Fighting for inequality

Fighting for inequality
Upper castes striving to preserve their hegemony

It’s a shame that the supreme court of the country has to intervene in the doctor’s agitation, asking them to resume duties, and the government is forced to consider the drastic step of appointing fresh recruits. Nothing deters the agitationists, who believe that the upper caste alone should enjoy monopoly in all major fields.

The worst is doctors donning T-shirts with freedom fighter Bhagat Singh’s caricature, which makes for a simple case of mockery of the legendary figure, who not only fought against the British but also believed in a classless society. It is one thing fighting oppression, seeking freedom and justice. But, it is yet another to struggle for maintaining ones monopoly in a certain arena.

The doctors are neither fighting against oppression, injustice, human rights violations or corruption nor for equality. In fact, the ugly manifestation of monopolistic tendencies that the agitation purports is only a means to ensure that oppression and inequality continue. The crude display of lust to maintain and reserve these positions solely for the socially and economically upper classes is self evidentiary. There may be flaws in the manner in which government wants to go about the business of reservations for the backward classes, which can be debated and amended, but one thing is clear; given the present circumstances, the country certainly cannot do without the quota system to bail out the socially and economically poor. The newly appointed chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, C Phunsong, the first one to be appointed from a backward area like Ladakh, may have a point in opposing reservations. But this opposition cannot be seen in isolation. In an interview to a newspaper, while maintaining that reservation system is not a healthy practice has also averred that there is need to provide quality education at the basic level to everybody. But that itself is the catch.

In the absence of quality education at the primary and middle schooling level, equal opportunities for all remain elusive. As long as there are no equal opportunities to allow a natural process to enable the meritorious from any class of society to come up to the top level, the backward classes will continue to remain oppressed.

Unfortunately, even almost six decades after independence, a democratic form of government in India has not been able to ensure the amelioration of the oppressed classes. It would be good to dispense with any form of reservation policy but that can not happen without first upgrading basic education and offering equal opportunities to all. Only then can one talk of open merit.