The Hindu : More than quotas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 25, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

More than quotas

Sir, — Reference Neera Chandhoke's article " A quota-driven polity" (Feb. 18). Under the present dispensation of meritocracy, the concept of reservation has been cleverly pre-empted by circumventing the Constitutional mandate under the guise of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation, leading to tens of thousands of graduates and post-graduates hailing from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, longing for employment. Those who spent their parents' meagre resources with the hope of a bright future are working in petty private companies for long hours for a paltry sum to keep the wolf from the door. Although these three evils generally affect all the youth, those from the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are the worst affected.

T. Mrinalini,
Guduvancherry, T.N.

Sir, — The articles "A quota-driven polity' by Neera Chandhoke and "A man of vision and practicality" by C.V. Narasimhan (Feb. 18) were timely. The first article points out how we have debased the vision of Gandhi and Ambedkar, enshrined in the Constitutional provision of reservation for the Dalits, by expanding it to cover all and sundry with the result that other castes have usurped all the benefits and privileges of reservation intended for the Dalits.

As our "Harikatha" exponents would say, hearing and reading the life stories of good, honest people bring peace and solace to one's restless mind. That is exactly how I felt when I read Mr. Narasimhan's tribute to the late S. Ramakrishnan of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Surrounded by a society with rapidly declining standards of morality and declining mores, surrounded by corrupt and unprincipled politicians and Government employees, one thirsts for news of good people in our midst.

Shashi Kelkar,
Bangalore

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

The budget and economic reform

Non-proliferation in East Asia

Hindutva and ethnicity

Food first or trade first?

Help the poor by cutting red tape