The Congress is back with another bang to divide India!this time it is 4.5 % reservation in education for the muslims.Hurray! Though intitally I was upset with this news of religious reservation, after a little reserach I am now happy that this is the start to remove reservations completely from Indian educaction.
Let us see how reservation really works. In pre-IndependenceBritish Raj, the Scehduled tribes (ST) or the people who lived in the hills had absoluely no access to the civilizational updates happening in the country and were completely cut-off. The Madras Presidency was the first to introduce reservations at certain levels for them.
This was followed by the 15 % resrevation for the SC's and the 7.5 % resrevation for the ST's commensurate with their population. This was supposed to be for a limited period of 5 years and reviewed after that. The real big thing that chnaged the scenario of reservationswas the mandal commission's recommendations - 27 % for the OBC (Other backward classes), mind you it is not Other Backward castes as many think.
The set of perople who came to known as Forward castes really bore the brunt of this and went unnoticed. As years passed the voices of creamy layer came became louder among a few educationists. The creamy layer concept excludes all those whose family income is more than a certain limit from the purview of reservations. This is with the assumption that these few can afford to spend more on their children's education and are not first generation education seekers. True to say why should the govt resreve seats for those whose parents are alreadywell educated and are in the mainsteram of India now. But the NOOOOOOOOOOOO voice grew much louder than these prestigious educationists. The creamy layer never became a reality and it is a shame to see that the rich better part of OBC's hijack the seat meant for their poorer counterparts.
It is always the general category which requests the iclusion of the creamy layer. Unfortunately the entire community which comes under the resreved category oppose it not knowing that it is they themselves that are getting affected. The poor from the reserved category never understand that having creamy layer is a boon to them and not to the general category. Without the creamy layer concept, the rich and the beneficial from the same community takes away the seat meant to the others who are also from the same community though he/she is the person in need of this quota. All the members of a community 'X' become happy when they fall under the reserved category and become even happier when the creamy layer is excluded. They always feel quota is a fight between the reserved Vs general category. No one goes a step further and finds out the actual truth that sans creamy layer it is a fight amongst the community.
Right now reservation stands at 50.5 % in all states with the exception being Tamilandu which has 69% reservation. The latest proposal by UPA to provide a sub quotua of 4.5 % to muslims within the 27 % OBC quota will provide the first step toward abolishing quotas altogether as the OBC's already have started getting some dicontent as they will be losing some of their seats to their muslim brothers. This new political gimmick will go a long way in dividing India based on different religions/castes before the final enlightenment happens some day (abolishing all quotas).
Until then Happy dividing India !!!!...Jai H | I | N | D (Divided Hind)
