We tend to move in circles. Affirmative action as it is called elsewhere is reservation in local parlance. There is a scrmble for quotas from every section of the population. With
the exception of Parsis who refused to accept special quotas as government dole all other groups and sections and communities insisted on their due. in the beginning the socalled backward classes vied with the forwards in excelling their lveles of performance. Some of them were luminaries of the Justice Party in the present dayTamilnadu, then called Madras presidency. Periyar as he was called, E.V.Ramaswamy Naicker, to give his full name, set off an agitation whose riples are still felt. The government of the day is always led by one or the other of the Dravidian factins. And irrespective of theparty which rules at the centre Tamilnadu’s voice is heard in the corridors of power.
By a series of masterstrokes, the government has managed to give a lion’s share in government jobs to the backwards , and the neglected sector, if any, be where they are.So the dravidian parties have nothing to fear and their families and their dynasties are taken care of, because the flock is taken care of. No one dare raise his voice agaist the profligacy in public spending when the government announces colour television sets for the poor and cooking gas connections.
In Karnataka which is next door at the turn of the last century the cry was heard and heeded. But a curious fact is that the benefits have not reached the intended ones. There too it is selective. More than all, the quality of administration stands compromised.
The race for backward tag ,60 years after independence, is as hectic as ever. And all political patties are dangling it because this is electoral reality in its crudest aspect. To think that the original measure was earmarked for ten years and no more .Pride, where is thy sting for a noble cause!
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