My friend Mauricio (name changed) is a highly learned person in the field of banking and finance. I am a great admirer of his simplicity and the content of his character. A beautiful girl who is a doctor by profession turned down his proposal for marriage as my friend Mauricio did not belong to her caste. In the Holy Bible, in (Genesis 1:27), we find the following lines “So God created human beings; making them to be like himself. He created them male and female”. Hence, we all must remember that our originality comes from God and that we all are the children of God. God created human beings only as male and female. God did not create human beings as Brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas, shudras or untouchables.
In his presidential campaign speech, Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana describes the United States of America as a land of opportunities where a person can get ahead, if he works hard. Bobby Jindal says that in the United States of America what matters is the content of a person’s character, not the colour of his skin, the ZIP code he was born in, or his family’s last name. However, in our great country India, to get ahead in life what matters is the man made caste system as we have caste based reservations for admission in professional educational institutions and also for jobs in State and Central Government Institutions. Tapas Bhardwaj from Delhi who has no vision in both his eye’s since birth scored 91.4% marks in the CBSE 12th standard board exams and Prema Jaya Kumar daughter of an autoriksha driver from Mumbai topped the nationwide CA exams. Tapas, Prema and many others in our country who have worked hard and succeeded have proved that where there is a will, there is a way. No excuses please. Do not insult merit, the fruit of those who work hard by producing your caste certificate. Today, many individuals whose parents belong to the HNI group also claim quota reservations available on caste basis for securing admission in professional educational institutions and also for jobs in State and Central Government Institutions. Why can’t such HNI’s voluntarily give up the quota reservations based on caste system like some individuals who have voluntarily given up the subsidy for LPG in our country? To uproot the evil of caste system in our country, the Government of India must cancel the caste based reservations in our country. When individuals are financial sound and considered as HNI’s, how can they also be considered as those belonging to the other backward classes?
Some years ago, I met an elderly man from our village who said to me, “Ami zati mandina. Ami munis sogle ek. Ami fokot reservationachea faideak lagon, ami amcho zomo kela”. This senior citizen from our village has children who are HNI’s. His daughter is a lawyer by profession. How such citizens of our country can be considered as those who belong to the OBC?
(The writer of this article works as a training manager for Birla Sun Life Insurance Company for the Goa region. He is also a poet and a Konkani
Tiatrist)
