Hardik Patel’s demand for reservation for the socially prosperous and powerful Patel community has exposed the flaws of the current system and re-opened the affirmative action debate There was a time when this writer used to listen to speeches by great leaders including that of Prime Ministers. These leaders, at length, talked about not being influenced by any caste or religion, zero tolerance for corruption, unearthing black money and enforcing strict laws etc. The writer would take their words as gospel truth, in the hope that like an electric bulb that gives instant light at the push of a button, things will be better tomorrow. Alas, he was taken for a ride and has now learnt not to trust any political pronouncement, till he sees the result. The road to hell is paved with good intention. In fact, the walls of hell are not only covered with good intentions, but are roofed with them. The writer has realised that all politicians, irrespective of the party they belong to, will do anything to garner votes — with grandiose plans or disastrous schemes like the caste reservation. Why is it that people in India, vote for somebody simply because he belongs to the same caste or religion? The answer that we get is that fate determines our caste. We must accept it and live according to its rules. In fact, the only reservation provided in the Constitution of India was for the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe. The rest were brought under the reservation umbrella by politicians in the 1990s, who thought that they’d encash the ‘scheme’ so as to be in power eternally. Probably, reservations would have touched the 100 per cent mark, but as per a Supreme Court order, it cannot exceed 50 per cent under the Government of India. Now, the latest to join the bandwagon demanding caste-based reservation are the Patels of Gujarat, led by a young Hardik Patel. Their objective is to share a piece of the cake that is meant for the backward class. The criteria is not the economic status of the family, but in what caste an individual is born into. Of course, the roots of the present state of affairs, with regard to reservation, can be traced back to the Mandal Commission that was established in India in 1979, by the Janata Party Government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai, with a mandate to “identify the socially or educationally backward.” It was to consider the question of seat reservation and quotas for the people to redress caste discrimination. It used 11 social, economic and educational indicators to determine social backwardness. In 1980, the Mandal Commission’s report finalised the affirmative action practice under Indian law whereby members of lower castes (known as Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe) were given exclusive access to a certain portion of Government jobs. It recommended changes to these quotas, increasing them to 50 per cent. Quotas on the basis of caste is a form of racial discrimination, as there are rich and poor people in all castes and communities. There is no end to such demand and it has only opened up a Pandora’s box. It is believed that there are about 3,000 castes and over 25,000 sub-castes in India. Some have millions of members, others only a few hundreds. More than 115 million people, that is about 15 per cent of the Indian population are designated members of the Scheduled Caste. Most of them live in villages. Caste is not just restricted to the Hindus, it pervades the entire strata of Indian society, as there are castes among Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and Christians. Caste system in India is a system of social stratification which has ancient origins; it was transformed by the British Raj. It is today the basis of reservations in India. A number of political parties in India have indulged in caste-based vote-bank politics. Parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal claim that they represent the backward caste, and rely on OBC support, often in alliance with Dalit and Muslim support, to win elections. In Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party was able to garner a majority of votes with the support of the high-caste Brahmin community. Caste has now become a criteria not only for getting jobs, but also for personal relations, as the following incidents reported in the media, will show. An inter-caste wedding has been opposed in Haryana, because it has hit caste war. The local panchayat has blacklisted the family. In yet another case of marriage between an OBC and an SC, the couple were forced to run away from their home in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh. The girl said that she would have been yet another victim of ‘honour killing’, but she escaped to be with the boy, who works in Delhi. They married a day later, and have been on a nerve-wracking honeymoon ever since. They have changed their address six times in a month and are in hiding now. Also, aggrieved that his daughter eloped with a Dalit man, the father of the girl, who belonged to an upper-caste Hindu community, committed suicide. This triggered widespread violence against the Dalits in Chennai in 2014. Though the police managed to bring the situation under control, the district remained tense as an infuriated group of Hindus went on rampage. It is reported that over 100 huts and houses were set on fire as the mob vented fury on three Dalits villages, including the one from which the boy hailed. No State and not even the national capital is free from the shadow of honour killing. Even in a peaceful State like Gujarat, nine people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the name of reservation. Army had to be called upon to assist in maintenance peace and tranquillity in the State recently. The Patels have been demanding reservations in Government jobs under the OBC qauota. Except for fighting and keeping the people from different castes at the jugular of each other, no political leader has sought an enduring solution. The programme of ‘divide and conquer’ was taught to the Britishers by the Indians. The only solution is to do away with all kinds of reservation. But at the same time, a special provision for better education and scholarship for all categories, which fall in the group of reservations should be made. Otherwise, reservation, will finish off the country, before our enemies do it. At the same time, the Government should make sure that the OBC and other reservation categories are given the best of education, at the Government’s cost, so with their own merit, they can compare and beat the best.