A Cauldron Situation of Time

The most stressing socio-political issue of India is inevitably the reservation policy for the backward classes. For the past 50 years of practicing the policy, it has come to a state where one could sense an imminent civil disturbance amongst the so-called peace loving people. It's a cauldron situation of Time, and requires a thought which would pacify all sections of people, irrespective of class and caste.

The other day, the Supreme Court has given its judgement upholding reservation for the OBC in central institutions of higher education, except the creamy layers, made the human resource development minister to call the verdict "historic", which it was not. It only reflected the sense of relief at being saved the embarrassment of defeat. By the same token, the positive reaction of anti-reservationists was clearly an attempt to salvage some honour from the unanimous refusal of apex court to support their cause. The euphoria of the students of the OBC category, after the verdict, looked ridiculous as who would have entered the premises of the elite institutions, but the creamy layers. The messiah of OBC politics Lalu Yadav has reasons to frown on the verdict, and questions the veracity of the creamy layers. He knows well, what the verdict means. He understands that SC has tried to please all, but in actuality gave nothing to anyone.

The concept of present day reservations, be it to the SCs/STs or to the OBCs, seems medieval in nature and destructive amongst the society. The educated class of India alleges that the fiasco has developed by the nuisance of the political masters, who believe less about the upliftment of poor but more about their own escalation through a vote bank. In a democratic society, one cannot ignore any society, be it an educated class or a society of backward people. Rather a sound, collective introspection has become necessity for burying the anomaly developed between the two castes, upper and backward, in our country. It is also the time for the politicians to realize that "some people can be cheated for sometime, and not that all people can be cheated for all time". Meanwhile, all must keep in mind that though they are not responsible for the Varna-pratha of our system, as some politicians claim, but they have some responsibility towards the real backward people of the country, as it is towards the nation. Therefore, a paradigm shift is required to settle the issue.

The new law would ensure that each upper caste person would give 10 years of his life time to the lower caste in the form of entering into a reservation zone. At present, one has to succumb to the reservation throughout his life time. Equally all lower caste people would be given 10 years to upgrade themselves. A restrictive policy would ensure a person to take advantage of the benefit, whereas a general policy does not excite all people equally. Both castes would enter into a cut off zone for three years in matters pertaining to education. The rest of the seven years they would accommodate in the service sector. Once the period of ten years they serve for the reservation, they would be free from reservation zone and can be liberated from bondage of being born to an upper caste.

The new reservation policy needs to be benevolent in nature. A numerous lucrative offer could be extended to both reservationists, taker as well as giver. The giver would pay a reduced fee to the educational institutions, as given by the taker. The income-tax rebate, one additional increment, an extra holiday for a week in case in service could be given to the giver. In addition, some other incentives can be pursued as per the place of his work.

One must not forget that this is a hard world. Getting a seat in the university or finding a suitable job for a general candidate really wear off a young man's lot of vigour and time. Until and unless we accommodate them with encouragement and lucrative incentives, the policy is bound to bounce back. At present, non-reservation people are only suffering, and that no one pays any heed to them, the government do not acknowledge their contribution for the last 50 years, except lashes them inhumanly every after few years when they raise their voice against the continuous injustice. This needs to be ceased, otherwise the efforts to do justice would backlash the whole concept of undoing the social injustice.