Quotas: RSSHasGot It Right, For Once
The RSS chief’s concerns about reservations cannot be unrelated to the angst of the Patel community in Gujarat,
which has been disheartened by the lack of education and employment opportunities
he Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) chief, Mohan
Bhagwat, deserves a mild
round of applause for calling
for a relook at the reservations
policy.
Following his suggestion, at least three
Congress leaders have gathered enough
courage to say that a review should con-
sider making economic status rather
than caste the basis of quotas.
Before last year’s general election, a
senior Congress leader, Janardhan
Dwivedi, had made a similar statement.
It is unlikely, however, that their
bosses in the party, the mother-and-son
duo of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, will back
them considering that the Congress
president had forced a reluctant Man-
mohan Singh to renew the inclusion of
caste data in the census operations of
2011 after a gap of eight decades.
Her objective was no different from
that of the Hindi belt leaders who use the
bait of providing education and employ-
ment in government institutions to spe-
cific caste groups to build up their
support bases.
It is this unabashed partisan purpose
which has seemingly persuaded the RSS
chief to seek an assessment of the quota
system for those sections which “require
reservation and for how long”.
However, the timing of Bhagwat’s sug-
gestion was disadvantageous for the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for it en-
abled its opponents in the forthcoming
Bihar elections to accuse the BJP of an
upper caste bias which seeks to block the
upward mobility of the lower castes by
ending the quota system.
The BJP-led Rajasthan government’s
decision to allot quotas to the economi-
cally weaker sections of the “forward”
castes has also provided grist to the
party’s opponents. A similar initiative has
also been taken in BJP-ruled Gujarat.
Notwithstanding these steps, the BJP
is trying to distance itself from its men-
tor’s counsel and the RSS, too, is now
hemming and hawing about the issue
because it has belatedly realized that it
had wandered into an area where angels
fear to tread.
It will be a mistake, however, to be-
lieve that Bhagwat’s observations have
anything to do with the visions of Jawa-
harlal Nehru and other stalwarts of the
freedommovement who wanted the
caste system to wither away in an inde-
pendent India
with the growth of
a meritocracy be-
cause of the
spread of quality
education and the
cultivation of a sci-
entific temper.
Instead, the RSS
chief’s concerns
cannot be unre-
lated to the angst
of the Patel community in Gujarat, which
has been disheartened by the lack of ed-
ucation and employment opportunities
because of the inroads made into these
fields by groups which flaunt their reser-
vation rights even if they may be less
qualified than those who are outside the
ambit of the quota system.
Hence, the demand of the gun-toting
and sword-wielding young leader of the
generally well-off Patels or Patidars, as
they are also known, Hardik Patel, that
his community be included in the Other
Backward Classes (OBC) category.
Considering that he has called for ei-
ther an inclusion in the quota system, or
for dispensing with the reservations alto-
gether, there is little doubt that he has
touched a chord in
the hearts of not
only the upper
castes, who have
always been
against the reserva-
tions, but also
those who believe
that this form of af-
firmative action
has fostered vested
interests who de-
liberately ignore the original idea of the
quotas being offered for a limited period
and that, too, for only the two most de-
prived groups - the Dalits and Adivasis.
Instead, the quotas have been ex-
tended to communities like the politi-
cally influential Yadavs even if they still
experience some of the social stigma be-
cause of their “backwardness”.
What is more, the Supreme Court’s di-
rective about denying what is called the
“creamy layers”, or those who have bene-
fitted from the reservations, any further
access to quotas has been studiously cir-
cumvented by successive governments
of various hues.
However, as is evident from the sug-
gestions that the quota system be reori-
ented towards the poorer sections of all
castes, the present virtual travesty of the
original intent of the reservations is be-
coming increasingly obvious.
Yet, the political class is too focussed
on making immediate gains by playing
the caste card to see how the unavoid-
able fallout of the denial of opportunity
to the meritorious can breed social ten-
sion, as the agitation of the Patels show.
At present, only Narendra Modi has
made an attempt to turn the spotlight on
development even if his party, and espe-
cially its allies, are not averse to playing
the caste game in Bihar.
Otherwise, all the other parties, in-
cluding the supposedly progressive Left,
have made no attempt to mobilize pub-
lic opinion against quotas while the Aam
Admi Party is too busy making space for
itself in politics to spend much time on a
contentious subject.
The murmurs in the Congress about a
new approach show that the ingrained
sycophancy of its members towards the
Nehru-Gandhis hasn’t yet made the
party totally brain dead. But, unfortu-
nately, neither Sonia nor Rahul has the
intellectual prowess to consider the mat-
ter with all its implications and chart a
new course. The Bihar elections are im-
portant in this context because there will
be a direct contest between a pro-devel-
opment and a pro-casteist outlook. Last
year, the development model had re-
ceived a thumbs-up signal from the vot-
ers. The results on November 8 will show
their present mindset.
T
Amulya
Ganguli
Columnist
Indo-Asian News Service
sychoanalyst-turned-writer Sud-
hir Kakar’s latest book, ‘The Devil
Take Love’, is a heady mix of sex-
uality, ancient India and poetry.
The deeply erotic book comes
against the backdrop of a heated debate
in the country on porn ban and writers’
freedom of expression. The novel traces
the life of the 7th century legendary San-
skrit poet Bhartrihari and his tussle be-
tween sexual self-discovery and intellect.
“The relevance of Bhartrihari is that he
represents the perennial Indian struggle
between flesh and spirit. It has been a
struggle for India in the last 1,100 years. A
balance of eroticism and spirituality is
needed in India,” Kakar said in an inter-
view in Bhutan on the sidelines of a liter-
ary festival and later on the phone from
Delhi.
The book unravels the liberal facet of
ancient India where a temple was devoted
to Kamadeva (king of desire) and a festival
was observed for him.
“Bhartrihari’ s poetry is
a struggle for the balance
of eroticism and asceti-
cism,” explains Kakar who
has more than 20 titles to
his credit. The book has at
least three pages devoted
to lovemaking.
Kakar also disputes at-
tempts to glorify the spiri-
tual past of ancient India.
“It is a false notion that
ancient India was purely
spiritual as it is being pro-
jected now. It is good for
Indians to learn that there
have been two sides to an-
cient India,” said the author.
Defining passion as the driving force
behind any creation, Kakar illustrates how
Kama (lust) can’t be defied. “The sixth
century Brihatsamhita says that from the
greatest God to the smallest worm, every-
thing is ruled by desire. Even Lord Shiva
had to take four faces to
have a look at a woman,”
said Kakar who translated
‘The Kamasutra’ with
Wendy Doniger .
The protagonist Bhar-
trihari, as a young man,
travels from the provincial
town of Jalandhar to the
magnificent city of Uj-
jayini. His poetic prowess
is recognized; he becomes
the court poet in the king-
dom of Avanti.
Though he climbed the
ladder of success and
fame in a short span of
time, the poet is torn between sexual pas-
sion and erotic disenchantment, as the
appeal of the senses tussles with the call
of the spirit.
As Bhartrihari’s poems are classified
under shringara, vairagya and niti (love,
renunciation and moral conduct), it is ap-
plicable for modern Indian society too,
Kakar added.
‘The Devil Take Love’ eloquently nar-
rates life in cosmopolitan Ujjayini while
exploring the challenges in a poet’s mind.
Bhartrihari is perceived to be the most
modern among Sanskrit poets.
Kakar, however, describes his work as
fiction and Bhartrihari as a ghost. “I would
describe him as a historical ghost and a
novelist’s delight. As there was a lack of in-
formation on the historical person behind
the poet, I used my imagination to grasp
the emotional truth of the poet,” said
Kakar.
The author says that the intriguing title,
‘The Devil Take Love’, came from one of
Bhartrihari’s verses when he was disillu-
sioned with life and fell from grace. Kakar
did his master’s degree in business eco-
nomics fromGermany and doctorate in
economics fromVienna, before training in
psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud In-
stitute in Frankfurt.
NeedToBalanceEroticismAndSpirituality
P
By Preetha Nair
Opinion
News India Times
October 9, 2015
4
