takes a back seat !!
2. Ppl who need nt take reservation...i mean who can afford good coaching n best of schools are the one's who r actually availing the benefits of reservation!! Ppl who actually need to avail it r nowhere in the pic!!
3. So many posts in gov organization r lying vacant becoz they fall under reservation, however they dont even hv reservation elligible ppl applying for them. and we are a country facing unemployment
4. why shud there b reservation in private sector. If i open a organization i hv th rt to choose the workforce i want to work for me and with me. This is basic right a person shud hv...the concept of caste doesnt even arise...this s pure personal rt n wish...
There are so many others...sad that we as a nation r ignoring facts and we all knw deep in our hearts what can b th outcome of nation which negates "merit" !!
Yep. How many times have we discovered to our utter surprise that the rankholder is not your richman lying under the simulated coldness generator, that you call the AC? That your state topper is not the pizza gulping, coke sipping teenager? Haven't we discovered many an occasion that its the young lad sitting by the street who does it? The young lad who does not have all those appanages and privileges that 'most' of the 'forward caste' people are alleged to have and something that 'most' of the 'backward caste' people lack. And yeah, it must be a sensible system indeed that vouches for upholding the caste system and not individual merit. *maintains his composure after a bit of mental turmoil.
Ah. Forget it all. It's plain common sense. I even wonder why people are divided over it in the first place. On one side, there's a person who says that the whole fasting is pretentious while on the other side, there's a 'minister' trying to dodge consequential questions with his half-witted replies. Me has had enough say on this.
And yeah. If I go and join them two days later for the fasting here, I go, not because I want to. But because I am paid. A hundred rupees. When I could use the time to earn ten times more. lol Nice logic. And yeah. This should provide you with peace of mind, whoever you are, wherever you are.
I agree 100%. U cannot bring equality by dividing people. U need to help the needy. But that is financial need. Reservation is not a solution to any problem.
u absoultely rt..havent left much for me to say........just want to add here..just a few garner all tht benifits of reservation....u have families where 3-4 ppl are in civil services...
@catch22, thanks :-)
really tht article actually shows us that he doesnt even noe wat he's doing...
@Agarwaen, true.. even if we must hv erservations then economics is a better criteria atleast!
i wudnt care if my friends r sc or st or any caste for tht matter too.. y wud v judge them by tht..
@Sudeep, we rally need consensus on such sensitive issues..
@Pradeep, intercaste marriage? i'm not thinkin of marriage righ tnow :)
@Rathna, u noe it's taken a lot of discussions n arguments for me to think like this too.. there was a time when id studied abt reservations n i actually felt it was in some way justified.. but then my friend Sid showed me there cud b things other than reservation which cud achieve things in a better way...
@Rashmee, we can all see its the personal agenda of teh politicions then y do these politicions still get votes n support!!
equality truly suffers bcos of reservation...
and we keep talkin abt this creamy layer.. y do they still hv reservations if they're well off, or they've already enjoyed reservations.. like i was watching this guy on tv who was a doctor and he was asked whether he wud want resevration for his kids and he said yes y not.. now wat sense does tht make? he's a doc, he is nto opressed i think!
and vacant seats.. in colleges , jobs.. even if we talk of equality of opprtunity how can someone explain reservations in jobs!
@Sudhir, it's frustratin isnt it.. when someone doesnt seem to see things which r so obvious...
no wonder.. cliched but true.. common sense is not so common!
@Suds,yes help.. support.. give them all they need , give them an equal chance... but thts where it shud stop!
@Jackal, right.. just like the example i gave above...
You ask the question: Why should it matter to me?
Good question.. Why should it? It shouldn't. What with a fancy computer and a fancier Internet connection, you have the ability to blog, connect and discuss issues u never did until it hit YOU. So what happens to a certain Ramu and the many Gouris, who are 12th pass, residing in the vidarbhas of India, and whose fathers are in steep debts? Will you ask them to go back to school because the Government is now building a robust primary education system? Shall these unfortunate many do their primary schooling again because they didnt goto, sorry couldnt goto, primary schools as fancy as ours?
And mind you, these people aren't even aware of their rights to protest as fashionably as we are doing today. and even if they are, it is not in their immediate priorities to protest. their priority in many cases is to clear their fathers's debt or earn bread and butter without which they will find themselves on the streets! India dies in its villages. and do these people ever get reported? do they ever get that life-altering media support which the urban media is so willing to give us today? or are they not given because people like me and you, TV subscribers, do not prefer such a drag of a news?
I agree that most of our politicians are upto votebank appeasement. But as a responsible, educated junta, can we so wilfully disown or disregard realities? If we want to do that.. lets be candid about it. noting wrong. its ur personal choice. But you cant hide your intentions giving fundamentally-wrong solutions such as..improve the primary education system et al. It really sounds fake and ill-thought of. Setting up such robust institutions takes years and decades. What do you suggest for the million others till that happens? Shall they wait?
Reservation is eating up the great minds of India, It may have been good 45 years back but it's nothing but the dirty politics now, inviting brain drain and worsening unemployment.
#neha
nice post...
its the time to come on the roads and FIGHT
again another sensitive post. Hmm.. No comments. As i just dont get bothered about reservation.
A very emotionally charged post one of ur bests to date. I echo ur sentiments.We can have other forms of affirmative action, reservation is not d solution.
Hey my net wasnt working for 10 days or so, didnt have time to pay d bill, finally im back on blogosphere n d first thing i read was this post
The last sentence of your post makes the rest of ur post pointless. Logic against Arjun Singh?
Did you catch the text of the resignation letter by one of the knowledge commission guys? Posted on me blog.
Given that no amount of logic or sense is going to help, the only recourse is to force. Which means -lobbies - if there is anything strong enough, and the judiciary.
Hope, as always, springs eternal.
At times I wish Arjun Singh has a younger bro like Praveen Mahajan :)
Neha...er this is a sensitive issue but I think I'm with you on this matter.As you said...all upper caste people aren't rich at all. In fact I've seen thousands of upper caste people who are struggling..and their struggle is real hard since they have no reservations to help them. There are tons of people who've worked hard and spent years studying, and when they lose out to inferior people due to reservations and such other crap, they are bound to feel hurt. This whole reservation thing is absolute bullshit. There is no logic in it at all. Political parties can sink to any extent to obtain votes!! Sad!!
lol @ common sense not being so common. True. It just makes your brain pulsate in irritation and annoyance. Just like when you are with someone sitting in the terrace on a moonless night and sky gazing, a meteor whizzes past in all its splendour. You jolt the other person awake and tell him/her to look in that direction and try and point out the meteor. It is too late by that time. And worse. The person falls down laughing and tells you, 'yeah, right! What am I? An Alien?' Sounds funny. But for the other person who saw it and knows it, its irritating. Exactly the situation. We see what is right. They don't. And they mock us. And they lash back in irritation violently. While we. The helpless frustrated we. Struggle in incomprehension of their 'ideals' and fail to make those 'wise' people see light.
And when I say this, I remember one of Murphy's depressingly funny laws.
"The light at the end of a tunnel is that of an oncoming train."
lol
I think India as a nation has already tried and tested "reservation" as a mean to bring social eqality. I guess its already a failure...
May be we shud try sumthing else...more than 55 yrs of favorism given a section of society...bt still no susbtancial results...55 yrs s a long time in history of a developing nation guys...
I think its high time every1 should be pitched at equal footing, may th best rule. I m personally not in favor of women reservation also..
Any kind of unprogressive favorism is a taboo for th society...
I dislike politics to the core...only cos politics have no heart or soul...just self-interest.
Hope ur keeping well Neha...
Keshi.
The other day I heard a pro quota activist saying that the biggest hurdle most so called "oppressed" people met was the English in entrance exams which the richer class could easily clear. Tht for him waas the justification for reservation.
Funnily enough do these people forget that an MBBS course or an MBA course is conducted in English!!
Frankly looking at things I am beginning to feel a little hopeless!
We shall increase the number of seats says the PM....at what cost - 8000 crores as an initial and an additional cost of 2000 crores annually. Who pays for that? We taxpayers!!
hmmm... i'm studying about Indian caste systems in school now.. funny that a topic like this springs up here! what a coincidence... hahaa..
Modernise, people! modernize!
It remains a bitter truth of cheap politics.It is a brave attempt to stop country's growth.
good post.. and i guess almost everyone has gravitated on the same point of primary education and access for the deprived..
I say two things..
1. if govt is so committed to increasing the no. of seats so that open category students are not affected, then i say increase the seats year on year and reserve them for the obc candidates till the percentage is reached instead of reserving current seats and trying to create new ones. This will show govt's committment.
2. I also do believe that whatever the current government has done, is not completely because it wants more obc votes. I am sure there is more to it than what meets the eye. THe govt has to give its reasons why it is doing so (beyond the cry of inclusive growth.). I sure hope things clear up soon.The govt also has to learn to handle the issue better..
All said and done, I really dont see anyway this thing is going to end..
No political party in the opposition is daring to say anything against the Congress. The only man who dared to support the anti reservation group turned out to be Navjot Singh Sidhdhu..
Where are our so called intellegentsia ?? The Atals? Aadvanis?? Arun Jaitly and the likes??
All are silently watching and are silent supporters. They canot dare to say anything coz tey play the same number game of minorities when they get an opportunity..
The truth is that Minorities are treated as Vote Banks. And hence , be it the congress or any political party , it shall try to keep them happy.
And things being this way all reforms we are talking about here are going to turn into CRAP.
bingo neha...cheers for equality of opportunity :)
Eeks...
I turned your comment section into war ground(in previous post)
Sorry sorry
I had seen the intrw of Arjun Singh in CNN-IBN...bloody he doesn't know the stats and still harping on the reservation factor...even i shud say these politicians shud be thrown out of their posts...
yup,i agree...why demarcation on the basis of caste...is this the only factor to uplift them??is this the criteria where they lag behind in??why don't the govt think of the dilution of the merit in the higher educational institutions??why do they call themselves so-educated if they can't be rational??
god knows kya hoga kal ke India ka??
Seriously, India needs a Gunpowder Plot right now to blow off all those losers sitting there in the Parliament house and calling themselves our "leaders". WE rule in this democracy and not they and this needs to be told to them without mincing any words. And Arjun Singh's interview in Devil's Advocate just showed that he has a very tiny brain and if we feed to even an ant, that poor creature will die...out of starvation but more out of food poisoning. Why doesn't he partition India into two parts: Upper caste India and Lower caste India? I'm sure dear darling Pakistan will be more than happy to lend its support to us in this mighty endeavour. That retard can fulfill his wish of "uplifting" lower castes and OBC's then, particularly the kids of those who sit in air conditioned offices sipping tea and without making any effort to move their fat asses.
Down with government! X-(
@TGWSTW
Wow,what an imagination.Cool.I am ready to lend match sticks for the gun powder plot.Count on me.
THEY think they are right? saying THEY as they don't think about other dying in front of them as they think now govt say they are right and now manmohan said his final words...............................and i think it is right what u want will not come in ur hand at right time u hv to wait...and in this case doc hv to take some patience on their shoes
people u know wat the problem is..due to corruption..the govt has not set up schools n universities in villages..so to append dat n meet up with the demands of people who can jus dream of studyin, the govt (either unwillingly or willingly) has to put in plan the reservation thing..they have no other alternative..but thsi is no better way..can we all cum up with a better idea?
well,
its the sad reality of our country today that we'r misusing the word "democracy" to fulfill our vested interests!
Have never been in favour of any kind of reservations!!...Its like saying that it doesnt matter if ur capable...u dont deserve anything in India till ur either too influential, too poor or with some caste tag on u!
Nice to see you back! so much has been spoken about the issue that i'm blasé now. However, i do support the view of not diffrentiating based on caste. Instead, if they did make resevations with those more unfortunate financially and could prove their mettle.. it would have been the right thing.. All i gathered from the interviews was that arjun singh was an idiot who couldn't justify his action.. some political puppet that.
"""But reservations is only going to increase the divide.. increase the resentment"""
This is so true.See what one of my fellow IITian from SC category said on the issue.Its really touching.
Link
alrighty,reservation...very sensitive issue...have loads to say...I think both parties are correct in their own way...I am sayin that as I have seen both sides with my own eyes, the backward class and the others...
all I want to say is that, one needs to take the effort to see the other side of the coin too...but, I am not against reservation, but I think 50% or 49.9% is a lot!! I think if they have to reserve seats, then make it 30% or something...
also reservation in private sectors is plain ridiculous!!!
(have more to say but studies beckons!!)take care and see ya after my exams:)
hi ..plzz take a look at my new post urgently..n help to save some one..
arjun singh would know a solution to this fiasco if it cam eand bit him in te bum.
By the way have read many previous posts.
You have some very nice thoughts.
cheers
hmm.. what all I missed!!lot of posts i think.. I ahve lot to say about this issue..I am really pained by the way this whole thing is moving forward...
ah! the summer heat is picking up! :P
Bravo Bravo ...Really these political ppl shd be asked to stuff their heads up their hind..For them only de vote counts..And ppl are still ready to vote ppl like this to represent dem...I think tat is were de major fault is..Bravo to you once agn
Here are some links that I believe will be interested
hi did u get my lines ?
cud u haear somthing by that.
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