Thursday, January 05, 2006

Start the new year in style...cursing!

Ok..its my first blog of the year. Even if I don't have much to boast for 2005, atleast its the year I started blogging! Yahoooo... Seems nowadays I spend more time reading blogs than writing them. The verdict is out! And its a bad one! I seem to like my own blog less by the day!! Need to spice it up. But atleast for today, the topic is going to be the dear old Reservation!

Supreme Court has yesterday refused to stay the Andhra High Court order quashing the Reservation (read appeasement) for Muslims by the Congress Government in Andhara Pradesh. The case will now be heard by a constitutional bench. While it bewilders me to see that the so called civilized society and the media hasn't reacted outrageously enough against this blatant display of Muslim Appeasement, I'm hoping that the Supreme Court will prevent this bill from becoming a law. But the trend overall seems to be more reservation than less. Surely this is not the way forward! Having subverted the SC order on reservation in private educational institutions we are now headed for OBC reservation in IITs. What better way to degrade them! Why is that, after 58 years of independence we aren't yet talking about merit and equal opportunity for all?! Ok yes..there are sections of the society which have been left out of the loop, but is reservation the answer?! I don't think so. The only reservation that I can possibly stand is that for the Scheduled Castes and the Tribes. After all, with my limited grasp of History (or is it Anthropology?), I can see that they were the people who were the original inhabitants of this land. And ofcourse there is no need to talk about the way the other communities treated them over the years. Hitler would be ashamed in his grave for not living upto our expectations! In the same vein, I even support the provision for SCs and STs to maintain their status even if they convert from Hinduism. It will promote more conversions but what the heck. If Hindu religions (esp Brahmanism) cannot provide dignity to these people, then they have every damn right to choose other faiths. But its a different matter that their adopted religions aren't treating them well either. I have heard our house maid (recent convert) complain how she is not allowed to attend mass in certain churches. I have seen many of my school mates at Don Bosco who were Aspirants (and will be future clerics) still remaining officially Hindu so as to maintain their SC/ST status! I guess it will be better to allow them to retain their status after conversion. Apart from this reservation for SCs and STs, I am against all other forms of reservation. And this Women's reservation is the craziest thing I have ever heard of. Is contesting election in my constituency not my fundamental right? (I oppose the reserved constituencies for SC/STs..no doubt!) The way forward is less castism in politics, proper law enforcement to protect the socially and economically downtrodden and certainly no more reservations please.

1 comment:

Balaji Chitra Ganesan said...

hmm.. Just as I was writing this blog, the Allahabad High Court has yesterday struck down the Minority Status of the Aligarh Muslim University. Its a clear slap on the face of the Manmohan Singh Government and particularly the HRD Minister Arjun Singh. Ofcourse shameless as they both are, they will undoubtedly approach the supreme court and if needed will bring legislation to subvert the court orders as they have done for Reservation in Private Institutions and are planning to do in the Assam IMDT case. But it seems atleast the courts are on my side in this war against the Psuedo Secular Castist maniacs running this government!

Balaji.