It was unfortunate to note that the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale during his visit to Goa for reviewing the status of schemes meant for SCs, STs and OBCs has made an outrageous statement that the reservation quota in the country should be raised from the present 49.5 per cent to 75 per cent to include more categories within the ambit of reservation.
In other words after toiling relentlessly day and night and performing outstandingly in the examinations, the general category students will only have a meagre 25 per cent of the seats in professional colleges. That apart the illogical reservation policy extends even to the employment platform, implying that the general category after faring so well in their academic career will only have to bite the dust when it comes to seeking government jobs. It clearly shows the mindset of our venerated elected representatives who have just one objective of strengthening their vote bank in a bid to cling to power at any cost.
Let us recollect what the Supreme Court had noted a couple of years ago, castigating our reservation policy, that whereas the rest of the world takes pride in projecting itself as a forward community showcasing its progress over the years, we in India take pride in projecting ourselves unabatedly as backward, just to plunder the benefits accruing out of the unending reservation tangle. There are repeated pleas that government should have a relook at the reservation policy and steadily phase it out, as we have completed more than seven decades after gaining independence and extended all the benefits to the SC, ST and OBC categories.
In fact the said policy outlined in the Constitution was meant for a specific period of a few decades just to give a boost and uplift the communities which had suffered humiliation and suppression under the elite class. Common sense implies that the strategy cannot continue for ever.
The minister’s observation that by raising the reservation bar to 75 per cent the atrocities against the said communities would be reduced is ridiculous. The only way to remove all discrimination is to abolish the reservation policy in a phased manner bringing everyone on a common platform and assess a person based on his capability. At the most some marginal level of reservation can be conceived based on the economic status of the family and not on its caste, tribe or class.
