May 31, 2006

am waiting for some action to be taken!!!

Arjun has no sympathy for OBCs: He is playing crass politics via www.samachar.com

Different Backward Class Commissions have given varying figures. The latest figures claim 52 percent of India’s population as being OBC. It was spread among 3743 different castes. Putting them all together in one OBC category is ridiculous. The powerful Yadavas have hogged most of the reservation benefits for OBCs.

Even among Dalits the powerful Chamars have done likewise. Dividing OBCs into Most Backward Castes (MBC) and Extreme Backward Castes (EBC) does not help. There are too many castes to ensure equitable reservation, on a caste basis, for all the castes.

What is the objection to well defined economic and social criteria to determine reservation? Only one objection comes to mind. Pro-reservationists might claim this would result in partial selection because of forward caste bias.

There is a simple solution to this. Let all selection boards have reservation. Ninety percent of board members could be Dalit, OBC and Minority. That would allow affirmative action without accentuating caste in society.

To establish a genuine level playing field would require compulsory standardized government-run neighborhood schools throughout the nation. Even if the entire budget outlay for education were spent on implementing this the results would justify the investment.

Other ideas to ensure effective affirmative action for circumventing caste could be considered, but it would be pointless. It is the politics of caste that motivates politicians to support caste-based reservation.


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