This is with reference to your cover story The Coming Caste Wars (Oct 31). Can we now at least admit that reservations have utterly failed! Has a single caste, tribe or any other group, benefited from reservation to the extent that it doesn’t need quotas anymore? Has reservation done any good for anyone except politicians and the rich, well-connected upper layer in each caste, which does not need it anyway? If after all these decades of reservations, the only demand is for even more reservation, is it not a proof that the whole exercise is not only futile, but also constitutes a real threat to the country? This is the one opportunity we have to not just review the entire idea of reservation, but also to throw it into the dustbin as a failed experiment. If we do not do this now, the current aggressive wave of demands for quota will rip the country apart. And nobody will be able to blame Pakistan for this.
Biswapriya Purkayastha, Shillong
How many people in India have an idea about the effects of reservation? Let me confess, that I don’t have any idea. The debate has reached a point where political leaders want reservations in private jobs. Maybe it is this that has led to the Jat, Patidar and Maratha agitations.
Aditya Mookerjee, Belgaum
The Mandal Commission doesn’t deserve so much analysis and linkages with globalisation and all that. It was constituted in 1979 by the Janata Party government under prime minister Morarji Desai, with a mandate to identify the socially and educationally backward groups. The report of the commission was submitted in 1980 and gathered dust for a decade, perhaps because no government was willing to stir up a hornet’s nest, which actually happened after the sudden implementation of the report in 1990 by the then prime minister V.P. Singh. It was after the adoption of the report that the BJP, fearing a division of its Hindu votebank, announced Advani’s Somnath-Ayodhya rath yatra . And the events that followed—Advani’s arrest in Bihar on the orders of then Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav and the killing of karsevaks in Ayodhya in police firing—that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid by violent karsevaks. ‘Mandal’ managed to divide society on caste lines as never before. As for now, caste votebanks dominate electoral politics and no political party can afford to oppose the existing structure of reservations. Today, affluent caste groups such as the Patels, Marathas, Jats and Gujjars are demanding reservations. We witnessed how Lalu Prasad Yadav and some other politicians fumed after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, quite justifiably, asked for a review of the reservation policy. All right-thinking people are of the view that the basis for reservation should be economic status rather than the caste of a person. However, the bitter truth is that the Indian democratic system has become a hostage to caste politics and there is not even the remotest possibility of rescuing it.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
The article presented a panorama of castiest alignments that have destructive tendencies. Nobody can predict the future course of action of obscurantist groups in the name of reservation. Did India throw off its colonial yoke to accept self-destructive policies to encourage the division of our society? If such movements are allowed to escalate, the sanctity of democracy will be questioned and mob aggression will spread anarchy far and wide. It seems our society has become resilient enough to accept all kinds of protests. This is a sign of the disintegration of society.
M.K. Somanatha, Cherthala
Anyone who is still under the notion that we have great leaders must read this article. Our politicians are exacerbating the already deep fractures in society and Modi and Co are just encouraging this trend. We are at a very dangerous time in history, where the policies of the present government are further shrinking the already narrow-minded outlook of our society.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
If there is no uniform civil code, other public interest policies shouldn't be uniform either!
Rajneesh Batra, New Delhi
The biggest curse to have befallen medical education in India (Teaching Shops of Medicine, Cover story, Oct 24) is the entry of private enterprise. Every wayside kiosk is converted into a ‘medical college’ with the one-point agenda of making huge money. Seats are sold at rates running into a crore or more. During inspections, these colleges summon up pro tem staff and hire required infrastructure for a couple of days or weeks. Admission processes are dubious: students get seats regardless of merit or aptitude as long as they have parents who will pay anything for making their children doctors or specialists. As a result, the doctors who qualify from these colleges are mostly degree-holders without the ability to care for or treat patients.
Dr George Jacob, Kochi
It is strange that instead of empowering the Medical Council of India (MCI), the government plans to dismantle it and create a newfangled National Medical Commission to oversee medical education. The idea, it seems, is to put in place a regime controlled by top bureaucrats who will do the bidding of the prime minister and other ministers. Old stories of corruption notwithstanding, the MCI’s inspections were beginning to bring some degree of quality to medical education in the wayward private sector. The proposed new dispensation is probably meant to put paid to all that.
M.Y. Shariff, Chennai
Your cover headline (Doctored Colleges) and the tag ‘MBBS for Sale’ on the white coat say it all. That’s ethical journalism on your part, something that’s getting scarce in India. There seems to be no hope of curing the ills of medical education and the resultant low quality in healthcare.
J.N. Bhartiya, Hyderabad
Your well-researched story Playing Hide & Seek With Life (Oct 31) provides insight into the psyche of a cancer patient. It also reveals that the treatment of cancer is increasingly becoming target-specific: instead of blunderbusses, doctors are using high-precision rifles. This has been made possible through cell-sensitisation techniques. Only cancerous cells get tagged and the destroying chemicals or radiation target them precisely. Early detection is vital to achieving a complete cure. Therefore, creating awareness about cancer is important. Governments must also think of finding a way to help patients and their families bear the huge expenses of treating cancer.
Vinod C. Dixit, Ahmedabad
The article on how the CPI(M) in Kerala is concentrating on an image makeover was an interesting read (Fat Cats Of A Red Citadel, Oct 31). Keralites must now feel that a change of guard is probably for the better. The Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government has set a healthy precedent by showing the door to a tainted minister, which his predecessor didn’t do. The Congress-led UDF government was the hardest hit, with the solar power scam and Sarita Nair’s accusations showing them in a bad light. Pinarayi’s stern action appears to be a silver lining.
C. Chandrasekaran, Madurai
This refers to Chronicles of the Colonial Loot (October 31), an excerpt from Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India. Does Tharoor have any credibility left? He lives a flamboyant life and writes preachy left-of-centre stuff. We all know what he is and where his interests are focused—power, money and women. Work on that rather than waste time writing soliloquies on issues such as this, which are too stale for our time. The British left India 69 years ago and you can’t change history. It’s all over and happened irretrievably. Wake up, sir. Ramachandra Guha is another guy who excels in hypocrisy. These guys are so arrogant, they tend to underestimate the intelligence of the general public and think they can mouth anything that is populist and project themselves as some kind of intellectuals.
On a matter such as water-sharing, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are not able to come to terms. Had they been independent countries, by now they would have gone to war. Such is the fissiparousness of us and our leaders. If we were really a united lot, no foreign power would have dared to conquer us. Pre-independence India was littered with umpteen small kingdoms and principalities, headed by arrogant, self-serving feudal lords who had no vision or even a concept of India. It’s only a pipe dream of the likes of Tharoor that they would have surrendered their absolute power and reigning rights on their own in order to unify the subcontinent as India and elect Jawaharlal Nehru as the prime minister of a constitutional monarchy. As the intellectual that you think you are, you should talk sensibly, with well-balanced facts, not spout nonsense that has no relevance now.
Sandilya, Chennai
This is about the tough choices Nawaz Sharif faces in choosing a successor to army chief Gen Raheel Sharif (Changing Engines In Rawalpindi, Oct 24). Actually, Sharif, a hard-nosed businessman, wants peaceful relations with India. But one has to read the Pakistani army’s handbook to realise that its raison d’etre is hatred for the Hindu and his Hindustan.
Rajiv Chopra, Jammu
This is about the interview with RSS leader Indresh Kumar (Pak trying to finish off...Kashmiris, Oct 17). The RSS should now worry about the chicken coming home to roost. They created the communal crisis the country is going through now. However, an even more dangerous situation, which the RSS and its affiliates have stoked and spurred, is the war between castes. These caste wars will tear the country apart. The RSS’s efforts to re-establish Brahmin hegemony and take lower castes for a ride, keeping them in permanent servitude, will not succeed. The other groups are beginning to see the diabolical designs of the RSS. The Patidars, Marathas and the Jats have woken up to the reality.
T. Nayak, Washington
I refer to the story on the possibility of manufacturing ‘desi’ denims (Sanskari Denim Co, Oct 17). Everyone knows that a major proportion of the selling price of branded jeans made in India goes in royalties for using the brand name, designing fees and marketing costs. Jeans are essentially a videshi product, and thus for the wearer, it’s the brand that matters. It has nothing to do with the swadeshi-videshi debate.
Jayanthi Sri Ramlal, Navi Mumbai
To my mind, Akash Verma’s letter (Letters, Sep 26) comparing Mother Teresa with Puttaparthy Sai Baba was uncalled for. Mother served, while Baba commanded, gave darshans, expected favours in cash and kind. He can thus be compared with Amma of Kerala, who has a string of colleges and hospitals all across India, including a TV channel. Unlike Sai Baba, however, she is not political, and thus receives no visitors asking for favours in politics. But Mother Teresa was only service oriented. Her commitment towards the poorest of the poor is unparalleled.
Nikhil Raghavan, Hyderabad
This refers to Inheritance of Customary Injustice (October 31). Irrespective of whether a uniform civil code is promulgated or not, the Islamic way of instant divorce (triple talaq) must be abolished as it is anti-constitutional. Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu was absolutely right in calling the medieval practice anti-civilisation, gender-discriminatory and against the principles of democracy. I wonder how the practice survived so long in a democracy even when progressive women have been fighting against gender injustice.
K.P. Rajan, Mumbai
As ‘triple talaq’ separates man and wife instantaneously upon its utterance by a man, leaving no remedy to the woman, deletion of this draconian clause is essential to bring parity. It is unfortunate that AIMPLB and other Muslim organisations want the pratice to stay. Any clause in personal laws that violates the right to equality between man and woman enshrined in the Constitution must be removed. I hope wisdom dawns on these organisations and helps them see the logic in Muslim women’s demand for abolition of triple talaq.
K.R. Srinivasan, Secunderabad
Though most Muslim women are against triple talaq and have been voicing their opposition to it for long, ‘secular’ bigwigs in politics would oppose any attempt by the BJP government to go ahead with the uniform civil code. Too many well-meaning people see it as majoritarianism under the garb of social reform. They should understand why even the courts have said in various judgements that the government should move towards a uniform code. There are reasonable, well-founded arguments in favour of doing away with age-old customs that are incongruous with the aspirations and rights of educated women and the changing needs of society.
It should be noted that the civil code in Goa, which was under the Portuguese rule until 1961, has no discriminatory provisions for Muslim women. But, no matter how logically sound the arguments that BJP spokespersons come up with, they would only cause disquiet among Muslims. Small wonder then that several Muslim organisations have called for a boycott of the Law Commission’s online questionnaire on the uniform civil code. It is a matter that should be debated among the Muslims, without any outside interference, especially from the BJP.
Vani A., On E-Mail
Rajesh Ramachandran’s New Delhi Diary (October 24) hit the bull’s eye in delinking the Outlook editor from both RSS and Rahul Gandhi. The editor was accused of being a “Gandhi family chamcha” for being critical of P.V. Narasimha Rao. But was it not PVN’s inept handling that led to the demolition of Babri Masjid during his tenure as PM? Hasn’t Nehru been criticised before, as also the rest of the Gandhi clan? So why take umbrage at RR’s stance? On the surgical strike, the Modi government should acknowledge that this wasn’t the first time, instead of bringing in a reference to Israel like the PM did. Now, if Outlook says this, it becomes a chamcha of the RSS-BJP in the eyes of letter-writers who refuse to accept that it is the journalist’s calling to call a spade a spade, and that, while comments are free, facts are sacred. The late Vinod Mehta was forthright; despite the brickbats he got every week, he minced no words. Keep up the good work, Outlook.
Vimal Kumar, Hyderabad
