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IT has been rightly emphasised in the editorial "Verdict on merit" (13th August) that there is little that could be done to stop mischief-makers from trying to project the Supreme Court verdict on reservations in super speciality medical and engineering courses as an upper caste conspiracy against the Dalits and other underprivileged sections of society.

In fact, our political leaders never rise above party politics. These leaders do not feel concerned about the uplift of the underprivileged sections of society.

Take the case of our education system. Because of the low standard of government schools only the wards of poor families go there. The same thing happens in respect of government hospitals. The mushroom growth of public schools and private hospitals show that our governments are not sincere towards their voters, particularly the economically weaker voters.

Our leaders want only votes on account of the reservation policy, but in return they expect that the voters should not ask for anything. Political parties talk about the development of the downtrodden at the time of elections. After that they forget their poor voters. When these leaders become ministers they feel insulted in shaking their hands with poor voters.

The main objective of the reservation policy was the uplift of the non-privileged people. But the policy has miserably failed at the level of implementation. After 52 years of the implementation of the policy, the people who were supposed to be benefited are still living in their mud houses without meals three times a day. There are a number of poor people who do not have a house to live. But most of our leaders, who started their political career as a simple party worker, have risen to great heights. In fact, these leaders get the real benefit of the reservation policy.

We are human beings. So, no one has a right to give separate identity to any particular class or caste as a "reserved category. Everyone should be treated at par and be given equal opportunity to prove his worth. In order to uplift the economically weaker sections, extra benefits should be given at the basic level so that they do not feel inferior to others.

Varsities as pocket-boroughs

The Tribune has rightly said in one of its editorials that politics has got vitiated to such an extent that no gimmick is considered too dirty as long as it catches a few votes. We feel that by making an announcement about the renaming of Kurukshetra University, Mr Chautala wanted to please the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, for bringing him close to the BJP, which eventually resulted in the formation of his government in Haryana. Secondly, Mr Chautala through this statement wanted to ensure the support of a sizeable number of Sikh voters in Haryana.

But is it morally justified to change the name of the university well known all over the world? Mr Chautala’s action does not surprise intellectuals in the country since such developments have become common. For instance, Ms Mayawati, a former Chief Minister of UP, all of a sudden changed the name of Agra University to Ambedkar University and Mrs Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi, took the first opportunity to appease the Sikh voters by making an announcement that the newly established Indraprastha University would be named as Guru Gobind Singh University in April last.

Should we permit our political leadership to change the names of the universities in this manner? This question needs a deeper look. It is well known that the university system in our country has by and large developed on the pattern of the West, particularly the UK. The universities being the centres of higher learning in the UK have jealously guarded their independent and autonomous character. Despite the fact that the government is the main funding agency, no political party or leader can treat these centres of learning as his/her pocket-borough.

There has never been any attempt to change the name of Oxford or Cambridge, the two universities which are more than 500 years old. Academic activities have remained outside the jurisdiction of active politics. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, followed a similar policy and allowed the university system to develop in its own way. However, after the 1970s the situation started getting worse as state governments found it convenient to use the universities for their political gains.

All this gradually undermined the university autonomy. These centres of higher learning became places of political patronage, etc. Since there has not been much resistance to this increasing political intervention, the political leadership has begun to treat the universities as its pocket-borough. Politicians think that the name can be changed any time for their own political gains. Hence Mr Chautala’s action. But it should be resisted by one and all.

BRIJ GOPAL
Former President, District Bar Association
Kurukshetra

Apropos of Mr L.H. Naqvi's write-up "Sonia's first manifesto" (August 17), the election manifesto of the Congress is a lacklustre document. Mrs Sonia Gandhi's promises held out in the manifesto are not likely to impress the increasingly demanding electorate.

Mrs Gandhi, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty's senior Bahu who has taken up the responsibility of reviving a dying Congress, has failed to see her limitations of language, experience, foreign birth, etc. She talks of taking the Bofors issue in a warlike spirit to the BJP camp. But her so-called advisers have forgotten that the French Sofoma was decidedly a superior gun. Sofoma was a "shoot and scoot" gun while Rajiv Gandhi opted for a "loot and scoot" gun — Bofors.

The Congress still has no organisation in critically important states like UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra after Mr Sharad Pawar floated his own Nationalist Congress Party. The worth of the Congress' alliance with Ms Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu is rather doubtful.

The Congress party's credentials as a pro-poor party have already been tried during its 45-year rule. We see poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, corruption, scams and scandals, all around. Mrs Sonia Gandhi's acceptability as Prime Minister has receded among both her opponents and sympathisers. The days of dynasty have gone for ever.

	M A I L B A G	Wednesday, August 25, 1999
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