I have strong reservations regarding the reservation policy of the government though it carries constitutional sanction and mandate under Art 16. There is no dispute regarding the purpose of positive discrimination - to emancipate the underprivileged - but the instrumentality of reservation for ushering in a more equitable social order is fundamentally flawed. Contrary to the popular perception, reservations aggravate instead of ameliorating the disparity between the haves and have-nots because access to the reserved jobs/posts is dependent adequate information dissemination. And that has always been in serious deficit. 50 years of neglect is a sad testimony to a laudable aim of affirmative action. The very fact that even after half a century of paying due diligence and obesience to the reservation scheme, the govt has not been able to prevent elections from being contested on narrow parochial lines of caste and religion and not issues of development, proves that the reservation policy being pursued by the government is in need of an overhaul. I would suggest that reservations should not only be irrevocably linked to the economic status of a person but the issue of affording a genuine and reasonable opportunity to the dispossessed, the downtrodden and the unlettered should be accorded top priority under the new dispensation. Because information is the key to enpowerment.
