Over the last week thousands of protesters belonging to a certain Gujjar community have camped themselves- lock, stock and barrel on the railway tracks in Rajasthan holding India's economy and peace at ransom. Latest reports suggest that the Indian Army has laid a siege on the protesters from both sides and cut off their food supply lines and communication links. This type of strong action is usually associated with a war but here the "enemies" thet the Indian Army is fighting against are Indian citizens themselves. A shameful day for India indeed!
What forced the Army to take such a tough stand? People who say that after all it is just one railway line that the protesters are blocking do not realise the socio-economic implications of this move. The blockade has forced dozens of trains on the busy Mumbai-Delhi trunk route cancelled every day and effectively left tens of thousands of travellers in the peak holiday season in the lurch. But this is not the major problem. This railway line sees a heavy traffic of an average of thirty container freight trains per day which carry a major chunk of India's imports from JNPT in Mumbai to Tughlaqabad depot in Delhi from where it is distributed all over India and in the other direction bring a huge percentage of India's foreign exports to JNPT to be loaded into waiting container ships for their trans-oceanic journey. Blocking this link is in effect blocking India's economic aorta.
More than the way of protest, what is interesting is the reason for protest- the Gujjars supposedly want a Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for themselves. Now, why on earth would someone want oneself to be declared "Backward"? If you are in India, there are more reasons than one. The host of undue advantages that the SC/STs get thanks to the votebank-oriented myopic caste-based reservation policy of the dungheaded Indian Government makes it very lucrative to be a SC/ST. Ironically, the reservation policy which the dumb pigs sitting in Parlaiment House justified as "a means to bring the Backwards Class into the mainstream" is encouraging more and more people to count themselves as "Backward Class". And if the Government budges in this case and gives in to the demands, starting tomorrow we will have any Tom, Dick and Harry going out on the streets, uprooting railway tracks and refusing to move unless their caste is also declared as SC/ST/OBC. Then what next? Declare the entire population of India as SC/ST?
The solution to this problem can be arrived at only by cancelling all caste/creed/religion based reservations that have been introduced year after year by creepy chair-loving vote-begging politicians; but the question is- who will bring about this reform? In the present state of anarchy that India is going through, the need is ripe for a strongly nationalist Leader who can mobilise the masses, take a few tough decisions if required, inject a feeling of strong patroitism and nation-building among the citizens and possess a charisma which would make the whole nation look upon him with trust and respect. Has there ever been such a leader in the past? Yes, you guessed it right- Hitler.
What forced the Army to take such a tough stand? People who say that after all it is just one railway line that the protesters are blocking do not realise the socio-economic implications of this move. The blockade has forced dozens of trains on the busy Mumbai-Delhi trunk route cancelled every day and effectively left tens of thousands of travellers in the peak holiday season in the lurch. But this is not the major problem. This railway line sees a heavy traffic of an average of thirty container freight trains per day which carry a major chunk of India's imports from JNPT in Mumbai to Tughlaqabad depot in Delhi from where it is distributed all over India and in the other direction bring a huge percentage of India's foreign exports to JNPT to be loaded into waiting container ships for their trans-oceanic journey. Blocking this link is in effect blocking India's economic aorta.
More than the way of protest, what is interesting is the reason for protest- the Gujjars supposedly want a Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for themselves. Now, why on earth would someone want oneself to be declared "Backward"? If you are in India, there are more reasons than one. The host of undue advantages that the SC/STs get thanks to the votebank-oriented myopic caste-based reservation policy of the dungheaded Indian Government makes it very lucrative to be a SC/ST. Ironically, the reservation policy which the dumb pigs sitting in Parlaiment House justified as "a means to bring the Backwards Class into the mainstream" is encouraging more and more people to count themselves as "Backward Class". And if the Government budges in this case and gives in to the demands, starting tomorrow we will have any Tom, Dick and Harry going out on the streets, uprooting railway tracks and refusing to move unless their caste is also declared as SC/ST/OBC. Then what next? Declare the entire population of India as SC/ST?
The solution to this problem can be arrived at only by cancelling all caste/creed/religion based reservations that have been introduced year after year by creepy chair-loving vote-begging politicians; but the question is- who will bring about this reform? In the present state of anarchy that India is going through, the need is ripe for a strongly nationalist Leader who can mobilise the masses, take a few tough decisions if required, inject a feeling of strong patroitism and nation-building among the citizens and possess a charisma which would make the whole nation look upon him with trust and respect. Has there ever been such a leader in the past? Yes, you guessed it right- Hitler.
Unless until middle class and upper class citizens come out to vote, this will be the situation. We citizens are the root cause of this. Get out and vote for the better leaders and these ppl will not have any favourism towards any caste, community or creed.
ReplyDeleteYour concerns are foresighted and extremely relevant. But the political system in our country has been such, that there is no immediate remedy in sight. The reservations were, in the original draft of the constitution, intended to stay for only 10 years, to uplift the so-called "lower castes". Clearly, the reservations have miserably failed to achieve their primary objective, let alone doing so in 10 years.Now, the reservations have been effectively used to generate communal vote banks by the ever opportunist politicians(not all). The primary reason for good, sensible people not reaching the chair is that the country has been fragmented on communal grounds. Now, if ST status is granted to the Gujjars, this will pave the way for further such demonstrations. Moreover, had their protests been peaceful, they'd have been worth a second thought. These people are adamant and are showing total disrespect of the administrative setup of the country. To sum it up, this is the consequence of a long term failure of the policy of reservations and it will take an equal, maybe more, chunk of time to solve this problem if ever we have a prolonged sensible governance. Personally, I feel BJP is the party which is least communal in its outlook and doesn't stoop so low as to do whatever it takes to fragment the society for the sake of vote banks.
ReplyDeleteHey that very true..
ReplyDeleteIt really gets frustrating when u come across this topic of reservations..but cant do much about it...
Must say very apt title given.. Every open category Indian will say that in coming years..
The situation ,division of society on the basis of caste whcih we are facing now is the consequence of the UPA (or it is more right to say congress)rule which conspicuously waves the communal banner wherever it goes out begging for the votes..yeah,begging!!! because it just gives in to the peoples demands rather than holding its ideology...its the congress who thrives on the minority vote bank .this is very much visible after the recent loses it suffered in most of the states where its 'divide n rule' policy failed...and speaking of the SC/ST,its again during the rule of the congress that the privileges for the backward caste increased(were the already existing benefits not enough?)and the person ,our respected PM ,or should i say a 'puppet',who should set an example for people pursuing higher education,crushed the dreams of many who would otherwise stand a chance of getting into the premier institutions.the only solution which i perceive is that the 'middle class should vote in large numbers' like many minority castes do..this can only be the reason which will shift the focus from the so called backward class to the hard-working middle class whose contribution towards India's growth story is worth appreciating....
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeletePartly true but again it boils down to the point I raised- do we have a leader whom the middle class trusts and who can unite the middle class to make a difference? The hard working middle class is rational thinking and would vote only if there is an apt candidate.. in the absence of one, the present lot will continue to thrive on votebank politics by marginalising the illiterate section of society on the basis of religion/caste/creed
@ Anubhav
ReplyDeleteWe all know very well for what reasons are the reservations being introduced today by the so-called "secular" UPA Government.. India has never seen bigger hypocritres than these..
And the biggest irony is that despite everbody saying that caste based reservations are bad, nobody came out to support when Youth For Equality (of which I was a part too) protested against the proposal to introduce 27% reservation in IIT/IIMs. Now I feel it was our "mistake" that time that we chose the democratic way to protest. We should have burnt a few buses, uprooted railway tracks and then maybe the Govt would have woken up from its slumber.. or maybe not...
@ Prajakta
ReplyDeleteNice to see you dropping by for the first time.. do continue the interaction in the future too.
And yes, caste based reservations are frustrating but more frustrating is the "what can I do" attitude of majority of the educated people. As I mentioned earlier, when the process had started to nip this reservation bug in the bud, nobody came out to support- just imagine if the educated people of India would have come out on the streets in as large number as the Gujjars are doing today, would the Govt gone away scot free and implemented the policy?
@ Partik
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail at the right spot with that one!
The Congress Govt which claims itself to be "secular" is indulging in more caste based votebank appeasement than the BJP whom these people call "Hinduvadi".. BJP is better than Congress because atleast they are open about the fact that they support Hindutva unlike the Congress which on one hand calls itself secular and on the other hand keeps on giving sops and undue privileges to minority communities (or should I say a particular community).. the best example is the recent announcement of Rs 330 crore relief package for Godhra riot victims of minority community... and what about relief for Sabaramati Express victims? Simple.. because it is difficult to "buy" Hindu votes by such cheap gimmicks.
@Blue Indian
ReplyDeleteYeah, Yeah, this is the sort of attitude of the middle class that is bringing the country to the dogs. There is no leader whom we can trust so we do not want to vote and sit down at home and brag about the politicians and their stupidity.
India happens to be the only country where there is a mad rush among communities to get the backward status and great leaders(pun intended!!) like Arjun Singh are responsible for it...
ReplyDeleteIts indeed a shame to see our army up in arms against our own countrymen but no community has any right to hold the country to ransom in such a way...the main bone of contention for 'gujjars' is that 'meena' community has been given ST status so they should also get it...
But this is a very long process and the Government has to study lots of laws and take lots of things into consideration before giving a particular community SC/ST status and 'gujjars' should not expect the Government to bypass al these procedures...
And who else but we railfans can understand the implications of the Mumbai-Delhi rail blockade-;)
Very apt title! Some interesting comments too.
ReplyDeleteIMO, there is no leader right now who can change the situation.
Secondly in a newspaper I read about another reason for this demand. There are too many OBCs in Rajasthan now. The OBC quota cut off marks for admission at many places are actually higher than the open category cut offs!
India is the only country where people want to be called "backward"
ReplyDeleteand one more HUGE problem is... our politicians are OLD.
ReplyDeleteTake the case: Mr. Old Fart, with barely five years of govt service left, is put in charge of some important portfolio... the logical thing for Oldie to do is just sit and wear the chair out for five remaining years of his office life, continuing eveything that has been in practice, rather than take some new project up ambitiously and wear his arse out.
Take the case of Mr. Ambitious Youngster, just out of a B school and having some years of experience in a reputed company... put him in the chair instead. He now has power and money in his hands - and will not hesitate to prove his merit, thus benefitting himself and the country.
But who listens to us? Mr. Old Fart will continue to park his bum on the worn out chair while Mr. Ambitious Youngster decides to go abroad.
@Smokin WDM2
ReplyDeleteNo doubt the Mr Old Farts are the biggest threat to India's progress, dont you think the Mr Ambitious Youngster- who studies with Govt subsidy all through his career and the moment the degrees are awarded, flies out of the country to improve Bush-land equally at fault?
Or is it the way to take revenge with the dunghead Govt who doesn't care a damn shit about merit anyways?