Caste Clashes - The UPA's Giving?
Rajasthan and its neighboring states have experienced widespread violence and loss of life and limb over the contentious issue of extending reservation benefits under the Scheduled Tribes category to the Gujjar community. The community, currently under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota, has vocally wanted to move down the social ladder and be placed alongside the Meena community, as ST’s, to enjoy more privileges in education and employment. Successive governments in Rajasthan have promised the ST status to the Gujjars and have failed to live up to a promise that constitutionally no state government can promise as a certainty. Violence, however, had not erupted for quite some time but incidents of the past few days, and the perceived callousness of the Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, has stoked passions and has resulted in road blocks and violence against the police and the Army. The media too has played up this issue of false promises and has tried to implicate the Chief Minister, as a Marie Antionettesque figure, who couldn’t care less about the poor and down trodden in the state. While on the Rajasthan scale the issue seems to resulting in animosity against the incumbent BJP government, on a pan national scale such violence can be attributed to the ‘social justice’ being churned out by the ruling UPA and some of its key ministries.
The current violence is truly tragic in many senses. Sociologically, the incident shows the pathetic result of the quota/reservation Raj in the name of social justice. Reservations in the past two decades have only further divided India on caste lines rather than unite them by providing an egalitarian social platform. The dream to integrate castes by undoing the past injustices to the lower castes has actually turned sour and the nation finds itself in a peculiar situation. This may actually be the first time that a particular community has asked for its ‘demotion’ on the caste ladder to a much lower standing. Rather than wanting to benefit from its present standing in society, a community would actually want to be lowered to a category that may bring rejection from society, though, with benefits in finding jobs and a decent education. The mentality is particularly terrifying if it were to be repeated amongst other similar communities. Ironically, India could end up becoming a country where while we move forward economically, our people would be wanting to move ‘backward’ socially. The other danger that has played out as a severe consequence is the inter-community tension between the Gujjars and the Meenas, who are under the Scheduled Tribes category. Sensing having to share the quota pie with their Gujjar counterparts, the Meena community has clashed with the Gujjars to end their protests. Such has been the ferocity of the clash on both sides that there have been unwarranted death and destruction to public property. The fear remains that the violence may spread to other areas and between other communities, which could be disastrous. The political leadership at the state and the centre must end their blame game and maturely deal with a situation that can ultimately harm both governments, irrespective of who rules where. The third important observation in the entire conflagration has been the glaring alacrity with which the political parties have been promising the ST status to the Gujjars in their political manifestos. The BJP came to power in 2003 riding on a manifesto that amongst other things promised an ST status to the Gujjars. Knowing fully that a decision to include or exclude any community from any lists, be it SC’s, ST’s or OBC’s is a federal subject. The promise on the manifesto speaks volumes of how a manifesto has become a mere tool for populism rather than a document that is a policy compass for political parties. The BJP must take the blame for promising something that its top brass knew could not be achieved, at least not completely at their behest. The Congress too must take the blame for the manner in which its young parliamentarian, Sachin Pilot, of the violence affected Dausa constituency, has hit at the state government. Without realizing that the state government can merely recommend which communities are to be included into a particular list, and not ensure any such move, Pilot too is misguiding his constituency on the role of the state government in the entire genesis of the crisis. It would have been far wiser for Pilot to have blamed the state government for not looking out for the Gujjars and then taken the onus on himself to ensure that the UPA in the centre would do such a thing. But political myopia could make Pilot only see benefits for his Dausa voter and in doing so ensured that a battle with the state machinery was inevitable.
The analysis of the Gujjar-Meena clash would not be complete without understanding why have things come such a stage. It is without a doubt that since the UPA government has taken charge in 2004, its social engineering project, spearheaded by the Union Minister for Human Resources, Arjun Singh and helped by regional parties and ministers like Social Justice Minister Meira Kumar have ensured not only does our nation continue to be divided on caste and class lines, in fact they have helped in a increasing the gap between communities. The past two years have seen virtual uprisings by the urban middle class, the rural poor, the Muslim minority and the Hindu majority to blame the central government and its policies towards social justice. The HRD ministry did itself no favors with the OBC quota in higher education, which led to street protests by students. Then came the Muslim quota and head count issue by constituting the Sachar commission. These two decisions by the UPA have helped increase social divisions amongst various communities both in the urban and rural settings rather than helping them solve the age-old divisions. The nation had left the days of a Rajiv Goswami immolating himself towards a more socially inclusive India. However, the UPA government seems to have brought back the days of social tensions and a sharply divided India wanting to label his fellow citizen on caste and religion. While the intentions of the UPA may be noble, wanting every Indian, rather than a privileged few, to share the economic and social upsurge India is witnessing, an honest assessment of how far its policies have been able to achieve that is grim. Alienating one community or a section of populace at the cost of the other can never lead to social harmony. UPA think tanks and sharp shooters are quick to draw attention of the prime minister and his cabinet to rising prices as a possible source for any electoral reversals in 2009, they have failed to even scratch the surface of the impact their social policies will have for the UPA and the Congress in particular in the coming elections. If anything, its social policies have not only alienated voters in the urban areas, who are the biggest casualties in the OBC quota issue, they have not made any inroads in the Dalit, backward, OBC or Muslim vote bank with their populist quota policies, as was seen in the UP, Punjab and Uttrakhand elections. What they have done is to ensure that more and more people are feeling cheated by the system and by empty promises of their politicians. The Gujjars demonstration and the Meena retaliation is a manifestation of that anger and revile at the UPA’s policies and hollow promises of politicians in general. It is pertinent that the UPA government not dismiss these violent acts as mere aberrations related to a particular community, it should rightly be alarmed and introspect at the prospect of how its own policies may become the unfortunate cause of mayhem in the times to come.
The current violence is truly tragic in many senses. Sociologically, the incident shows the pathetic result of the quota/reservation Raj in the name of social justice. Reservations in the past two decades have only further divided India on caste lines rather than unite them by providing an egalitarian social platform. The dream to integrate castes by undoing the past injustices to the lower castes has actually turned sour and the nation finds itself in a peculiar situation. This may actually be the first time that a particular community has asked for its ‘demotion’ on the caste ladder to a much lower standing. Rather than wanting to benefit from its present standing in society, a community would actually want to be lowered to a category that may bring rejection from society, though, with benefits in finding jobs and a decent education. The mentality is particularly terrifying if it were to be repeated amongst other similar communities. Ironically, India could end up becoming a country where while we move forward economically, our people would be wanting to move ‘backward’ socially. The other danger that has played out as a severe consequence is the inter-community tension between the Gujjars and the Meenas, who are under the Scheduled Tribes category. Sensing having to share the quota pie with their Gujjar counterparts, the Meena community has clashed with the Gujjars to end their protests. Such has been the ferocity of the clash on both sides that there have been unwarranted death and destruction to public property. The fear remains that the violence may spread to other areas and between other communities, which could be disastrous. The political leadership at the state and the centre must end their blame game and maturely deal with a situation that can ultimately harm both governments, irrespective of who rules where. The third important observation in the entire conflagration has been the glaring alacrity with which the political parties have been promising the ST status to the Gujjars in their political manifestos. The BJP came to power in 2003 riding on a manifesto that amongst other things promised an ST status to the Gujjars. Knowing fully that a decision to include or exclude any community from any lists, be it SC’s, ST’s or OBC’s is a federal subject. The promise on the manifesto speaks volumes of how a manifesto has become a mere tool for populism rather than a document that is a policy compass for political parties. The BJP must take the blame for promising something that its top brass knew could not be achieved, at least not completely at their behest. The Congress too must take the blame for the manner in which its young parliamentarian, Sachin Pilot, of the violence affected Dausa constituency, has hit at the state government. Without realizing that the state government can merely recommend which communities are to be included into a particular list, and not ensure any such move, Pilot too is misguiding his constituency on the role of the state government in the entire genesis of the crisis. It would have been far wiser for Pilot to have blamed the state government for not looking out for the Gujjars and then taken the onus on himself to ensure that the UPA in the centre would do such a thing. But political myopia could make Pilot only see benefits for his Dausa voter and in doing so ensured that a battle with the state machinery was inevitable.
The analysis of the Gujjar-Meena clash would not be complete without understanding why have things come such a stage. It is without a doubt that since the UPA government has taken charge in 2004, its social engineering project, spearheaded by the Union Minister for Human Resources, Arjun Singh and helped by regional parties and ministers like Social Justice Minister Meira Kumar have ensured not only does our nation continue to be divided on caste and class lines, in fact they have helped in a increasing the gap between communities. The past two years have seen virtual uprisings by the urban middle class, the rural poor, the Muslim minority and the Hindu majority to blame the central government and its policies towards social justice. The HRD ministry did itself no favors with the OBC quota in higher education, which led to street protests by students. Then came the Muslim quota and head count issue by constituting the Sachar commission. These two decisions by the UPA have helped increase social divisions amongst various communities both in the urban and rural settings rather than helping them solve the age-old divisions. The nation had left the days of a Rajiv Goswami immolating himself towards a more socially inclusive India. However, the UPA government seems to have brought back the days of social tensions and a sharply divided India wanting to label his fellow citizen on caste and religion. While the intentions of the UPA may be noble, wanting every Indian, rather than a privileged few, to share the economic and social upsurge India is witnessing, an honest assessment of how far its policies have been able to achieve that is grim. Alienating one community or a section of populace at the cost of the other can never lead to social harmony. UPA think tanks and sharp shooters are quick to draw attention of the prime minister and his cabinet to rising prices as a possible source for any electoral reversals in 2009, they have failed to even scratch the surface of the impact their social policies will have for the UPA and the Congress in particular in the coming elections. If anything, its social policies have not only alienated voters in the urban areas, who are the biggest casualties in the OBC quota issue, they have not made any inroads in the Dalit, backward, OBC or Muslim vote bank with their populist quota policies, as was seen in the UP, Punjab and Uttrakhand elections. What they have done is to ensure that more and more people are feeling cheated by the system and by empty promises of their politicians. The Gujjars demonstration and the Meena retaliation is a manifestation of that anger and revile at the UPA’s policies and hollow promises of politicians in general. It is pertinent that the UPA government not dismiss these violent acts as mere aberrations related to a particular community, it should rightly be alarmed and introspect at the prospect of how its own policies may become the unfortunate cause of mayhem in the times to come.
posted by Karan Thakur @ 3:33 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home