Saturday, June 09, 2007

Only in India

Would a bunch of people ask to be relegated in the social ladder (Read background here or here) (I promise I did not read the article before writing this :-) ). This is a sure sign that the 'Reservation or Quota' system, the equivalent to a government imposed, regulated and enforced affirmative action system is *NOT* working in India.

Here is one of the MAIN problem with the quota system that India currently has:
When the reservations were made, there was never a clause that discussed how and when these quotas would be rolled back in the future - once they achieved what they were expected to achieve. With an open ended legislation, motivated by the politics of vote, the regression of the Indian masses was bound to happen. Even water flows through the easiest path.

Without a system that was based on the economic (and other) condition of a person, the system was based on a class system, a caste system. A system that we are suppose to root out. But instead, with the sole motivation of gaining votes of a certain section of the society, the wheels of democracy has once again taken India backwards.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the reservation system is not perfect - by no means is it. in fact, most govt. efforts at equalizing social opportunities - think mid-day meals, health care - fail. however, the rationale, as explained by V P Singh the former PM was this. if a historical wrong - think casteism - caused a set of people to be discriminated against, society has a duty to right the wrong using the same historical reason. not a different one - such as poverty etc. don't know if i agree but it's worth chewing on.

akv said...

That's all very well. The intention was, no doubt, noble - but politics has been the spoilsport. The politics of vote has swayed even the most diehard of steadfast politicians. Just to get the votes of a section of people, politicians lure them to easy jobs, education etc. That's where the problem lies. The politicians exploit the downtrodden, unfortunate people and take up their causes for the sole purpose of making their own ends meet.