'Jitenge ya losenge..'
When Rajiv Gandhi said that, more than two decades ago at an election rally, he revealed not just how little he knew about the language and idiom of the Indian people..but also about Indian reality. But the Indian people, in their largeheartedness, laughed that away and gave him the biggest majority ever in Indian history.
Now, I present to you a piece of advice from a gentleman who, unlike Rajiv Gandhi, went to a University and actually studied and..excelled there.., but seems to be as out of touch with Indian reality as the former Prime Minister..and as capable of provoking unintended humour. Listen to Pratap Bhanu Mehta ::
'We should refrain from accepting the blocks the Indian polity assigns us to- SC, ST, OBC, OC and the like. These identities should be given up by us!!'
So, that seems a good piece of advice..what's funny about it, you ask? There's nothing funny about the advice (I find it disingenuous, in fact)..it was his choice of audience that was funny - he was talking to a group of upper caste students fighting for 'equality' at JNU when he said that.
posted by obc voice @ 10:06 AM
4 Comments:
pratap bhanu mehta is the champion of upper caste domination.
mineguruji,
these students fighting for 'equality' at JNU organised this talk by him..and he chose to go. He made some of the most outrageous observations..there.
In his much-publicized resignation letter to the pm..he had said:'For one thing, the historical claims of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the nature of the deprivations they face are qualitatively of a different order than those faced by Other Backward Castes, at least in North India.'
which means that reservations for the SC/STs are okay to an extent..but he's asking the obcs to prove that they're oppressed..was that the basic premise of the Mandal recommendations? And he makes this unsubstantiated claim that ..in North India 'things are different' for the OBCs. he forgets that it's in north india that even castes like the yadavs/kurmis are are referred to using the worst kind of derogatory terms.
In his speech to the students he says : 'In terms of Social Justice, the miserably low percentage (less than 10%) of people within the SC/STs having benefited from our current schemes is a stark teller of how poorly such schemes have fared.'
which conveniently echoes the upper caste students' own unproven charges.. (Note that he now thinks reservations for even the SC/STs are not okay) But he contradicts himself when he says :'While most serious countries spend about 16% of their budget on education without raising public tax, India needs to levy an Education Cess to increase its expenditure in Higher Education. Anybody saying that there aren't enough resources to put into Higher Education is SIMPLY lying!! The budget of JNU is nothing compared to that of Ashoka Hotel!!!!!!!!!'
So, with such limited budgets and therefore limited opportunities, how many SC/ST students did you think would have benefitted from reservations, Mr.Mehta?
He says :'Best society is that which allows everyone to meet their aspirations and that is where the need to provide opportunity arrives. Yet, to uphold standards is also very important- we have to respect the intrinsic autonomy of the sphere of every field. If athletic skills are the ones that matter in athletics- they should be the major yardstick to choose athletes. Replacing this yardstick by other criteria (like regional/ caste bias) is dangerous.'
THis is the kind of language a majority of those oppsing quotas undersand: comparing education to athletics and other..irrelevant fields.. I can't think of a single anti-reservationist who hasn't tried to think up/concoct/spread 'reservations-in-cricket' kind of inane gags. Mr.Mehta..are other criteria of admission being totally replaced by caste (like admitting engineers into pg medical courses) ?
The list of contradictions, the thinly veiled prejudices go on... but the most important indicator of his partisan attitude is that he chose to praise the upper caste students fighting for 'equality'..and advised them to :'Youth for Equality has done a great job in making the government sit up and take notice. It is for the students to assert what they want and not for the polity to dole out what it likes. Now, YFE work has to do a wider job- to bring about a paradigm shift in the way our system works; to build trust, hope and confidence and become the pressure point that demands for a change.'
He truly believes these kids care a damn...beyond their own seats and careers!that they care for the country as much as he 'cared' for it!
that he chose to speak to those students...and not at any other more diverse forum..tells me volumes about his 'views'..
Dont worry mate, we are on our path to victory. The IIMS have called for OBCs to submit their forms in that category. Long live revolution. Long live dalits.
As far as Mehta and his cohorts are concerned, they are scared of letting the depressed classes take the rein of this country into their hands. These self styled intellectuals and leaders have destroyed the soul of this country and now they are migrating in droves to west after eating all the cream in this country.
What they want is equality among unequals. But, this against the very fundamentals of the Indian constitution, which states that their can not be no equality among unequals.
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