Wipro chairman Mr. Azim prem ji's comment on reservation
Wipro chairman Mr. Azim prem ji's comment on reservation: Good one.. read on....* * I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for Muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC /ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The four hit by an SC/ST/OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a SC/ST/OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An SC/ST/OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century. We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our SC/ST/OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an SC/ST/OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal. Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an SC/ST/OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters. There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country.. ) Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country..) Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward... Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of being an INDIAN.. May the good breed of politicians long live.. *
The above article is attributed to Mr. Azim Premji, a great man no wonder, it has been hugely popular in social networking sites over the past few months, enthusiastically shared and commented upon by 50.5 % of the population ( you know what i mean, after all we are in the land of 49.5 % reservation ) and ignored by rest of the population. After being a silent spectator to this drama, i have decided to dissect the article and the issue for good.
The popularity of the article arises from the fact that its witty and hypocritical and it glorifies the supposed ( no way i'm not taking sides yet ) injustice to the unreserved classes. The analogy with cricket too helps as we are a country where cricketers have alternating statuses of demigods and demons, almost everyone will have a connect with it. What more it ends with a patriotic sign off and the sarcastic political remarks add on too, absolute brilliance I say !! On the other hand conceptually i feel the article is farce, it only shows one side of the reservation coin and conveniently leaves the other.
You can't understand when you are feed from a tv screen, you can't see the things that I can see.
Truth is a powerful weapon, both its presence and absence can wreak havoc, I intend to explore the truth now. Lets take Mr. Premji's example, it would appear the rules thus tampered in a game of cricket would mean utter injustice to other players but the example fails to consider other facts outside the rules. What if the players were randomly picked and had no control in which team (read caste) they would placed into. What if for centuries some teams we made to sit outside the boundaries and just watch the game and do nothing else or even worse they weren't even allowed into the stadiums, and what if the these teams lost even before they played, as they weren't allowed even to play with higher teams.
Lets leave the past lets come back to the independent cricketing times (Independent India) when there were no longer any restrictions according to the laws at least. Even then there was still gross injustice as all the practice pitches belonged to the so called higher teams, no entry !! The higher team players had a economic head start, even if the not so lucky players some how trained and excelled in ill equipped government pitches, when it came to the time for national selection( read power and opportunities), they were back stabbed again and again as most of the board members were "different" from them. But one thing was true, players from these teams had numbers and votes on their side, some visionary cricketers came up with tweaked rules to help them establish themselves to an equal level with the other teams in few years. Hence, the new rules were made and implemented. Initially the response was slow so the time frame was extended and then the rules became part of the game so reversion proposals would mean sacking of the board (read electoral defeat). Those days the rules were for a minority,around 20% of the teams, so the others really did not care, they still had lot of influence and men in the right places, they could beat those lesser teams any day any where even with the law protecting the others.
Enter the new era of cricketing, players in the cities no longer knew what it meant to play in the olden days, they were free and modern, all encompassing at least outwardly due to the fear of recuperation from the society. But, various dispirited practices still went on in rural pitches away from the eye of the rules. Even still it was fair enough and every one was happy, at least a majority of them. But the National Board is never happy, because it has get re-elected and for that it has to do something different every time, this time around it decided to pull out some old ( read 20 yr old ) statistical record of semi backward teams and decided to to create new rules for 27% of them O_o . The new category of teams were ecstatic and before the others could react the resolution was passed. Slowly, as the new rules were implemented, the unreserved (like the term :P ) felt the cringe, but, that is what the resolution aimed at right to empower the weak we need to disarm the strong??, or else whats the point ?? but any way they started revolting and creating a mess, but unfortunately for them their long established political influence could not help them this time and they were soon lulled into silence. But, the young players could not remain silent, not when they had Facebook accounts, they were going to "voice their views" and bring down this undemocratic Board using "likes". Some teams felt they too must be treated backward and demanded reservation, there is still lot of agitation on these issues. This is the real scenario of the example given by Mr. Premji now you can assess the true picture.
When this article came up, the young unreserved junta gleefully shared it, each with a snug sarcastically outraged comment, which they don't mean to intend ( i'm sure !! ). The very fact that these guys are able to share the post makes them a minority in the country and it reflects upon the opportunities and advantages they possess, so i ask them to stop crying and buckle up to face the truth. Reservation is a fact and you have to face it !! I remind each one of the ill informed fools out there that a reservation candidate does not mean in any way under trained or brain dead candidate, its a wrong perception unfortunately that even the most educated people have. One more myth is that reservation candidates are stealing the jobs and seats of unreserved classes, it not true they are just being protected so that their jobs and seats aren't stolen.
It may be true that my views may not have a political, social or even ethical insight but I know one thing that works in this world and that is karma, and its a bitch ( sorry for the expletive used it as using such language is the in thing after Delhi Belly). I tell you all unreserved cry babies out there, your fore fathers got away with all theirs deeds and injustices, you should bear their burden now and suffer after all you did inherit their wealth and prestige without complaint. I feel that that reservation for the backward classes should and am sure will be continued in the future. Long live Reservation \m/, Long live India !!
P.S. : I remember one day,I was young still naive,I went to play cricket on the terrace of my friend's house, we had a nice game ,some fun time and good laughs too. Tired from the game, I asked him for a glass of water, he hesitantly went down stairs but after a while came back empty handed. The reason he gave me is still etched in my mind," my grand mom says that offering you water will destroy the purity of the household and i ought too take a bath now". I need no other reason to support any action to show these people their place under the sun, and however unjustified and screwed up the plan may be, I'm in !!
Comments invited ... and no offense to Mr. Premji, he is an inspiration for me too !!
I also eagerly await the release of Prakash Jha's film on the same subject.
Nice one Ravi. Keep posting :)
ReplyDeleteNice one ravi
ReplyDeleteno words to describe :P
Hm.. I kind of followed it up to the end, liked it. But I disagree with the last statement "I feel that that reservation for the backward classes should and am sure will be continued in the future." Let we dream and work for a society where there is an equality and reservation is not needed anymore. I agree that reservation is a necessity now, but I believe, for sure, there will be one day where we will rise over caste and treat everyone as equals. Let there be a society where no-one is backward. And I believe, the first thing to do would be to work from the ground level rather than only on the college or job level. For example, Take steps to encourage good education from primary schools for backward classes and take stringent steps against those who support cast-ism and untouchability. Spread awareness. I believe remove the need for reservation before actually removing reservation.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent post Ravi.
ReplyDeleteI agree with sufal's comment totally.
Without reservation, the condition of the reserved classes would have been worse(as if its any better now, including cities).
People cant take an objective stand on sensitive issues like caste-ism. an individual must be a part of the system, part of the suffering group, before he/she can be judgmental about it.
As for the movie, well, I was waiting for its release to comment on your post. I think it portrayed reservation in the right manner, emphasizing on how politicians used it for their personal benefits. Hats off to Prakash Jha for such a wonderful movie.
Hats off to you for this post!!
I totally support reservation and all other charity services. Infact, there is a lesser known truth.
ReplyDeleteThe forefathers of unresereved candidates were stuck in purgatory for eternity because of all the pain inflicted by them on the forefathers of reserved candidates. Universal selfishness blooming in the bellies of all the powerful tycoons in India, who coincidentally were from the unreserved categories, brewed up a master plan to save their forefathers from the purgatory. One redemption - reservation to all backward castes. Everyone had to be covered. Afterall, if one has a trumpet , it has to be blown. Infact, not blowing would be a crime. Who cares if it isn't utilized for the ones who really need it. And completely ignore the economic condition.
Who cares if someone from unreserved category is in more dire need of an opportunity? Afterall, he has commited the crime of being born in the community of which some people, unknown to even his forefathers, commited some crime long long back.
So actually it's all part of the master plan designed by unreserved people. Free the forefathers from the purgatory. People like Arjun Singh were just puppets to read out the death warrant.
P.S. Most important of all, it is not a cause-effect realtionship. It's the effect first and then conjure up the cause. There would always be one reason or other to justify reservation.
But the sorry part is that on international front, no one would hear India cribbing about it's unfair history and hence the outcome i.e unfair present. The harsh truth is half of the seats going to those, most of whom are too casual to put real effort. Afterall, they need just some 70ish, 80ish or 90ish %ile to be a part of dream which was actually hacked in the first place. Doesn't matter if for them world was all the same and they had all the facilities which a normal unreserved candidate had. The disadvantage if reservation is that they are missing on the self-realization of what they are actually capable of becuase the bar is already lowered for them. And people with self-realization missing out because bar is already too high for them.
We can always dwell in the past but the outcome will be grave. Why not the distribution be talent-wise? It'll only bring out the fighter hiding inside every Indian. Reservation may make a community feel like a winner of a battle in which sadly half the opponents were blind and handicapped in the first place. Eventually as a country we are losing.
What works in Indian democracy is politics and not karma. It would have been karma, had a politician felt sorry for the unreserved and wanted some justice. It was just politics and a brilliant plan to gather the votes.
I have actually wanted to publish this comment a year back. It got lost somewhere in the archives.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, regarding the cricket analogy,India is a countryn of 100 crores and Newzealand`s population is less than one-tenth of ours. Now comes Mr.Vettori and says "your forefathers had loads of virility, your country is huge. That makes the playing ground unfair. How about castrating half of your countrymen?"
not everyone believes in bitches like karma. The upper classes will bear their forefathers` faults just as they have inherited their riches. Will their counterparts inherit their forefathers` servility? But your idea is good. That people should be made responsible for the deeds of their great grandfathers. Let us hail Gandhi`s great grandson as "grandson of the nation" or "pervert-kid" (as per some).
As for your childhood experience, I sympathize with you but thinking that reservations in all fields would change such people is like assuming a viagra to do wonders with a eunuch.
I liked most part of sufal`s comment though I do not subscribe to his optimism that an equal society would be created.
Madhuri and Abhihek, what has reservations done to people? They ensured that it is okay to be mediocre if you belong to backward class. I wonder at this definition of "backwardness". It is amazing that Mayawati is as backward as any of those poor untouchables you can find. They further separated them. Now, people dont fight for IIM seats with others. OCs fight with OCs. SCs fight withs SCs and so on. On the overall, the average IQ of students in an institution goes down. Who cares? Afterall, any educational institution`s job is to increase the living conditions of a country as whole. Let us strive for more equality.
1.There cannot be more than one IITian in a family. An IITian cannot marry another of his/her kind.
2.One third of movie starts should marry people from backward castes. Afterall, it is not the OCs alone who watch their movies and contribute to their livelihood.
3. Take all the wealth from the forward castes and distribute it to the backward people. Backward classes do not have a single millionaire amongst them, do they?
Well I know this is coming in very late, but since this is a very debatable topic, I thought I would comment.
ReplyDeleteTo start off, if you are under the impression that what you are seeking now is justice, you can't be more wrong. What you are seeking is vengeance!!! ( Well I don't know which of the two words is a positive one, u r the CAT Topper, you better tell me ;) )
I agree that few people were indeed treated badly by a few of the so called upper class people, but that doesn't mean you take out your anger on the next generation for something which they weren't even responsible for.
Instead of trying to address the problem why do you want to aggravate it? Instead of trying to strike the balance why do you want to swing it completely onto one side? Strive to eradicate the cause than trying to act on the effect. According to your analogy, lets try to make pitches where anyone and everyone who has talent and who wish to play be allowed without any discrimination instead of catering it to people of only one kind at a time.
PS : I believe even I played on the same terrace u have mentioned if I am not wrong ;)
I was young and hotheaded when I wrote this post. I don't seek vengeance, what I seek is retribution. The essence of the post remains though.
Delete