Caste based quotas
Let quota issue be decided on streets in a bloody civil war
The SC was expected to confirm the quota regime. It does what the government expects it to do. And it will not be unconstitutional if the Excluded Castes & Communities (ECC) wage a war for their economic and political survival. They have the rights to do it when they are at the verge of being disenfranchised.
Shiv Khera and the likes of him have done grave injustice by quelling the agitation and anger of the excluded castes over seat reservation issue, presuming that the Supreme Court will keep the lid on it forever. All the talk of the exclusion of the creamy layer from quota ambit is pure hogwash. The principle of quota for the OBCs is inherently bad in letter, and spirit, and is an act of moral turpitude. The constitutional amendment to this effect has to be rolled back. The SC cannot do this. A bloody civil war seems to be the only way out to din some sense into our politicians who use quota as a convenient tool of electoral politics.
The academic and sophisticated approach of candle burning pseudo revolutionaries has damaged the cause of the Excluded Castes & Communities (ECC) and our polity. The SC judges, ever willing to do the bidding of the present Delhi rulers, chose the right time to deliver a premeditated judgement during examination time and in this pre election year.
Let the issue of the OBC quota be decided on the streets, in university and college campuses, in villages, in kasbahs, tehseels, and towns, at the grass roots. Let the country erupt and burn. Let the blood flow. The OBC quota is patently wrong, unjust, and illogical. It will finally lead to the disenfranchisement of the ECC which cannot be acceptable. Shiv Khera and his kind cannot lead such a fight. They can only wage paper wars in the cool confines of courts and IIT campuses.
Here is an earlier khullamkhulla article. It had raised the issues now being discussed by some idiots and pundits after the Supreme Court's fait accompli. It had questioned the very logic of the OBC quota and the kind of anomalies it would introduce in our democratic polity, marginalizing a huge chunk of our population and driving them to a state of despair.
Democracy without morals is 'Mobocracy'. It is devoid of all sense of justice and is used as a political ploy to perpetuate the rule of the mob.
The framers of the Indian Constitution, who were mostly from the upper castes, could not have imagined that the use of caste based reservations as a means of undoing the injustices of thousands of years would turn our democracy into a farce one day.
So, the enlightened ones who never tire of singing the paeans of the parliamentary system of governance, should rest their fluttering tonsils and ponder very seriously over what is happening to our polity.
Is politics all about power? That is what it seems. You must have power irrespective of the means you use and the consequences that may follow after the wrongs that you commit. The voices of conscience and reason, sweet souled sympathy for the weak and the downtrodden, and genuine efforts at creating a just and equitable society have no meaning here. 'Fend for yourself' and 'corner whatever goodies you can' are the new Mantras of social justice. We are seeing how humans turn into hyenas in pursuit of pelf and power.
If the proponents of the OBC quota in educational institutions aimed at dealing a big blow to the Hindu body politic, they are succeeding. They are not ignorant people- the V.P. Singhs and Arjun Singhs. They are crafty and cunning politicians. They belong to the class of bastardized traitors who can go to any length to take a shot at political power even while they are on their deathbeds. They can prostitute their conscience, mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters to achieve their power goals.The OBC quota in educational institutions would mean punishing a whole lot of bright students for something they never did. These are not rich kids whose ancestors necessarily were Zamindaars. They can be poorer than their OBC counterparts. Who are these OBCs? They are not the untouchables of the community. The Ahirs (dairy owner and milk vendor), the Koeries (vegetable growers and vendors), the Telis (oil producers and sellers), the Kumhars (potters), the Banias (traders, and moneylenders), the Nows (barbers) and a whole lot of intermediate castes that are classified as OBCs, have been part of a self-sufficient village economy. They exercised monopoly over essential services and their jobs were reserved for all their future generations. A Brahmin or a Kshastriya lived his/her life on the razor's edge, balancing caste honour and bare survival needs. The OBCs did not have to face such dilemmas. They were subjected to far fewer social and religious restrictions.
They are the ‘Vaishyas’, people engaged in economic activities - businessmen and traders. They have had a lot of economic and political power in the past and, as everyone can clearly see, they have it even today. The Birlas, the Ambanis, and all the Yaadavas from Mulayam to Lalu come into this category. They are not the victims of our socio-religious traditions. They are the beneficiaries. They are not a socially exploited and humiliated lot like the Chamars, and the Mushars. Some of them may be poor, but so are upper caste ‘Kshatriyas’, and ‘Brahmins’ who have to toil as hard for their livelihood. These people can only complain that they were looked down upon because they were into making money. That can never change in India. A saint and sanyasin will always be looked up to, and a sahukaar and money lender will be looked down upon since money making and moksha are opposite ends of our social continuam. You give up the lust for money and power to become pujya. An unjust kshatriya, and a morally depraved brahmin is not respected either.
And what caste based social injustice are we talking about? India was ruled by Muslims and Christians for one thousand years. Even before them, Buddhism, that was anti-thetical to Manuvaad, ruled the roost and the upper castes were particularly targeted for humiliation and marginalization in that period.
Get ready for a downslide in all spheres of life now. If you think that the stock market boom is going to last for the next few years, be forewarned, and book your profits. There is going to be a lot of turmoil around us in days to come. Gross injustice of this nature will certainly set off a kind of chain reaction that will spread the sense of hopelessness among people resulting in serious social strife.Nobody can stop the logical journey of the politics of ‘quotas’ and ‘reservations’ now. Fuelled and propelled by short-term electoral objectives, it is going to move like a juggernaut, smashing, destroying, and creating a permanent divide and turmoil in the Hindu body politic. Here is what will happen in days to come.
1. More than 90% seats in education beyond the reach of ECC.You have to look at these emerging scenarios from the perspective of an upper caste teenager, job seeker, and politician to feel their sense of horror and absolute despair. Cornered and hounded like this, they will have no option but to kill or get killed to save their honour and life. The smart ass OBC thinkers and idealogues of today must understand this. They must not stretch things beyond a limit. It will invite disaster.
The reserved quota in educational institutions will not be confined to fifty percent cap. The Tamilnadu blueprint will be repeated all over the country. Millions of young people will be denied education since OBCs, STs, and SCs will be free to compete for non-quota seats as well. This would mean leaving a meagre five to ten percent seats for upper caste and casteless students.2. Next step - 90% private sector jobs will be out of the reach of ECC
There will soon be a demand for caste-based reservations in private sector jobs, the judiciary, the armed forces, and the administrative services. Such reservations for SCs and STs are being contemplated for a long time now. Meira Kumar, the minister of social justice and empowerment, has already made important legislative and administrative moves. The scope will be expanded to include OBCs as well. More than fifty percent jobs will be reserved officially. Belonging to certain castes and tribes will be the most important criterion and qualification for appointments to these jobs. Here again, the meritorious SC, ST, and OBC job seekers will be free to compete for the general category jobs. Upper caste youth will have very few jobs available to them, including the lowliest of low ones like a peon's, and general housekeeping.3. 100% seats in elected bodies for the OBC, SC, & ST candidates, leading to total disenfranchisement of the ECC
The next logical and certain step will be the reservation of seats in the elected bodies for the OBCs. Fifty percent of the seats in the Parliament, Legislative Assemblies, Panchayats, Municipal Councils, and other elected bodies in the country will fall under the reserved quota. It will be done in spite of the fact that more than 50 percent of our elected representatives are already OBCs. Such reservation may even take the number of OBCs, STs, & SCs in our elected bodies to 100 percent since these castes will be free to contest the seats in unreserved (general) category as well. It would effectively block the entry of the ECC politicians in our elected bodies. What is it if not their total disenfranchisement and exclusion from the democratic process? One is not talking through one's hat here. It has already happened in Tamilnadu. You rarely come across an ECC legislature in Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly.
The Mandal report had always existed. None made use of it, including the OBC politicians. They were aware of the fact that it would be immoral and wrong to use the vote bank politics beyond a point. They feared God and cared for the national interest. They also knew that keeping the Hindu body politic together was critical for the unity and integrity of our nation. That is why they did not push the envelope far. They knew it was a dangerous course and it must be avoided. The OBC lobby’s demands to implement the Mandal report were always muted till V.P. Singh decided to play this card as a desperate move to catapult himself as the champion of the downtrodden. He was calculating votes and evolving new caste and community equations to create and consolidate an electoral base that would help him stay in power forever. The smart-alecky idiot is nowhere on the political scene today. However, he talks proudly of what he has done. He sees himself as the ‘Mandal Messiah’, probably hoping to be propped up yet again as the Prime Minister of India by ‘Mandal’ politicians.
Now, if anyone in this country thinks that things will remain hunky-dory in spite of the denial of survival opportunities to millions of youth who were born in upper caste families by the quirk of fate, he or she is mistaken. Injustice of this kind will ultimately lead to repercussions, bloodier and gorier than what happens in communal riots.The myopic super-idiots in the media can only talk about IIMs and IITs and how their image will be affected by such reservations. Let them be reminded of the hell faced by the Brahmins of Tamilnadu who had to migrate to other states of India to get educated and employed. They could do nothing about it as they were a miniscule minority. But they had an option to go to the universities and the colleges in the north. That option will not be available to the new victims of the 'caste quota politics'.It will divide the nation, states, districts, tehseels, cities, towns, kasbhas, villages, the judiciary, the armed forces, the law and order machinery, and the civil administration into self-serving caste camps. It will kill the high ideals enshrined in the Constitution.
Where do you think the poor upper caste kids of small cities and villages of the north, central, and western India will go now for education and employment? They certainly cannot afford to go to the US and UK. Even Bollywood’s Amitabh Bachhan cannot migrate to Hollywood like that. But of course they can be self-employed and sell Paav Vadas on Mumbai’s streets. They can become actors. They can do so many things. They can become civil contractors, dependent on the whims and fancies and corrupt demands of ST, SC, and OBC Babus for their bread and butter. Sure. Why not? They can also get into contract killings, and gun running, and kidnappings.
What if they chose not to go for these options and decided to dig in and fight now? They are not a numerically insignificant lot like the poor and destitute Tamil Brahmins. I can see a lot of blood letting in university campuses, colleges, and schools across the nation, in big cities as well as small Kasbahs. If and when this fire breaks out, it cannot be doused by the army and the police force. Lathis, tear gas, and bullets will not work. And it won't certainly be confined to useless and sophisticated SMS protests and candle burning at India Gate. It will be a real thing.
The script of an internecine civil war is being written by the likes of Arjun Singh. Wait and watch. Vote bank politics is coming to the point of a volcanic eruption. The nucleus of our polity is under attack. And if it breaks, an uncontrollable chain reaction will follow and its destructive energy will engulf all. Ratan Tata can see that. He did not talk about merit not being rewarded in his media remarks over the caste based reservation issue. He said it would create a dangerous social divide. He is right. He certainly has a stake in India incorporated. He loves his country and would not like to see it burning.However, Arjun Singh and other politicians are not concerned about it. They are working hard at combining fake social engineering concerns with vote bank management in the name of social justice.
Let everyone understand and let it be repeated that no injustice has been done to the so-called OBCs in this country. They have neither suffered political and economic exploitation nor social humiliation at the hands of the upper castes. They are the beneficiaries of the caste system and not its victims, as we are being made to believe.The key to India’s destruction lies in dividing the Hindus. Ironically, it is some of the Hindus who, with their narrow political aims and objectives, always initiate the processes that culminate in the subjugation of the whole race. Hindu history is replete with such examples of self-destructive behaviour. It seems that history is about to repeat itself yet again.
They have even been the exploiting class in numerous ways. For instance, the Bania in my village always shortchanged and cheated us whenever we went to him with a few hundred grammes of wheat, kids collect it in the fields during the harvesting season, to have it exchanged for some cheap lozenges.None cribbed when quotas were created for the SCs and the STs because they were the true sufferers and victims of our tradition. They deserved our sympathies and support. Applying the same yardstick to earmark quotas for the OBCs in education and jobs is a travesty of the social justice principle.
Other related articles:-
Take quota stir to grass roots now
Say no to the very principle of caste based quotas
Stop the Reservation Drama
Sukla Sen on the Reservation Imbroglio & the Khullamkhulla rejoinder
Rajeev Kalelkar's letter to the Editor and its reply
