THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Ramesh Chander
The writer is A Retired Career Diplomat.
Before his retirement from the coveted position of the CJI on November 23, CJI B. R. Gavai supported the issue of withdrawal of Reservation facilities to the so called ‘creamy layer’ among the SCs and STs. Earlier al, he supported ‘sub-quota within quota’ that ‘reservation within reservation’. Both the issues are currently topical and important both politically and socially with regard to the ongoing debate on the need and relevance of Reservations to the socially marginalized sections of the society called Dalits in general and SCs and STs in official parlance.
The views of CJI Gavai, himself a Dalit, have given fresh lease to the debate on Reservations. The opponents of Reservations are falling on each other to support the opinion of CJI Gavai and on the other hand the proponents of Reservations are miffed with the assertions made by an eminent Dalit. The views of CJI Gavai cannot be negated, prima facie as first, Reservations is not a permanent provision but is transitory affirmative action by the polity and the society to bring about an ‘equitable social order’ and second, it is also true that graded inequality also prevail among the Dalits i.e. SCs and STs as in the Hindu society at large. In principle, I would tend to consider the views of CJI Gavai. But the larger question remains to be answered. Has the affirmative actions to empower the socially weaker sections have out lived its need? The answer would definitely be a big No.
White Collar Terrorism – Doctors of Terror
Terrorism in all its manifestations is a very negation of a civilized and democratic society; especially when it is afflicted on the pretext of religion. Earlier it was felt that the vested interests and enemies of the society tended to exploit poor and deprived segments of the society by motivating, training and using them for terrorist activities against the State and the society at large. Then came the phase of so called ‘Urban Naxals’, intellectuals and educated persons who allegedly indulged in extremist and militant methods as their means to achieve the ends. The recently detected cases of terrorist activists has thrown a new challenge which needs immediate and fast attention to save the very edifice of secular and democratic set up of India and also to safe-guard integrity and national security of the country.
The recent case of suicide bombing at the Red Fort in Delhi involving a well nit and oiled pan-India network of educated Doctors – Doctors of Terror needs to be studied and checked forthwith before we put our country into jeopardy. Why the highly educated and well placed professionals belonging to one community have chosen to go on the path of destruction and crime against the society? Have we failed to accommodate our largest minority in the main stream of the country? We are to sit and introspect and find answers to these questions. No country and society can afford to neglect and down-size a huge chunk of more than 250 million people comprising of around 20% of our total population. We are to live with harmony and fraternity with secular approach and PM Narendra Modi’s slogan – Sab Ka Sath, Sab Ka Vikas and Sab Ka Visvash. Without elaborating it further, I quote from a recent piece of Julio Rebeiro appeared in the Tribune the other day which says what I wanted to say, “Distrust between Hindus and Muslims has existed for centuries, and I dare say the animosity will not disappear in a hurry. But a modus vivendi has to be worked out for the simple reason that even a muscular regime cannot just wish away 15 per cent (Muslims) of India’s population. Lynching, bulldozer justice, allegations of love jihad — all this has to stop.”
