Thursday, May 31, 2007

Who wants to be a Beggar?!

India has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that has a population that is dying for being declared a beggar.

How else can one explain the violence unleashed by the Gujjar community in Rajasthan? They are already included in the OBC Category and now they are on a rampage just because they want to be included in the ST Category !! There can be no other label other than "Murderers" to be bestowed upon them !!

For the uninitiated, communities declared as OBC, SC and ST categories are given special “privileges” – like reserved seats in educational institutions, govt. jobs etc. SC/ST categories are given more privileges than the OBC category. Now there is also a public discussion on reserving jobs for such communities in the private sector too !!

But then, thinking of it, we ourselves are to be blamed for this. The makers of our Constitution made "Reservation" a household word. Their intentions were clear - upliftment of the poor and needy. But they failed to visualize the scenario when such upliftment was “achieved”. Ideally, there should have been a constantly reducing level of reservation by Law. With such an open-ended interpretation and scope for reservation, the political parties made it their “Agenda” – and ended up sowing the seeds for weakening our social fabric. Soon, reservation was no longer a privilege; it became a right – a right to die for … oops, to kill for!

And we have been, actively as well as passively, constantly been in cahoots with this political class that strives to remain in power rather than remain in administration. We have never questioned this – and even conveniently forgotten those who burned themselves alive during the “Mandal Commission” protests.

What a great superpower are we !!

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