Fifty years ago the divide-and-rule policies should have been reviewed and purged out of our democratic system on grounds of social justice. That would have been true "affirmative action" on this sub-continent; not the gobbledygook that Arjun Singh and others have been touting.
For far too long we have allowed our 'leaders' to herd the masses via reservations based on religion and caste-based political trickery.
The 'leaders' have got away scot-free after sparking hatred between communities while the burning issues of poverty alleviation and bigger better opportunities for ALL who really need affirmative upliftment, have been relegated to the road side as vote-banks.
Sometime back one of our Supreme Court Judges had gone on record, saying: "Nowhere else in the world do castes, classes or communities queue up for the sake of gaining backward status. Nowhere else in the world is there competition to assert backwardness and then to claim we are more backward than you....the creamy layer rule is a necessary bargain between the competing ends of caste based reservations and the principle of secularism."
Strike while the iron is hot, Rediff. Rise and Shine.
Progress will be real when only the 'really marginalised, truly needy' people are given the opportunities for upliftment. Peace may then just about return.
