While the founding fathers of the Constitution brought in the concept of reservation for a limited period with the noble motive of uplifting those who were discriminated against, thereby providing equality of opportunity (“ >The politics of quota and merit ,” April 18), subsequently, politicians watered it down as a means to win elections. The proof of this comes in the form of even more castes and communities clamouring to be classified as BC/SC/ST/minorities. Therefore, the two major national parties must initiate an honest and bold discussion on whether existing reservation policies have been able to achieve their intended purpose. The time has come to revamp the reservation system.
B. Harish,
New Delhi
The issue of caste-based reservation is a complex whole of political, social, and economic components. The policy needs to be revisited by a reservation reorganisation committee. There should be regional and situational analyses of the economic, social, cultural and historical situations which demand reservation or dereservation of a caste. The new government must consider this.
Divyank Singh,
Bhopal
With the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes being beneficiaries of the reservation system, would they want to become “forward” just to lose it all? If an aggregate of 40 per cent marks can ensure a seat in a prestigious college, where or what is the motivation to do anything better?
P. Sundararajan,
Ottawa
Undoubtedly, the concept of egalitarianism is distorted by caste-based reservation for government jobs and other benefits that are ensured by political parties. Caste-linked reservation for admission into educational institutions, especially for professional courses, which erodes basic educational qualifications, may result in the system being overrun by mediocre professionals. While there is a need to uplift the downtrodden, equally, there must be a curb on the way political parties deceive the people by eyeing the huge vote-banks of various castes/communities/religion.
Thomas K.M. ,
Muvattupuzha, Kerala
The writer has asked two fundamental and introspective questions. Is it equality of opportunity that we are striving for, or are we honest about wanting to rid our society of the caste system? From a political point of view, the answers are no. The fact is that the reservation system has been manipulated each time by political parties.
Ujjawal Kumar,
Tumkur
Instead of imposing an arbitrary time-limit for the quota system to end, it would be more sensible to introduce a “self-destruct clause” in it, whereby all families who have benefited from the system and have come into the mainstream through social and economic advancement are excluded from the benefits of quotas. A stark fact of our society is that there are many elite families even among Dalits who get all the benefits of the quota system, depriving the more deserving poor in their own communities.
M.V. Nadkarni,
Bangalore
Why can’t we segregate the genuinely needy lower classes of society from the ones who have already established themselves? Right now, we are just creating a new generation of uneducated and unemployed youth. Why not have a fixed timeline for each family which will indicate how long the government will continue supporting them? Why not have a caste system based on economic status?
Joydeep Bhattacharjee,
Bangalore
