With reference to the Patel's agitation for quota being led by Hardik Patel in Gujarat, he might be young and politically inexperienced, but his demand - either free the country from reservation or make everyone its slave - is unexceptionable.
Introduced in the 1950 as a temporary provision for 10 years for the uplift of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), reservations have been perpetuated and their ambit widened to include communities under Other Backward Classes (OBC). However the benefits of reservation have been cornered mostly by affluent sections of SC, ST and OBC communities. This has led to a vertical division in society, merit getting buried and a feeling of discrimination among the poor belonging to reserved communities as well as those from communities not entitled to any quota. Little wonder then that communities like the Patels, who do not come under any quota category, are clamouring for inclusion in the list of OBCs.
The implementation of the quota policy in its present form has neither uplifted oppressed communities nor eliminated caste bias against them. What has happened is that the policy has been milked dry by politicians. It is high time we took a close, honest look at this farce, lest it turns into a bomb that explodes at intervals.
V Jayaraman Oregon
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