Reservation Debate

Below is my mail to Prof Yogendra Yadav of DU..i really appreciate the conversations we have.


Hi Sir,

I would like to touch upon this subject we have been discussing again, in the the aftermath of the court's descision.

I have mixed feelings with the judgement of the Honourable Supreme Court, on one hand am happy that i
t has simulated a chance to discuss the effectiveness of reservations,
questioned the validity of the data used to distribute the previlages and
also held that these can not be continued for ever and people can not be allowed to clamour and compete to be be labelled backkword.
But i am also feeling ashamed that the judiciary has to cross its limits to show light to the Legislature and the Executive. The continious inability of the legislature as well as the executive to bring in a coordinated and effective process to alieveate the prevailing situations is the real reason i think.

I went back to the question as to why people like me oppose reservations, well i think most of us do not object to them PER SE ...... we are not totally against any kind of social justice but the following should be considered:
One form of extremism does not justify another form of extremism, i mean an allegation that Bhramins have held the socirty to rule for hundreds of years as an argument does not give the rest of the castes to repeat the same mistakes.
I find the observations by Mt chandrbhan very inetresting that the so called OBC's are more responsible for the repression of SC and ST's. This aspect should also be debated and taken into consideration.
and finally I DO SUPPORT THE SOCIAL INDEX based affirmative action, which should take into consideration other parameters apart form caste , such as economic condition, the accesibility of education, rural and urban phenomenons etc.
W eprobably need a middle path on this, as its not right that the political parties tread teh path to vote bank politics and the real needy still remains largely untouched by reform process.
I oppose this reservation still in its current format, but i support the format suggested by Prof Deshpande and you.
But i still do not understand why your voices are not so loud agianst the current format. I appreciate that you have proposed a different index based format as opposed to the current one.
I do not intend to argue, i belibe you and I have had a very nice subjective discussion on the above topic .....and I remain grateful to you for taking time to reply to my mails.

Cheers
Kartik