Un‘reservedly’ yours

THE Jat reservation stir makes me wonder where we are headed. Why is this country moving backwards when we should be making progress by leaps and bounds? In this day and age, the very fact that we allow the caste system to be prevalent is shameful. As a nation, we are getting divided and crushed by the caste rift and religion. I look around, and people have forgotten that they are Indians first. That’s the ugly truth.

I am working on college admissions for my daughter and every time I fill the forms, it amazes me that more priority is given to what her religion and caste is... whether she is backward. (Shouldn’t it be forward in her thinking?) And then, when I scroll through the ‘quota list’ I realise that the creme de la creme is saved for those who are undeserving of the reservation in the first place. If you do fall in the ‘undeserving’ category, you need to bring your ‘Caste Certificate’. You must know your ‘category-I/category-II (A) /category-Il (B)/category-III (A)/category-III (B)/Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and corresponding religion’ and carry along the required certificates. Are we not ashamed that we allow this to continue?

How about asking the child what he/she likes…their interests, their thoughts, their goals? Are these not important? Now woe be tide if you are ‘category less’. So, how does a child who falls in the ‘ordinary’ citizen category cope with it? Why doesn’t this country understand that we are all equal and we must be treated as equals and healthy competition is a must in order for the deserving to get what is rightfully theirs?

If I say: I am quota-less and if I say I am from the North and not the East, and if I say I am just an Indian citizen, there is no place for me! Because of our colonial past and pre-historic caste system, we have perennial problems. We have allowed various sects to be lazy and directionless. They have no reason to study or work as everything comes easy to them, all served on a platter. They walk into educational institutions, work in organisations and lap up the best seats and posts, even if they are the most undeserving candidate. It’s time to stop this rot.

There is no accountability in this country. Everyone has a free run. You can start a riot, damage property, burn buses/cars/homes… You can hold the people of this country to ransom while our politicians look on and the cops turn a blind eye. Unfortunately, none of our ‘leaders’ have a vision.  They don’t think ahead, it is only short-term planning for the time they are in power. 

Thank heavens for the armed forces who have no quota system and no reservations and think of themselves as Indians first and their love for their nation and its protection takes precedence at all times. But then we are a cursed lot for we are looked down upon for holding on to our values and morals.

It is time to put our foot down and not support those that fight for misplaced notions and backward ideologies. Like my daughter put it succinctly: “Shouldn’t these people be studying instead of asking for reservation?”