Judiciary and its brahmanical prejudices in India
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Two Judges of Supreme court recently, for the first time in our judicial history, had the courage to challenge the religious text of the Brahmanical order. In an order favoring tribal women’s land right violating which the powerful in the village termed her as witch
and paraded her in the village. The Judges were very forthright in their statement saying that violation of the tribal right start from ancient period when Guru Dronacharya asked from his tribal disciple Eklavya to donate his thumb to him, in order to protect the interest of Arjuna, the kshatriya warrior to be the best archer of the world.
Not long back the same Supreme Court gave a judgment saying Hindutva is a way of life. It has been criticized. The highest court today is more sensitive than ever. Just a few days back the court amended their old order in which they upheld the life sentence to Dara Singh, the mastermind of burning Grahm Stains with his two sons in Orissa. While court upheld the high court’s judgment, it unnecessary stretched its brief to conversion and then said that Dara Singh was protecting people from converting to Christianity. The court later realize their mistake and amended the order.
The brahmanical prejudices in our system are well known and judiciary is no exception to it. There are number of judgments against dalits on the issues of reservations are well known and can be elaborated here. Even after the Mandal judgment the issues related to OBC reservation has been diluted in many ways and the issue of merit always cropped up as if there is no merit in those who come through reservation. This stand is quite dangerous. In fact, Indian courts have continuously opposed reservation in judicial services terming that it will affect merit in the courts as if all the other sectors where reservation is effective are non meritorious. The fact is judicial appointments are political nature and there is control of several families in top echelon of Indian judiciary. Like every other sector, here also we have judges who have history of their parents in the judiciary. Earlier, the people retiring from the Supreme Courts used to keep themselves off from the politics but today they are openly part of political parties and ideologies. Many of them like Justice V.M.Tarkunde, Justice Krishna Iyer, Justice Rajender Sachar gave monumental contribution in the field of human rights and promoting rule of law in the country and never ever took any official position. Some of them actually gave dangerous judgment and reports. Justice Rangnath Mishra was appointed by Rajiv Gandhi to look into the anti Sikh riots in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s death in 1984 and not a single political leader from the ruling party was charged. Justice Mishra got his reward to Rajya Sabha from the Congress Party.
The lower judiciary is more prone to brahmanical biases. In Allahabad, a district judge washed his court room with Ganga Jal when he assumed charge as his predecessor was a Dalit. Just a few days back we heard that a judge in Madhya Pradesh asked the government to get each children’s horoscope checked by the Brahmins and then admit them to school so that they can understand whether the boy or girl is going to be healthy child or not. This story has appeared in the Times of India yesterday though it was abuzz in the internet for long. The Child Rights commission in India has asked for a report on it.
Indian judiciary is like any other sector in India suffers from the inadequacy of understanding the issues and problems of the marginalized. If there are some judgments favoring them they are purely on charitable and good will basis. When ever the issue of the rights of the Dalits and marginalized have come judiciary by and large was seen with powerful. Several years back, the a retired Supreme Court judge was asked by the Supreme Court to report on the inadequacies Public Distribution System in several states. He called up meeting of many people working on the same. I was one of them. In the meeting the former Judge was asking people what would be good for them and then came out with an idea that to improve the efficiency of the PDS they must have computers at their shop. Every body was happy but when they realize that this was nothing but another sale ploy people opposed it. Suddenly, some of the people suggested the issue of quota for the Dalits, Muslims and others in the distribution of these shops. The judge became furious and he asked the others as why don’t they openly oppose it. How one any one who is not known marketing be given charge of shops. And he just stuck down the entire formulations that we can not talk of quota here.
In the past twenty years judiciary paved way for land acquisition process which was responsible for displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Political craftiness and crookedness forced political leaders to take shelter in the judicial activism which was nothing but turning the issue of executive which is more accountable to the people, in their hands. Land has always been acquired in the name of ‘public interest’ but none could find what the public interest if lakhs of people have been uprooted from their land. There are definitely very good judgments and we always are grateful to them. We still look for some good judgments as people are quite fed up with political maneuvering.
Hence, land acquisition never ever got discussed in Parliament but it has been justified by the judiciary on many occasions.
Thousands of cases related to land ceiling act are lying with courts. Powerful people have time and money to delay judicial process. It’s the poor who bear the brunt of it. It’s difficult to bring all the cases to the court. Justice Y.B.Sabbarwal’s over enthusiasm on implementing Sealing process in Delhi and making our cities ‘world class’ is well known. It uprooted lakhs of people. DDA and other authorities got right to demolish any location and slums without rehabilitating them. It was painful to see how the doors of court remain close for the poor as they feel helpless.
Three years back a 4 year old Dalit girl was thrown into burning fire allegedly by an upper caste boy in district Mathura. The UP government appointed a fast track court to implicate him. The boy was booked under SC-ST prevention of Atrocities Act. The judge after hearing every one exonerated the boy that there is no witness. He rejected the contention that girls mother is a witness saying that she was in veil when the girl ‘fell; into the fire. There was no other witness and hence the judge came to the conclusion that the girl fell the fire out of her own even when it was clear that she was going to defecate with her mother and was pushed to fire by the local landlord who was unhappy with their using his fields to defecate.
It is important that India reform its judicial system and form an all Indian Judicial commission which be made responsible for recruitment of the judges and they be monitored and seen. Let a committee of retired judges observe and read the judgments of these judges and then promote them. Right now most of them are picked up from the practicing lawyers of High Courts, so political favor, relationships and other things matter and unfortunately that reflect in judgments on many occasions. Binayak Sen’s conviction is one such incident of how judges in the lower courts have already made up their mind and do not normally question the government version. The situation is grim as people do not have money and patience to fight for their cases in the High Court and Supreme Court.
I have been fighting for the case of 150 Dalit families in Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar for the past 15 years. The were fighting for implementation of land ceiling act and be given land declared surplus under Ceiling Act. This case went to Allahabad High Court where the judge upheld ceiling. Then the powerful people of a company challenged in the Supreme Court and lost there also. The judgment came in 2004 and we waited with breathe that now the people would get their land. When nothing happened and the judgment was dubiously used to defeat the purpose of it, we went to the Lokayukta of the Uttarakhand state who took about 2 years to come to a conclusion that the violation of Supreme Court Judgment has happened that official need to be punished. Nothing happened. We went to the Supreme Court again. Justice K.G.Balakrishanan accepted the petition but for next three years, he did not give us time to hear it. As soon as it he retired, the petition came to current Chief justice who directed us to go the Uttarakhand High Court, Nainital. Now, it is painful for people to wait for three year and then be asked to go back to High Court. We went to Nainital High Court where the chief justice was not willing to listen to us even when we mentioned that it is under the direction of the Supreme Court. Finally, he fixed up a date to clear the case. We brought to his notice violation of Supreme Court judgment and Lokayukta report but that was clearly rejected. Lokayukta can not be bigger than this court said Chief Justice. Now the question was no body was questioning the powers of judiciary, we just used his report because it took two years for him to come to some conclusion and he himself was a judge in Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.
The Ayodhya verdict has been shocking. How are the judges going to decide where Lord Rama Was born. Is it the job of the judiciary to decide about it. The matter before them was whether some body installed the statues of Ram in the Babari mosque or not and secondly about the ownership of the land which could have been judged on the basis of their papers yet the judges went on and on to declared it. If such cases become a legality than it would be difficult to find any land in India for human being as under each building the religious thugs are ready to say there resided a ‘god’ and we have over 33 crore of them.
The latest judgment in this series is of Bombay High Court which declared that Astrology is science. Should the judiciary accept such cases? How can they come to such a conclusion? If they want a meaningful judgment why can’t they seek opinion from medical and other department like that of Science and Technology? Isn’t it a fact that our judiciary is taking their role much beyond their defined role and is opening a Pandora’s Box. Such judgment helps the religious manipulators to spread their false massage in the name of judicial approval. It does not bode well to the health of the country. There is a need to control astrologers as there is no mechanism where they be held accountable. There is no mechanism where an Ayurvedik doctor and his activities be monitored under MRTPC act. If they are being declared as science and modern then all the modern day rules and regulation should also be implemented on them. Like any medicine they should also put expiry dates and other things on their products and all their activities should be scrutinized.
It is really needed that judicial system be reformed so that people get justice. This is a great season at the Supreme Court when some of the judges have delivered great judgment favoring tribal and Dalits, on human rights and against corruption. One sincerely hopes that this tribe of honest judges will increase whose judgment will help the marginalized gain their rights and confidence. It is time for reservation in judiciary for the Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis and women so that their confidence level also grows and people feel safe that the judges will understand their feeling and issues. Some of my friends suggest that this is the best moment in the Supreme Court in recent history when we are witnessing some fairly balanced judgment. People are still looking to higher courts for resolution of their problems. On Gujarat they have consistently taken a stand against the communal politics of Narendra Modi. Similarly, on many other things including the tribal rights, common land of the village, on women’s right, the judges have taken bold stand in the Supreme Court. One sincerely hopes that the highest court of the land will do its best to change the set up of judicial appointments as well as speedy process of law so that they are delivered on time. It is also important that Supreme Court take not of what the High courts are delivering and wheverever the judges have gone or commented beyond their jurisdiction should not only be scrutinized but those portion should be withdrawn. In the Graham Stains case the Supreme Court has withdrawn controversial portion of its order which is a welcome sign. One hope that the Supreme Court will support initiative in the direction so that in our judicial officers are more sensitized on the issue of caste, gender and communalism and it is not possible without fair representation of people from affected communities in the services.
Showing posts with label Supreme Court's Judgement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supreme Court's Judgement. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Friday, March 30, 2007
Issue of OBC Reservation in India
Mandal will have the Last Laugh
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
A two judges bench headed by Justice Ajit Parsayat has stayed the 27% quota meant for the Other Backward Communities in the higher education. The upper caste Hindus today celebrated Holy and Diwali. After the miserable failure and huge loss of advertisement by the favorite Indian cricket team virtually surrendered to Bangladesh and then to Srilanka, the reactions were similar to that happened to anti Mandal agitation in 1991. If our memories have not faded, we must revisit the events in Eden Gardens, Kolkata when the downtrodden Sri Lanka was inflicting a humiliating defeat and the Bhadralok crowd at Kolkata started throwing paper missiles, and stones at the Srilankan players. I am afraid, if this World Cup were being organized in India, the Indian people would not have allowed Bangladesh to win. That is upper caste nationalism in India. A nationalism, which does not recognize merit but purely create merit on the basis of one’s caste.
The defeat by the under estimated Bangladesh spelled a pall of gloom over the market which has been monopolized by the caste media which had lionized the team without realizing its real strength. India sunk into gloom (it was not a game but the nation was already declared world champions) and defeat clearly put the astrologers also to mat who were predicting super performance from the team. Nevertheless, despite this entire nonsensical attitude, the irrational astrology still is the best medicine that the caste Hindus takes. The doctors also have the same attitude as they have red tilak over their forehead and big temples outside the ICUs in Delhi. Nothing is irrational and unscientific as long as the Hindus believe in it. So Muslims become cruel for they slaughter animals but Hindus become ‘non violent’ when they slaughter goats, buffalos and pigs in the temples to please their Gods and Goddesses.
After days of gloom, the anchors at the TV studios are smiling for a ‘historic’ judgment of Supreme Court. Now, they can discuss things and bring the ‘cheerleaders’ to their studios suggesting that the ‘whole’ ‘nation’ is against reservation. A few doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or as I would like it call All India Institute of Manuwadi Studies have become ‘nation’ imagination. Based on their assumptions, the Supreme Court has stayed the order of the reservation for OBCs in the institutions of higher education, which were always meant for the Brahmins when Manu’s law first defined it. As India moved to secularism and democracy, Manu’s laws became politically though socially they remained as powerful as ever despite 9% growth rate. Understanding that power of democracy means power of number and not just democracy for the people but now it has become ‘of’ the people and ‘by’ the people. With the marginalized groups asserting their number power with more political aggressions, the upper castes were left with no options except to dilute the entire concept of social justice through the judicial process, which remain outside the purview of the quota. Moreover, through privatizing the various government owned corporations and services, the government has already nullified the concept of reservation.
Now, after the formation of Special Economic Zones, the government as well as the courts have hit on the backbones of our farmers. SEZ have been declared legalized while people have been uprooted from their nation. Land Reforms have been made redundant by the continuous protections by the courts. Today, the politicians use the courts for their own purposes. It is due to this ambiguity that the courts have now become the most powerful and uncontrolled institution of the country. A healthy democracy need independent judiciary and committed governance. Nodoubt, the political leadership during the past 20 years have reduced to nothing as more criminals taking lead but the power of the masses is relegated to ‘people’s representatives’. Still, even a bad democracy is better than an unaccountable government or military dictatorship. Ofcourse, this clearly means that it is the political class which will need to run the country and not the courts and the bureaucrats which is increasingly becoming the case in India.
Upper castes elite in Delhi often says that reservation is denying them basic human rights of equality and hence they are leaving for the United States. Let the courts ask them to stay in India if they studies in Indian schools. They cannot go abroad after getting the subsidized education at the premier Indian educational institutions. The youngsters do not know what is happening even outside their house. They would not even ask their parent as why the scavenger who clean their shit and toilet come from one particular community. This elite would not even know that in India there are places where people still clean shit and carry night soil. Yes, they are not interested to know about this.
Shockingly, the judgments in the past few years reflect of the growing trend to keep the middle classes happy. We have judges who speak for Hindutva terming it as a way of life. We have a former Supreme Court Judge who did not implicate a single politician in the anti Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984 and later became a Member of Parliament against all the ethics of impartiality of an institution. Right to Strike was also banned by the Kerala Highcourt, which was appreciated by the media and industries.
The Judges went overboard in terming the quotas as vote bank politics. Question is why not vote bank politics after all what are politicians required to do? Yes, if they are working for their people than the best one is that who does not to take care of their constituencies? It is absurd as former Prime Minister V.P.Singh said about the court order. Parliament passed a bill unanimously and the court’s are terming it as vote bank politics. The Judges further said that politicians should not divide the country on the basis of caste and that in India it has become habitual for people to claim ‘backward’ status. One need to support V.P.Singh’s demand for a referendum and census based on caste.
It is tragic that the record of the courts related to social justice and social reform reflect poverty of ideas and lack of human rights understanding. It is also reflected that the courts are consciously giving judgments on the basis of media campaign. A media, which has been thoroughly unprofessional and highly prejudiced one. Justice Rajendra Sachar had long back stated in a public meeting that the court buckle under public pressure. Unfortunately, there is no backward movement in India, which can take on the upper caste thugs who are destroying India. Except for the forthright stand of DMK, PMK and other political groups representing the OBCs there is no one to raise their voice. They remain loyal shudras providing fodder to Hindutva to kill the Dalits in the villages. It is time for the OBCs to revolt against their self-serving leaders and get a new leadership which can give them new ideas and for whom OBC does not mean a family of their own but the entire community. We need a dynamic leadership which does not sale farmer’s land to corporate houses at the throwaway prices and have a clear vision to help and upgrade the communities. Alas, most of them have nothing except their caste. They remember their people only when they do nothing are defeated in the larger games of manipulation.
Where are the OBC students and their political leaders? Tamilnadu has taken the lead in this direction in a rare gesture of unanimity among the political class. But that unanimity is not visible in the North at the moment. In UP while every OBC caste is struggling to get an identity and a share in power but none of them is raging the issue of reservation in power. The reason behind this is the absence of the cultural movement among the OBCs. Unlike Tamilnadu where Periyar launched self respect movement for the OBCs and Dalits, north Indian OBCs still have not been able to divert their attention from the ritualistic Hindutva. The political ideas of the OBC leadership remained prejudicious and anti Dalits. Dalits is good for them as long as it vote to them but bad if the Dalit take the leadership. OBC leadership in the north must think that as long as they remain loyal soldiers of Hindutva as Ambedkar once said, they can not take on the powerful forces of corporations and religion, who jointly work together to thwart any new effort which challenges the status quo.
It is said that Periyar and his followers had no will to come to north and educate their ‘illiterate’ backward leaders who remain caged in the brahmanical agenda. Similarly, portraying Jyoti Ba Phule, as leaders of Bahujans have not worked as a community called Sainis feels that he was their leader. Kurmis have gone for Sardar Patel and Rajbhars towards Raja Sohail Dev. This is the irony of the entire movement in Uttar-Pradesh has been defeated by the shortsighted caste leaders who have very little to offer to their communities. They only need a power position and manipulating the sentiments of their communities. It is not for nothing that in Uttar-Pradesh, which is going to polls, that all the OBC-Dalit parties are running after the Brahmins and Thakurs. None of them have come out strongly against the current judgment of the Supreme Court. Perhaps, the leadership knows it would be too dangerous to ‘offend’ the Supreme Court because a majority of them are under the scanner of the Supreme Court.
More than the courts, Congress Party’s credentials in remain suspect in this regard. It is clear that with in the party, there is a group of member of Parliaments as well as Ministers who are opposed to quota for OBCs. One even doubt the credentials of H R Bhardwaj, the law minister who was brought back from hibernation for being Sonia loyalist, for his inability to put the government’s case properly in the court. A large number of OBC students who prepared for the IIMs and IITs have been denied human rights due to an intervention from the court, which many clearly term as retrogressive.
During the Mandal agitation and afterwards, it is the Dalits who have been supporting the reservation for the OBCs but OBC students hardly fought their battle. It is time for them to wake up and challenge the myth by the brahmanical media. Yes, I would say it firmly that Indian media remain confined to the sentiments of their fellow caste men who leave India after getting subsidized education from the elite institutions of IITs, IIMs and other institutions. This media does not see the plight of OBCs and MBCs.
It is the fallacy that the reservations have forced the upper castes to leave India. They had left India long before and they were using the services of the elite institutions to benefit their own community since a majority of them cannot afford to compete with the west on a level playing field.
The Indian Express today carried a story of Justice Parsayat quoting from the American Judiciary. The fact of the matter is that American Judicial system worked against the social justice but still it does not come in way of social justice. Secondly, in the United States and elsewhere, it is the minority, which is seeking the rights to be in the governance but in India it ironically the majority of Bahujans-Dalits who are asking to be given the space to govern and participate in the democracy. Prof Dipankar Gupta of the JNU has been in the news recently when he told the United Nations Human Rights Committee, in Geneva that there is no caste system in India and that the Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Vaishyas and Shudras do not have separate identities and they live together with great affection. Gupta has now come out strong in support of Supreme Court Judgment. Of-course, writing for mainstream media would not be that easy if you question the very basis of the Varnadhrama and its notoriety in keeping people subjugated. Dipankar Gupta is happy at the rational judgment of the Supreme Court and so are our friends in the media. The die has been caste and the judgment of the two-judge bench would become difficult for those who are celebrating today.
It may have been unintentional but the crude fact is that after the Supreme Court’s judgment, it is imperative for the government to go for a caste census. The upper caste leaders and bureaucracy has clearly not wanted to go for it, as they know it would be the last nail in their coffin. That the National Sample Survey which remains an organization of the upper elites in India could found 37% the population of the OBCs, and then it is for certain that the OBC population in Indian has grown much beyond what was in 1931. Let the government come out with a specific data on the OBC population and their social status. Just saying that all Yadavas have grown up because there are Mulayam and Lalu, is the travesty of truth. A majority of OBCs consisting MBCs whose social status remain as the Dalits. Ofcourse, these MBCs would always consider themselves higher in the social ladder despite weak economic strength yet they remain socially and educationally backwards.
There are various ways to measure socio economic ostracisation of the marginalized. And it should be done but the intention of the ruling party and those claiming ‘youth for equality’ is not to demolish the caste system but perpetrate it and ensure that their relatives and blood brothers remain safer in the new global world.
It is time not only for referendum but also for a constitutional review. To ensure that Parliament’s supremacy is retained, it is important that the leaders representing the communities have done their homework well. So far, there are very few who can speak with strength of their conviction and challenge. Democracy works on healthy relationship of judiciary with the Executive and legislature. One does not need moral preaching from the judges while exonerating themselves from the public scrutiny. If there is a Lokayukta for the state lagislature, there will have to be same provision for the judges also. And most importantly, why should the judiciary remain outside the ambit of quota and social justice. It is time for all the political parties, jurists, and academic to sit together and decide. The regular humiliation of merit and non-merit must stop. The country cannot remain silent when its majority is being humiliated by those who have no concern for the country and sole interest remain outside the country. Let us decide once for all, the entire issue of reservation. So it is also the time to review our constitution, which can make Parliament Supreme again. The present constitution was drafted by a legend called Ambedkar but his hands were tied with strong upper caste feudal presence in the constituent assembly. Let there be a new committee to look into the problems of the constitution and change it accordingly as numbers do matters in democracy. You cannot allow courts striking everything that is public welfare as against the spirit of the people.
Politicians have a lot to learn from this. No need for taking shelter in Supreme Court for taking potshots at others to score political goals. Introspecting the mistakes will help them realize whether it would the executive or the Supreme Court to run the country as they are doing it today. Their lack of convictions and moral high ground have given ample ammunition to the courts which might be unhealthy for democracy in the longer term as every good measure might be treated as ‘vote bank’ politics which the politicians are no doubt involved in. Time for them to look beyond their personal interest and serve the people.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
A two judges bench headed by Justice Ajit Parsayat has stayed the 27% quota meant for the Other Backward Communities in the higher education. The upper caste Hindus today celebrated Holy and Diwali. After the miserable failure and huge loss of advertisement by the favorite Indian cricket team virtually surrendered to Bangladesh and then to Srilanka, the reactions were similar to that happened to anti Mandal agitation in 1991. If our memories have not faded, we must revisit the events in Eden Gardens, Kolkata when the downtrodden Sri Lanka was inflicting a humiliating defeat and the Bhadralok crowd at Kolkata started throwing paper missiles, and stones at the Srilankan players. I am afraid, if this World Cup were being organized in India, the Indian people would not have allowed Bangladesh to win. That is upper caste nationalism in India. A nationalism, which does not recognize merit but purely create merit on the basis of one’s caste.
The defeat by the under estimated Bangladesh spelled a pall of gloom over the market which has been monopolized by the caste media which had lionized the team without realizing its real strength. India sunk into gloom (it was not a game but the nation was already declared world champions) and defeat clearly put the astrologers also to mat who were predicting super performance from the team. Nevertheless, despite this entire nonsensical attitude, the irrational astrology still is the best medicine that the caste Hindus takes. The doctors also have the same attitude as they have red tilak over their forehead and big temples outside the ICUs in Delhi. Nothing is irrational and unscientific as long as the Hindus believe in it. So Muslims become cruel for they slaughter animals but Hindus become ‘non violent’ when they slaughter goats, buffalos and pigs in the temples to please their Gods and Goddesses.
After days of gloom, the anchors at the TV studios are smiling for a ‘historic’ judgment of Supreme Court. Now, they can discuss things and bring the ‘cheerleaders’ to their studios suggesting that the ‘whole’ ‘nation’ is against reservation. A few doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or as I would like it call All India Institute of Manuwadi Studies have become ‘nation’ imagination. Based on their assumptions, the Supreme Court has stayed the order of the reservation for OBCs in the institutions of higher education, which were always meant for the Brahmins when Manu’s law first defined it. As India moved to secularism and democracy, Manu’s laws became politically though socially they remained as powerful as ever despite 9% growth rate. Understanding that power of democracy means power of number and not just democracy for the people but now it has become ‘of’ the people and ‘by’ the people. With the marginalized groups asserting their number power with more political aggressions, the upper castes were left with no options except to dilute the entire concept of social justice through the judicial process, which remain outside the purview of the quota. Moreover, through privatizing the various government owned corporations and services, the government has already nullified the concept of reservation.
Now, after the formation of Special Economic Zones, the government as well as the courts have hit on the backbones of our farmers. SEZ have been declared legalized while people have been uprooted from their nation. Land Reforms have been made redundant by the continuous protections by the courts. Today, the politicians use the courts for their own purposes. It is due to this ambiguity that the courts have now become the most powerful and uncontrolled institution of the country. A healthy democracy need independent judiciary and committed governance. Nodoubt, the political leadership during the past 20 years have reduced to nothing as more criminals taking lead but the power of the masses is relegated to ‘people’s representatives’. Still, even a bad democracy is better than an unaccountable government or military dictatorship. Ofcourse, this clearly means that it is the political class which will need to run the country and not the courts and the bureaucrats which is increasingly becoming the case in India.
Upper castes elite in Delhi often says that reservation is denying them basic human rights of equality and hence they are leaving for the United States. Let the courts ask them to stay in India if they studies in Indian schools. They cannot go abroad after getting the subsidized education at the premier Indian educational institutions. The youngsters do not know what is happening even outside their house. They would not even ask their parent as why the scavenger who clean their shit and toilet come from one particular community. This elite would not even know that in India there are places where people still clean shit and carry night soil. Yes, they are not interested to know about this.
Shockingly, the judgments in the past few years reflect of the growing trend to keep the middle classes happy. We have judges who speak for Hindutva terming it as a way of life. We have a former Supreme Court Judge who did not implicate a single politician in the anti Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984 and later became a Member of Parliament against all the ethics of impartiality of an institution. Right to Strike was also banned by the Kerala Highcourt, which was appreciated by the media and industries.
The Judges went overboard in terming the quotas as vote bank politics. Question is why not vote bank politics after all what are politicians required to do? Yes, if they are working for their people than the best one is that who does not to take care of their constituencies? It is absurd as former Prime Minister V.P.Singh said about the court order. Parliament passed a bill unanimously and the court’s are terming it as vote bank politics. The Judges further said that politicians should not divide the country on the basis of caste and that in India it has become habitual for people to claim ‘backward’ status. One need to support V.P.Singh’s demand for a referendum and census based on caste.
It is tragic that the record of the courts related to social justice and social reform reflect poverty of ideas and lack of human rights understanding. It is also reflected that the courts are consciously giving judgments on the basis of media campaign. A media, which has been thoroughly unprofessional and highly prejudiced one. Justice Rajendra Sachar had long back stated in a public meeting that the court buckle under public pressure. Unfortunately, there is no backward movement in India, which can take on the upper caste thugs who are destroying India. Except for the forthright stand of DMK, PMK and other political groups representing the OBCs there is no one to raise their voice. They remain loyal shudras providing fodder to Hindutva to kill the Dalits in the villages. It is time for the OBCs to revolt against their self-serving leaders and get a new leadership which can give them new ideas and for whom OBC does not mean a family of their own but the entire community. We need a dynamic leadership which does not sale farmer’s land to corporate houses at the throwaway prices and have a clear vision to help and upgrade the communities. Alas, most of them have nothing except their caste. They remember their people only when they do nothing are defeated in the larger games of manipulation.
Where are the OBC students and their political leaders? Tamilnadu has taken the lead in this direction in a rare gesture of unanimity among the political class. But that unanimity is not visible in the North at the moment. In UP while every OBC caste is struggling to get an identity and a share in power but none of them is raging the issue of reservation in power. The reason behind this is the absence of the cultural movement among the OBCs. Unlike Tamilnadu where Periyar launched self respect movement for the OBCs and Dalits, north Indian OBCs still have not been able to divert their attention from the ritualistic Hindutva. The political ideas of the OBC leadership remained prejudicious and anti Dalits. Dalits is good for them as long as it vote to them but bad if the Dalit take the leadership. OBC leadership in the north must think that as long as they remain loyal soldiers of Hindutva as Ambedkar once said, they can not take on the powerful forces of corporations and religion, who jointly work together to thwart any new effort which challenges the status quo.
It is said that Periyar and his followers had no will to come to north and educate their ‘illiterate’ backward leaders who remain caged in the brahmanical agenda. Similarly, portraying Jyoti Ba Phule, as leaders of Bahujans have not worked as a community called Sainis feels that he was their leader. Kurmis have gone for Sardar Patel and Rajbhars towards Raja Sohail Dev. This is the irony of the entire movement in Uttar-Pradesh has been defeated by the shortsighted caste leaders who have very little to offer to their communities. They only need a power position and manipulating the sentiments of their communities. It is not for nothing that in Uttar-Pradesh, which is going to polls, that all the OBC-Dalit parties are running after the Brahmins and Thakurs. None of them have come out strongly against the current judgment of the Supreme Court. Perhaps, the leadership knows it would be too dangerous to ‘offend’ the Supreme Court because a majority of them are under the scanner of the Supreme Court.
More than the courts, Congress Party’s credentials in remain suspect in this regard. It is clear that with in the party, there is a group of member of Parliaments as well as Ministers who are opposed to quota for OBCs. One even doubt the credentials of H R Bhardwaj, the law minister who was brought back from hibernation for being Sonia loyalist, for his inability to put the government’s case properly in the court. A large number of OBC students who prepared for the IIMs and IITs have been denied human rights due to an intervention from the court, which many clearly term as retrogressive.
During the Mandal agitation and afterwards, it is the Dalits who have been supporting the reservation for the OBCs but OBC students hardly fought their battle. It is time for them to wake up and challenge the myth by the brahmanical media. Yes, I would say it firmly that Indian media remain confined to the sentiments of their fellow caste men who leave India after getting subsidized education from the elite institutions of IITs, IIMs and other institutions. This media does not see the plight of OBCs and MBCs.
It is the fallacy that the reservations have forced the upper castes to leave India. They had left India long before and they were using the services of the elite institutions to benefit their own community since a majority of them cannot afford to compete with the west on a level playing field.
The Indian Express today carried a story of Justice Parsayat quoting from the American Judiciary. The fact of the matter is that American Judicial system worked against the social justice but still it does not come in way of social justice. Secondly, in the United States and elsewhere, it is the minority, which is seeking the rights to be in the governance but in India it ironically the majority of Bahujans-Dalits who are asking to be given the space to govern and participate in the democracy. Prof Dipankar Gupta of the JNU has been in the news recently when he told the United Nations Human Rights Committee, in Geneva that there is no caste system in India and that the Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Vaishyas and Shudras do not have separate identities and they live together with great affection. Gupta has now come out strong in support of Supreme Court Judgment. Of-course, writing for mainstream media would not be that easy if you question the very basis of the Varnadhrama and its notoriety in keeping people subjugated. Dipankar Gupta is happy at the rational judgment of the Supreme Court and so are our friends in the media. The die has been caste and the judgment of the two-judge bench would become difficult for those who are celebrating today.
It may have been unintentional but the crude fact is that after the Supreme Court’s judgment, it is imperative for the government to go for a caste census. The upper caste leaders and bureaucracy has clearly not wanted to go for it, as they know it would be the last nail in their coffin. That the National Sample Survey which remains an organization of the upper elites in India could found 37% the population of the OBCs, and then it is for certain that the OBC population in Indian has grown much beyond what was in 1931. Let the government come out with a specific data on the OBC population and their social status. Just saying that all Yadavas have grown up because there are Mulayam and Lalu, is the travesty of truth. A majority of OBCs consisting MBCs whose social status remain as the Dalits. Ofcourse, these MBCs would always consider themselves higher in the social ladder despite weak economic strength yet they remain socially and educationally backwards.
There are various ways to measure socio economic ostracisation of the marginalized. And it should be done but the intention of the ruling party and those claiming ‘youth for equality’ is not to demolish the caste system but perpetrate it and ensure that their relatives and blood brothers remain safer in the new global world.
It is time not only for referendum but also for a constitutional review. To ensure that Parliament’s supremacy is retained, it is important that the leaders representing the communities have done their homework well. So far, there are very few who can speak with strength of their conviction and challenge. Democracy works on healthy relationship of judiciary with the Executive and legislature. One does not need moral preaching from the judges while exonerating themselves from the public scrutiny. If there is a Lokayukta for the state lagislature, there will have to be same provision for the judges also. And most importantly, why should the judiciary remain outside the ambit of quota and social justice. It is time for all the political parties, jurists, and academic to sit together and decide. The regular humiliation of merit and non-merit must stop. The country cannot remain silent when its majority is being humiliated by those who have no concern for the country and sole interest remain outside the country. Let us decide once for all, the entire issue of reservation. So it is also the time to review our constitution, which can make Parliament Supreme again. The present constitution was drafted by a legend called Ambedkar but his hands were tied with strong upper caste feudal presence in the constituent assembly. Let there be a new committee to look into the problems of the constitution and change it accordingly as numbers do matters in democracy. You cannot allow courts striking everything that is public welfare as against the spirit of the people.
Politicians have a lot to learn from this. No need for taking shelter in Supreme Court for taking potshots at others to score political goals. Introspecting the mistakes will help them realize whether it would the executive or the Supreme Court to run the country as they are doing it today. Their lack of convictions and moral high ground have given ample ammunition to the courts which might be unhealthy for democracy in the longer term as every good measure might be treated as ‘vote bank’ politics which the politicians are no doubt involved in. Time for them to look beyond their personal interest and serve the people.
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