In her article, “Reflections on Republic Day” (Herald, January 26, 2017), Albertina Almeida said that the Constitution of India considers that to treat individuals located differently on social and economic spectrum, the same way, would be treat them unequally – but in practice they are being treated in the same way resulting in inequality. There is no doubt that in a unequal society like ours, equality can only be translated into reality if it is based on positive discrimination through which the underprivileged get some relief to get them going. This is what a welfare state is all about. Many countries like the United States of America provide the unemployed with handsome allowance. Without such positive discrimination, equality will become as ludicrous as – in the words of Anatole France – “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
Unfortunately, those who are located in the lower rung of our society, are not even being treated in the same way in our country. Instead of protecting the poor with positive discrimination, the fruit of discrimination is actually being dished out to the rich thus making this tool a negative one. As for example, the lion’s share of subsidy is enjoyed by the creamy layer of our country. Amartya Sen had said, “Reading the papers and hearing broadcasts, you would think that it is subsidy for the poor – food and employment – that strains India’s public resources, even though more than twice as much public funds are spent in subsidising the better off.” In India, the money does not trickle down from the rich but pumps up to the rich until they vomit it to some foreign banks.
Management quota reservation in educational institutions is another example of negative discrimination. Surprisingly, there is so much noise in India against caste quota reservation (a positive discrimination in favor of the oppressed), but not that kind of uproar can be heard against management quota reservation (an utterly negative discrimination)! When the largest bank defaulters in India are the big business; debt-driven micro defaulters are made to suffer up to the hilt. According to NCRB’s recent report, there was 42 per cent increase in farmer’s suicides in just one year from 2014 to 2015. But many rich individuals are roaming freely even after defaulting astronomical bank loan amount. Perhaps the present scenario would have made Anatole France to say, – “For the sake of majestic equality, the rich is provided with subsidy and management quota and the poor with occasional freebies.”
