I am not a supporter of reservations of seats based on cast, I had also participated in the nationwide protests against reservations when our dear, stupid, sycophant, opportunist Arjun Singh had proposed the reservations. When the issue was taken up by Supreme Court, like everyone I expected some rational decision, something practical but alas that was not to be...
The elite judges at the country's highest court wrote hundreds of pages, disregarded various facts and concluded that 27% reservations in government funded central education institutions was necessary.
Considering the state of affairs now, it would not be surprising if the following happened:
1. Reservation in private sector jobs.
2. Reservation of seats in public transport (like railways and buses)
3. Reservation of products of companies (for example: out of every 100 nokia N series phone 27 would be reserved for OBCs)
4. Reservation of roads (27% of the roads in the city would be used only by OBCs)
5. Reservation of food at restaurants (27% of burgers at McDonalds will be served only to OBCs)
Am I being insane? I don't think so, though the ideas sound ridiculous, believe me nothing is really impossible.
While I firmly believe that some action is required to elevate the conditions of SC/STs and OBCs, I have no doubt in my mind that reservations are not the solutions. The exclusion of creamy layer is just a farce as it is not a difficult task to bribe a lawyer and get a false income affidavit or for that matter a false caste certificate.
The solution to this bane is not by reserving seats in premier institutes and stigmatizing a candidate to be an OBC or an SC/ST but by improving the system of education at the primary level, this however is easier said than done. Its not that the government does not run programs to improve the state of education, but due to various reasons mostly attributed to the hypocrite politicians and the corrupt government Babus, the condition never improves. Even if we were to accept reservations in engineering colleges, I simply fail to understand how one even thinks of having reservations in Medical colleges. Will the same Arjun Singh be ready to be treated by a doctor who studied on a seat won by reservation?
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Hunger pangs...
Few years ago India was facing a unique problem of excess, well it’s hard to believe but the government had excess of food grains which they had no place to stock. Just few years down the line there is still a problem but of the opposite nature, our food stocks are lying below the critical levels.
The reasons for this are plenty and most of them can be attributed to… yup you guessed it right the policies of the government and the negligence of our dear Union Minister of Agriculture.
1. The government has fixed the price of wheat, rice and other staple grains. The rising costs of sowing, labor and harvesting makes cultivation of staple food unprofitable for the farmers. The end result: Farmers are switching to cash crops.
2. Due to low margins farmers are unable to purchase good quality seeds and this result in lower yields per acre and yet lower profits.
3. The most important factor to effect agriculture policies in
4. Another problem crippling our food stocks is the illegal sale of food stocks to countries like
5. The fickle weather adds to the woes of already burdened farmers. For example the unwarranted march rains in Karnataka have led to a loss of more than 500 crores.
Most farmers find it untenable to till their lands due to the above mentioned factors. They are forced to grow cash crops if irrigation is available or sell of their lands to SEZs or do the unthinkable (suicide) if no other option is available. Will the BCCI chief sit up and take stock of the situation before its too late…?
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