Everyone Wants Reservation
A time was there when people were eager to climb up the so called higher levels of the society.
But as times change, things change. Now a time has come where every strata of the society want themselves to be labelled as a backward class for achieving that golden goose named reservation.
What happened recently in Rajasthan is a perfect example of this changing wind blowing across our nation. It presented us the ugly side of caste politics that threatens the very basic fabric of India's unity. This time the burning issue of caste has spilled over into violence, destruction of public property and loss of life. The demand of the Gurjars to be included in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) has brought the Gurjars and Meenas into a dangerous conflict.
The Gurjars in Rajasthan, traditionally a shepard community are already listed in Backward class, but noticing the employment advantages and political power that ST like Meenas possess in Rajasthan, they have demanded ST status for their caste. The Meenas have opposed this fearing that their ST benefits have to be shared with the Gurjars. Then finally what's the result? The result is, the country witnessed one of the worst violent situations over the caste issue.
Now who is to blamed for this situation. Of course it is we the narrow minded people who go on giving caste prior importance in our lives. Well how can we forget our politicians who are the main trouble makers. The Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje while campaigning during the elections promised ST status to the Gurjar community as a political tactic to garner more votes and once in power forgot all about it. It is a well known fact that the state's role in giving ST status to a community is limited. It is a long process which requires center's participation as it involves a parliamentary amendment in the existing list. The Gurjars agitation must serve as a remainder to the greedy politicians that they must restrain themselves from making false promises to the people which they themselves cannot fulfill and above all that it is the people's responsibilty not to fall into this dirty trap of vote bank politics. We must make a sincere attempt in breaking the walls of caste and work together for the making of a united nation where a word like caste does not exist.