“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing”- Albert Einstein.

The History of Reservations:

Caste Based Reservation in India Started in 2nd Century BC. In Manusmriti -the law book of Brahmins all the laws were based on Caste and no Merit was ever considered. It divided people into High and Low Castes on the basis of their birth and not on the basis of Merit. Wealth, Political power, Spiritual leadership, Education, Ownership of Land, Trade and all lucrative aspects were reserved purely to the higher castes.

The Concept:

The correct term used for reservation in the Indian Constitution is Representation. Those who have benefited from the reservation and are enjoying the fruits of reservation must, first of all, understand the true meaning of reservation. It is not given to anyone in his individual capacity. It is given to the individual as a representative of the underprivileged community. The beneficiaries of reservations are in turn expected to help their communities to come up. Reservation is a democratic principle to provide representation to the castes hitherto remained unrepresented in the governance of the country.

Justice Reddy observed, “While we agree that competitive skill is relevant in higher posts, we do not think it is necessary to be apologetic about reservation in posts, higher or lower, so long as the minimum requirements are satisfied.”On the other hand, we have to be apologetic that there still exists a need for reservation.”

Article16 (4) is not a poverty alleviation programme. Its singular aim is to redistribute power to those who have been kept out of the state apparatus so as to end their educational, social and economic backwardness and this class is not less than 77 1/2 % of the population of the country.

-Justice P.B.Sawant.

The Intellectual Class:

Dr Ambedkar Said “In every country, the intellectual class is the most influential class. The masses are largely imitative and follow the intellectual class. There is no exaggeration in saying that the entire destination of the country depends upon its intellectual class. If the intellectual class is honest and independent, it can be trusted to take the initiative and give a proper lead when a crisis arises. Similarly, an intellectual class may be a band of high-souled persons, ready to help, ready to emancipate erring humanity or it may easily be a gang of crooks or a body of advocates of the narrow clique from which it draws its support.

Is the Intellectual Class doing this Work?

After thorough analysis, it is observed that this intellectual class does not take an active part in any such activity or change of system. Not only that, it is also observed that this intellectual class looks at the society, to which it belongs with contempt and keep themselves away from it. Dr. Ambedkar had experienced this, at the fag end of his life and therefore on 18 March 1956 at Ramlila Ground, Agra he said with a heavy heart that, “The educated people have betrayed me. I was thinking that after education they will serve their society. But I find that a crowd of clerks had gathered around me, who are engaged in filling their belly”. This heart burning is a proof that educated and intellectual class is alienated from the society and is going away from its brotherhood. Because of this reason, atrocities and discrimination have increased on the people living in villages. The class, who was expected to lead the society, became the most obedient servant of the government, and the movement was left for half-hearted and immature people.

What Should the Intellectual Class Do?

The intellectual class should do that work, which was expected, from their creators. The system of inequality is continuing in the country. The representatives created by virtue of reservation must organize themselves for bringing about a change of the system. They must organize the people and create an honest and influential movement.

The Educated Elite:

In his book “Annihilation of Castes” he has stated that “our educated elite always fly high away from the society. The more he is high, the more he would keep-off the society. He hides his caste and is eager to associate with the oppressors. He forgets his place in his stage and position in the society. Caste is by birth and remains to the end of life. This is forgotten by our people. Our association and contacts with high caste people are seen in the behaviors of our people. The Oppressors humiliate this class of educated people”.

Dr Ambedkar observed, “Nobody can dare to exploit and dominate any society which has 10 doctors, 20 Engineers and 30 Lawyers”. Today there are thousands and lakhs of Doctors, Engineers and Lawyers among the SC’s and ST’s in our society. But the question arises as to have the exploitation and harassment stopped? The answer is a big No, because those benefitted from reservation are not aware of their duty towards society.

The Present Scenario:

The reservation policy has no doubt played an important role in the advancement of sc/st’s. But after almost 60 years of Independence and after becoming self-sufficient are the beneficiaries of reservation aware enough or are they enlightened towards their duty towards society or community to which they belong? Are they paying back to society?

If we look at the majority of central government, state government or public sector employees who have taken the benefits of reservation the answer is a big “No”

Most of the beneficiaries are busy in their daily routine work i.e. office and home. They don’t even have time to think about their community as such. Their children are well off, some taking education in best engineering colleges even in payment seats, best management colleges, some working abroad in MNC’s. With whatever within their reach, they should have paid back to the world they belong to. Collectively, top Dalit bureaucrats, central govt, public sector officers possess more than the required strength to build up their community. Yet nothing is emerging from them.

Dr. Ambedkar expected much succour and help to come from those who used benefits like reservation in acquiring positions in the higher echelons of the power structure. That did not happen at all. Instead, large-scale alienation is taking place and they are slowly drifting away from their community to form their own elite class. They have forgotten that they owe their prosperity to the community in which they were born.

Some of them are so afraid of their caste identity that they don’t even want to discuss about SC/ST’s, about their current status etc.

I remember an incident when I along with some of my colleagues went to a senior officer who was a SC to distribute some handbills for a meeting of sc/st officers. He was sitting in his cabin with some other officers; he immediately came out of his cabin, took the handbill from us, crushed it in his pocket and hurriedly said ‘ok ok I will come’.

The Fear Factor is such that even our persons at topmost positions in central govt/PSU’s try to show that they are neutral towards all, that they don’t favour only sc/st’s, they rely more on upper castes bosses and subordinates.  If such is the level of a fear factor among those drawing salary of around 1 Lakhs + p.m one can imagine the plight of untouchables in villages who have to face discrimination every day.  Still, there are poor and self-respecting SC-ST’s who never compromise when it comes to following the teachings of Dr Ambedkar while some elite beneficiaries of reservation can be found supporting the oppressors in the anti-reservation debate just to maintain good relations with them.

There is a class of babu mentality officers who get kicked on their butt daily by their masters. This class of babus is more concerned about their promotions and postings rather than the upliftment of their downtrodden brethren through social transformatory movement. This is the class of dalits which has not bothered to read about the struggle of Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar which brought them out of the hell of untouchability in Hinduism. This class of dalits has no identity of their own, they have no self respect and therefore they are treated like menial servants by their masters.

Then there are many elite beneficiaries of reservation who don’t even have time to pay tributes to their great leader on his jayanti or Mahaparinirvan day. Last year on 14th April I asked one of my busy colleague from our community that why he was not present at the statue of Dr Ambedkar today morning, he asked’ what was there?  Any meeting?  Then he said “today as it was a holiday I got up very late. The same fellow on vishwakarma puja day gets up early in the morning, thoroughly washes his car, and performs all rituals and puja’s throughout the year. There are the other ones from our elite class who keep on saying that reservation is a baisakhi, we should stop taking it, now the scenario is changed, our country is progressing like anything etc etc. The irony is that the same people talk about harassment and atrocities on sc/st’s after being denied promotions or right postings/transfers.

Some take the plea that there are so many groups and leaders both in politics and associations, they are confused and say that it is better to keep off from this whole thing. The least can be expected is a sms from them on a TV channel in favour of some discussion on reservation or atrocities on dalits. But then they should have time to watch it sacrificing their favourite soaps.

Of course not all are betrayers. There is a dedicated and committed workforce also who are relentlessly working towards the fulfillment of Dr. Ambedkars dream. There are workers who work day and night just to take the mission of babasaheb forward. My salute to them. But they are very few.

The Political Reservation:

While the political reservation has given us 128 MPs and 1050+ MLA’s, most of them echo their master’s voice i.e they dare not disobey the party high command to which they belong.

Fresh Lease of Life:

The Oppressors are surely getting a fresh lease of life to continue their hegemony, manipulate and dominate as more and more psu’s being privatized either through disinvestment or back door privatization through joint venture route investing huge money from parent companies to subsidiary companies with no reservation policy.

The Khairlanji Incident:

The failure of SC/ST individuals in the Khairlanji case indicate either the dereliction of duty, lack of true empowerment, awareness, the absence of a feeling of paying back to society of SC/St officers. The report on the khairlanji atrocity is a ringing bell to learn that our own Dalit officers and Dalit Govt Servants are party to such atrocities. Even though it is an Atrocity, they are just numb of the pain and sufferings of their poor dalit brothers and sisters.

Role of Welfare Associations & Organisations :

Today there are more than 10 Lakh sc-st welfare Associations and organisations.  Most of these organizations are driven by the individual personalities of the people controlling them rather than the rich and powerful ideological force of the Phule Ambedkarite thoughts supplemented by revolutionary teachings of Lord Buddha. In such personality driven organizations the personal aspirations and ambitions of the leaders gain paramount importance over the larger societal interests. The leaders of such organizations try to optimize their short term personal gains at the cost of long term societal interests. These numbers of small organizations compete with each other for the limited resources in terms of manpower, money, infrastructure, intellectual resources etc thus cannibalizing each other. The result of this cannibalization is that the output in terms of larger social or political objectives has been very very sub optimal. This has prevented in achieving the economies of scope and economies of scale in terms of input we put in and output we get.

In a zeal to do something for the society they land up dealing with the peripherals i.e. treating the symptoms without diagnosing the disease. Unless and until we strike at the root cause of the problems, all our actions will be mere exercises in futility. Treatment of symptoms will give temporary relief to be soon inflicted by other viruses.

If these numerous so-called all India organizations allegedly representing the reserved category employees are left unchecked they will, under the garb of protecting the interest of the employees, continue dealing with peripheral issues. Whereas, the majority of us due to apathy, merely become spectators. Not only this, we allow them to represent us without our concurrence. This drama takes the nature of the famous epic story of a nude emperor. Every spectator knowingly hailed the imaginary fabrics of the emperor.

It took the innocence of a child to call the bluff and point out at the dangling genetalia. However, in most of the cases, we don’t even seem to have that innocence to call a spade a spade.

While the majority of them have either lost their voice or it has been chocked by the managements. The complete absence of fear of action and prosecution, the divisions among the associations which gives the managements further advantage of denying the legitimate rights has left the implementation of reservation policy half hearted. Also in the absence of a feeling of paying back to the society extending the policy to other castes and categories will be of no use. The only result it will produce is the bunch of high class babus engaged in filling their belly. The constitutional authorities like National Commission for Scheduled Castes have the bulk of complaints pending which compelled  even the chairman of NCSC to write to the PM about his helplessness and Non Cooperation of the concerned ministries in redressing the grievances.

The community as such has to face and fight with double discrimination and subjugation – one from the identified oppressors and another from the representatives of own community who through their indifference and callousness leave the innocent and ignorant masses at the mercy of Oppressors.

Holding seminars and symposiums on reservation policy will yield no results if those responsible for implementation and those representing the masses are not honest and sincere.

The ethos of privatisation and the excuse of global competition, superimposed on the traditional caste prejudice, will never allow reservations to happen, any more.

Dr Ambedkar had said during a debate in parliament on the question of efficiency of governance by the system of reservation that “Arepresentative government is better than an efficient government”

He added this on the upper castes: “It is your claim to equality which hurts them. They want to maintain the status quo. If you continue to accept your lowly status ungrudgingly, continue to remain dirty, filthy, backward, ignorant, poor and disunited, they will allow you to live in peace. The moment you start to raise your level, the conflict starts.”

Those arguing against reservation must understand that 50 years of affirmative action is nothing as compared to 3000 years of subjugation. Those crying foul over Merit know very well that there is not enough fruit in the garden hence those who are already in want to keep out those who are already out.

Those responsible for implementing the policy of Reservation must undoubtedly understand that “Reservation is neither a policy matter, a political gimmick nor a matter of Charity. It is a Constitutional Obligation”

In a country like India where power, wealth and opportunities are the monopoly of microscopically small and scandalously over the privileged community, political Revolution is the only Panacea as pointed by even Dr Ambedkar.

While the atrocities on SC-ST’s keep on rising and recorded as if they are the performance parameters of some blue chip company, While those who want to finish the whole idea of Reservation are working overtime, round the clock 365 days a year, the complacent beneficiaries are busy watching their favourite TV shows or criticizing the serious activists of the movement accusing them of selfish interests.

Dr B. R. Ambedkar had said on Tuesday, July 31st, 1956;  at his residence 26 Alipur Road, New Delhi at 05-50P.M. to his Personal secretary Mr. Nanak Chand Rattu…Tell my people Nanak Chand. “You people do not know what is troubling me and what makes me so sad. The first worry to my mind is that I have not been able to fulfill my life’s mission. I wanted to see my people a governing class in my lifetime, sharing the political power in terms of equality with other communities. I am now almost crippled and prostrate with illness. Whatever I have been able to achieve is being enjoyed by the educated few, who with their deceitful performances have proved to be the worthless lot, with no sympathies for their downtrodden brethren. They have surpassed my imagination; they live for themselves and their personal gains. Not one of them is prepared to do the social work. They are treading the path of their ruination. I now wanted to divert my attention towards the vast illiterate masses in the villages that continue to suffer and remained almost unchanged economically. But life seems short….My lieutenants, in whom I had full faith and confidence to run the movement, are fighting among themselves for leadership and power, unmindful of the heavy responsibility that is going to fall upon them… Any how I have done a lot in spite of the abuses hurled at me from all sides and I will continue to do so till my death.”

So saying, with tears rolling down his cheeks, he looked at me and I had also no alternative but to look at him with tears in my eyes. …And with a pained expression on his countenance whispered: “Take courage, don’t get upset. Life is to come to an end one day or the other.” After a little pause, wiping his tears, raising his hand a little above his glowing eyes, he said: “Tell my people Nanak Chand: Whatever I have done, I have been able to do after passing through crushing miseries and endless troubles all my life fighting with my opponents. With great difficulty, I have brought this caravan where it is seen today. Let the Caravan march on and further on despite the hurdles, pitfalls and difficulties that may come in its way. If my people, my lieutenants are not able to take the caravan ahead, they should leave it where it is seen today, but in no circumstances should they allow the Caravan to go back?”

Author – Abhay Madhukar Dongre                                                          

References:

Some Information has been taken in verbatim from the articles following. I express my acknowledgements to them.

1)     Questions and Answers on Reservation – Shri Jayant Ramteke

2)     Shri Abhijeet Kumar N-Secretary General- ITSEWA

3)     Last Few Years of B. R. Ambedkar – Nanak Chand Rattu

4)     Writings and Speeches- Dr B. R. Ambedkar

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