Open Letters: To the Union Law Ministry

Mainak Dhar is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad whose career in the corporate sector has spanned almost a dozen years across Mumbai, Bangkok and now Singapore. Cubicle dweller by day and writer by night, he has written six books, including the bestselling novel, The Funda of Mix-ology. Learn more about it at www.getthefunda.com.

In this new series, Mainak writes open letters to people in the news, commenting on the state of affairs in the world today. Today’s column is an open letter to Union Law Ministry inspired by the recent agitations by a particular community demanding reservations.

To,
The Union Home Ministry,

I have been following the news of the recent violent agitation by a particular community demanding reservations and Scheduled Tribe status with a mixture of bemusement and horror. I don't know how you and your officers are looking at it, but to me this agitation really encapsulates a lot of what ails our society today. While we may be trying to project the image of yet another tiger economy about to be unleashed, the sad reality is that our society is far behind- more like a lumbering, senile elephant, slowed down by shackles of anachronistic norms and divisive politics.

I know the system of caste based reservations draws its fair share of supporters and detractors, but my intent is not to comment on the broader issue of reservation, but to reflect on the absurdity of an agitation that flies in the face of what was supposed to be the theoretical underpinning of this system. That is the supposition that some communities have historically been discriminated against and denied a fair opportunity to get ahead. Fair enough. That list was done and dusted with decades ago, and its contents have guided our reservation policy ever since. What the last couple of week's news headlines told me is that in this ever dynamic society called India, that list is apparently always up for discussion, and new candidates, as it were, are free to apply, as it were, not with resumes or petitions but bandhs and violent agitations. Of course it helps if their references include vested political interests.

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So while the common man and woman trundle through their daily drudgery and bemoan what a bandh means in terms of the commute to work, this farce plays out in our streets and our TV screens. I really don't care which community gets reservation or not- but this agitation throws up a couple of sad comments about our society.

First is the fact that far from doing away with the historical ills of the caste system by levelling the playing field through reservation, our politicians and leaders are only too open to further widening the divides on a caste basis, if it helps them with their vote banks. So as long as our current polity continues, one can safely assume that for all our bluster of advancement and modernity, the primary badge of identity for the vast majority of Indians will continue to be caste.

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Secondly, what this agitation shows is what should have been painfully apparent- the fact that this has nothing to do with social issues or justice, but a simple case of economic gain and advantage. By throwing open the question of whether any group can agitate for reserved status after the fact, we are creating a recipe for future chaos when interest groups continue to play the caste and reservation card to meet their demands for jobs, land or influence. In a perverted sort of way, this agitation proves that many of the so called social hierarchies of our caste system have been turned on their head, as we have people agitating to be counted as 'backward' castes in order to reap the benefits that come with that tag in today's India.

Thirdly, by encouraging such agitations, our politicians are actually doing a grave dis-service to those who actually stand to benefit from reservations- those who are genuinely at the bottom of the socio-economic totem pole and could benefit from the opening up of opportunities that would otherwise have remained closed to them. This is because such agitations, and abetting such agendas, makes many think of caste based reservations as little more than one more pawn in the continuing games our politicians play, rather than being any legitimate tool of socio-economic policy.

Full coverage: Gujjar quota issue

Finally, the agitation is a sad comment on the rule of law, or rather the utter absence of it, in our country. Yes, we are a democracy, and people can feel free to demand what they want, but those demands should work their way through civilised forums of public opinion and the due course of law, not through violent agitations that cost lives for those involved and wreak havoc on others. I know yours is not an enviable job, since you deal with such chaos on a daily basis, but in this case you have the chance to set a precedent not just for whether a particular community gets reserved status or not, which many think is the central point in this debate, but whether we as a society will be governed by the rule of law or the rule of the mob.

Best regards,

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