Reservation….

Reservation was first adopted in constitution of India for the period of 5 years for social upliftment of socially backward classes, which have lesser representation in various services and institutions of India. But as we have moved forward, ‘Reservation’ has acquired a meaning which extensively differs from the idea for which this term was coined. Nowadays reservation has been a much used term in the Political Manifesto of most of the Parties and has been a major card to win vote banks during elections. And at the moment, we are at a stage when reservation has almost crossed the halfway mark and is resulting in reverse discrimination. I would like to point out two examples of reservation which will surely highlight many flaws of Reservations.

(a)    Since most of the reservations are based on caste in India, It results in discrimination against the meritorious students/candidates. For an instance, if a General and a SC candidate get selected as DC of District after clearing IAS exam. And they start their livelihood from scratch. No wonder that both the DC would earn the same and their children would get exactly similar facilities in life. Yet at the time of Admission in Educational Institutes and selection in Government Jobs, son of the SC will get reservation any would bypass the General’s son even if he had scored less than the latter. It doesn’t end here, a reserved employee will get promotions and bypass unreserved employee not on the basis of performance but on the basis of the family/caste he has taken birth in.

(b)   Similarly there was much furore about the Women Reservation Bill and was in the pipeline since the Idea was proposed by then PM PV Narsimah Rao around 14 years ago. And after years long struggle, on Women’s day the bill was passed which would reserve one-third of the seats in Constituency on rotational basis for the period of fifteen years. Only thing that has impressed me about the tabling of the bill and later on its acceptance in the higher house is the way the house has passed it and the MPs has voted beyond the party lines. It seems like the advent of an Era where Policy making has scaled the walls of Party politics and vote to bring a change and for the development and progress of country be it Vote of no confidence motion during nuke deal or Women Reservation bill. But in later case i.e. for Women Reservation bill we have surely missed a proper argument in absence of any opposition by major parties, the only opposition for the bill we had, was from a bunch of leaders trying to win muslim vote banks who were asking to have Quota within the Quota. But, on overlooking this hairline ray of light of better polity in India, we’ll come across the various flaws that this reservation has in it. Firstly, since the reservation of the seats is to be done on rotational basis for the period of 15 years, this will make the MPs or MLAs from the respective constituency less accountable. If we have a male MP for one term and in the following term the said constituency would be reserved for a woman, that MP is not gonna reelected irrespective of the work he has done. Similarly this problem will give rise to dynasty politics as MPs may get their female family members contesting from the reserved constituency.

Above all if it is taken as a step to empower the women in India, I don’t find it that way. As, politics is not a one on one bout in a boxing ring, in which we need same gender contesting against each other. In fact by reserving the seats particularly for females we are sidelining them from male contenders and I don’t think that any female would feel proud to defeat a weak female contender instead of a relatively strong male contender. Why do we need a law for a thing which can be imposed/done by principles? Each party is independent to stand as many women as they want, then why mere 33 % when they can have 100% women contesting the elections. Same is the questions for the Leaders who are asking for reservation for Dalits/SC, if they want to uplift certain cast give them the tickets. I believe that all we need is better leaders/politician irrespective of their sex/cast/community. I would be happier than any one if we have all our MPs women if they are better leaders than the competing men. Jai Hind!!!