Reservations regarding reservation

The Kandhamal riot investigation has finally concluded that at least a lakh of people of the area can be included in the list of the accused. The police find that these numbers are too high and so they want to charge only a few hundred key instigators in the case. I wonder what the justice system is coming to but that’s not the point I want to make in this instance. This time it has more to do with the root cause of riots and the key to success of divisive forces.

Intellectuals say the clash in Kandhamal was just a fight between haves and have-nots.
“It is no more confined to a communal clash,” said Prof B Pathak, sociology professor of Utkal University.

Kandhas and Panas are the principal inhabitants of Kandhamal district which has a population of about 6.5 lakh. While most of the Kandhas are Hindus, many Panas are SCs who converted to Christianity. Nearly 60 per cent of the Kandhamal populations are Kandhas. After Christian missionaries came into the district, a lot of Pana SCs, who had not seen civilisation, came in contact with them. Later, they embraced Christianity. After getting education, many of them became successful in their lives and held top posts in bureaucracy and politics, etc.

The trouble started when those locals who converted to Christianity started demanding reservation status and tribal rights as enjoyed by Kandhas. This was vehemently opposed by the Kandhas.

There are so many issues here:

Conversion :
- Is conversion a problem?
- Why would anyone convert if they didn’t see any benefit in it?
- And if they see a benefit in conversion, why should there be any opposition to it?
- Is it no longer a personal choice?
- Is there such a thing as forced conversion?
- Can one be forced to change one’s belief and religion?
- Christian Missionaries do promote Christianity but at the same time they also do a lot of good for society and for their own people. If a person sees some benefit in opting for that way of life, can we deny him that choice?
- Would it not be better for those who are opposed to conversion, to follow the footsteps of these missionaries and help their own people achieve a better way of life. They would have no reason to look elsewhere in that case.

Reservation
- Is reservation still needed?
- Has it helped improve the social standing of the SCs STs and OBCs?
- If it has helped, then why do we still need reservations for them?
- And if it hasn’t made a difference in 60 years since independence, what makes us think that it will make a difference hereon?
- Is it time to try another approach?

1947 - India obtained Independence.

Dr. Ambedkar was appointed chairman of the drafting committee for Indian Constitution. The Indian constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth..

While providing equality of opportunity for all citizens, the constitution contains special clauses "for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes". Separate constituencies were allocated to Scheduled Castes and Tribes to ensure their political representation for 10 years.(These were subsequently extended for every 10 years through constitutional amendments).

The only question here is: Are reservations in themselves not a form of discrimination?

Would it not be better if we removed the terms SC,ST, OBC, class, caste, tribe, etc. from our constitution? From our language, from our society? Would that not be a better solution than constantly debating the percentage of reservation to be allocated to a certain section of society? Let us not HAVE such sections of society.

What we are doing is the same as the divisive politics of the past few years. We are no better than the VHPs, RSSs or the Raj Thakereys of the world. Discrimination is the root cause of alienation and is at the heart of divisive politics.

There have been instances where, when Raj Thakerey was on his anti-north-indian tirade, that some south-indians said that he is doing the right thing. They felt safe because it was north-indians and not south-indians being targeted. There were Maharashtrians who said that it is right to protest against north-indians and I have heard people say that if you don’t like what we have to say, leave our state. This is also a battle of discrimination; the tug-of-war between the haves and have-nots.

Discrimination (or reservation - both seem to be one and the same) seems to have permeated all levels of society..

And it is not limited to words; it is reflected in our actions. We have discrimination:
- In housing societies when we say people from a certain community cannot live there.
- In housing societies when we say only people from a certain community can live there, others cannot.
- When we don’t allow bachelors to live as tenants (where are the poor people supposed to go if no one rents them a place? They get married simply to be able to rent a house and then we deplore the sorry state of the institution of marriage in our country and the increasing divorce rate. We are the ones responsible for it.).
- When corporate organizations have ‘optional holidays’ based on religion. When we say that a hindu can take leave for diwali and a muslim can take leave for Eid and a Christian can take leave on Christmas, we are further increasing the distance between communities. This is adding to the polarisation of people. Muslims huddling together, hindus huddling together; not understanding each other, becoming suspicious of the other. This was not the case when everyone had an opportunity to celebrate all festivals together.

We used to be a better country. We used to be a better people. Let us try and go back to the time when we lived together as one.

Let us identify the causes of discontent and disharmony and first weed them out of ourselves and then, try to weed them out of society.

Voltaire said - No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Let us not be that snowflake.

Secular Democracy?

It’s Christmas day and instead of hearing about midnight masses, festivities and cheer, we’re hearing about churches being scanned for explosives, terror threats in Goa, tension in Kandhamal, issues of conversion and what have you.

I can understand the security with respect to threats by terrorists but what about the threats to citizens of the country from other citizens within the country? Why do we have a different stance for one and a different stance for the other?

While everyone is condemning the terror threats, why are the same voices silent when Christians in Orissa and for that matter in most ‘communally sensitive’ parts of the country being asked to keep the Christmas celebrations low-key?

Mumbai faced terror from the outside. There are parts of the country living with everyday terror within society. Where are the protestors in that case? Or is it ok for citizens to terrorise other citizens because we’re after all Indians.. and we can do no wrong?

To clarify my stand, this post is not against or in favour of any community. It is simply meant to (as usual) raise a few questions which to my mind need to be addressed.

I am a north Indian, living in Mumbai. I have studied in a wonderful convent school and in a sindhi community run college. I have completed my graduation from a college which was set up by a Parsi and is today being run by the government.

My school was a fantastic Jesuit run institution where we had some of the best teachers who came from all communities. There was (to my mind) no bias for or against any community. We said prayers every morning, sometimes we went to the chapel; we sang the national anthem every day and also said the oath of “India is my country…. ’’. We hoisted the flag on every national holiday. There was no discrimination at any of these institutions based on caste or community.

Those were the days when people didn’t think of who is Hindu, Muslim, Christain or Dalit. We were taught to respect all religions and not believe that one was superior to the other.

What has happened to us now?!! Why do we have these feelings of resentment towards people?

Why do we not protest when Raj Thakerey rants and raves against north-indians? I work with teams of carpenters and regular masons and other labourers and most of them are north-indians. There are hardly any Maharashtrians who want to work on menial labour-oriented jobs. And yet we are willing to throw out these poor labourers who work hard at earning their livelihood instead of squatting and waiting for better work to fall in their laps. They are also better skilled at this kind of work.. but do we appreciate that? We don’t. We force them to live with the terror of being a north-indian in Mumbai or force them to leave.

The Kandhamal incident is the other such example. Did we protest when churches were being burnt and Christians being rendered homeless? Did any of us raise our voice against such grave injustice within the country? We did not; simply because it was happening in some remote location in Orissa and did not affect our lives. Why can we not understand that by ignoring these incidents we are allowing resentment and discontent to breed in our midst? How many of us know the reason behind the Kandhamal violence? We do know that it was related to alleged forced conversions by the Christian community but nothing beyond that.

The point is not why it happened. The point is that the law and order situation in the region was in question and nothing was being done to restore normalcy. A community was (and still is) being forced to live with the terror of being attacked. This is horrifying. And what is worse is that when finally action was taken, it was taken because the leaders (and the people of India) believed that the image of India was taking a beating globally. It simply did not seem to matter to anyone that citizens of the country were being denied justice and were being forced to live in a lawless environment.

Even today, half the country is protesting the legal counsel being provided to the terrorist who has been arrested. People want him hung without trial. The same seems to be the view of most lawyers and the bar council. As has been pointed out, this is a dangerous thing.

We are heading towards anarchy.

I do appreciate citizens involvement in the security situation of the country and I’m thrilled that a lot of us are raising our voices wanting to be heard.. but we must learn to be responsible in this.

Politicians will listen to the people and will follow the mood of the citizenry to get votes. Do we want to send them in the direction of war and lawlessness? We must stop and think about this.


-It’s not the decision you face, it’s the choice you make.

We have a choice..

Just today I was watching the show ‘We the People’ in which a participant read out a line which stated that:

“There is no office higher than that of being a Citizen”

A very relevant idea in the current scenario. This comment was made in the midst of a debate where it was pointed out that no matter how angry the ordinary citizen may feel, he cannot bring about change; that is what we appoint politicians to do. It’s their job to run the country. That is what we pay taxes for!!

Well, we all know it’s their job, but if they don’t do their job right, what do we do?!

Can we, as citizens, wash our hands off this? And if we do, who is the ultimate loser? It’s, again, the common man. So it’s time we wake up to the fact that we all have a responsibility towards ourselves and towards our country. This is not the time to ask what the country does for you but what is it that you can do for the country.

It has been encouraging, at this time, to see people coming together and raising their voice against the apathy of the bureaucracy and the political leadership, demanding a secure life and greater accountability from the system.

But what about us; what about the common man, the ordinary citizen of the country?!! What are we doing to bring about the change?

The attack on Mumbai has shaken up people, and the ordinary man, who earlier wanted to stay away from politics, is now actively following the goings-on in parliament. The youth is discussing politics, even to the extent of joining in and making a difference. People are taking the government and the armed forces more seriously; faith in the police has been restored to some extent. This is very important for the functioning for the state. People want to pay taxes and contribute to the nation. Politicians are now thinking twice before making any comments which may back-fire on them. The scene in parliament has changed completely; where earlier there was chaos and walkouts being staged, now there is debate and discussion and the government and the opposition are at least putting up a united front to the world. This is all a result of the citizens’ movements who have come together and made demands for the change.

The country-wide protests did make a difference, but the fervour is slowly dying down, the voices are getting subdued, the daily routine is taking over and we’re starting to forget. This is natural. One cannot march in protest every week. That too will stop being effective if it becomes commonplace. Anger is a tool to be used wisely.

So what do we do if we don’t protest? What else will make a difference? What else will bring about change?

Again I must quote the oft-repeated words of Gandhi:

“You must become the change you wish to see in the world”.

And why not..

The change needed is not only in the political system but in the social system as well.

Today we as citizens must resolve that we will do everything in our power to bring about a positive difference in our everyday lives.

It’s so simple and yet so complicated.

* It’s about the choice between paying the fine and bribing the traffic policeman – Choose to pay the fine.
* Choosing between voting and not being bothered – Choose to vote.
* Choosing between paying tax or evading tax – Choose to pay tax.
* Choosing between stopping at a red light or running through – Choose to stop.
* Choosing between buying your gadgets from the grey market or from legitimate sources – Choose the legitimate source.
* Choosing to buy an official railway ticket or bribing the TC – Choose to book it officially.
* Choosing to reach the airport in time for efficient security checks or sending the last couple of mails – Choose to reach on time.
* Choosing to be quiet in the face of divisive forces or speaking your mind – choose to speak your mind.

Finally, it’s the choice between right and wrong – choose the right.

Like I said, it’s simple, yet so complicated. It’s about a struggle every minute of every day to exercise your mind and do what is right instead of giving in to conditioned responses. Stop and think – and then do what you feel is right.

I recently received an sms which is about personal freedom. It goes thus, “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the majority. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes afraid; but no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself”. Similarly, no price is too high to pay for doing what is right, even if you are alone in that and if the majority is against you.

This is what I hope, we the citizens of the country, can imbibe in ourselves and in our children to bring about the change that we all hope to see.

-"It’s not the decision you face, it’s the choice you make. "

Why i blog..

Well.. I have a confession to make here.

There was a time, not so long ago, when i used to wonder why people blog. What purpose does it serve? and of course, how do they find the time?!!

It all changed after 26/11. I felt a need to make a difference.. to start thinking and talking about issues that matter and that's why my blog is titled.. 'this is what i think'..

It's not meant to be a monologue and is definitely not meant to impose my views on anyone. It's a means for me to put my thoughts down and analyse them. I know I can do that using pen and paper but then i wouldn't be getting any feedback. I wouldn't get any reaction telling me whether i'm right or whether there can be another perspective to my views.

So here goes..