Jat agitation for demanding reservation under the OBC category is baseless, preposterous and unconstitutional. At the same time, it is a logical derivation from the government’s policies right from the implementation of caste based reservation of 1951. On one hand, demands of Jat community is a mockery of the basic right to equality but on the other they are just an echo of the voice of bodies governing us.
A thing that was to be in effect for ten years has now become a nightmare for the entire nation. It has been toyed with for vote banks, held government hostage to violence and protests of various castes, tempered with for easy jobs, brought in inefficiency in the entire structure, propagated the caste differences and brought resentment to majority of the nation. Where is the real advantage of reservation, when the only thing it has “improved” is the 90% increase in backward communities count since 1991’s Mandal report?
“I dislike any kind of reservation, more particularly in service…the moment we encourage the second-rate, we are lost”, Mr. Nehru’s words find little support in the doing of his party that has ruled the country for a major part of post-independence era. The Gujjar violence in 2008 and now the Jat agitation can just be the stir before the storm that is bound to envelope the entire nation in time to come.
The demands of the Jat community are, in a way, a slap on the government’s face. Simply put, it asks the government to roll back the entire quota based regime or alternatively include the “getting backward” community of Jat in OBC category. Given how the country has functioned in recent times, use of force seemed only viable way to bring the government down to its knees to heed to their demands.
The problem here is not the re-routed trains and the unrest it created in northern India, the problem here is government’s failure to justify its policies and contain the discontent they have had spread. Reservation certainly has not proved to be the solution but a problem most definitely. Why not have 10 years without any caste based reservations this time around and see how things turn out? Why not help the poor and those in genuine need this time around for seeding the greater good of the country.
India is flocked with numerous castes and differences. The government cannot appease them all but it has a liability to do the right thing, which should be preserving the basic rights of the constitution first. It will require courage, firmness and determination – a challenge more than no other issue in India can probably pose. But then, doing the right thing is never easy, it is just worth every bit of fight put and every bit of sacrifice made.
