Pity that factionalism in the ruling party haunts Kerala even after a change of government (Red Fort Blues Concerto, May 29). Practically, for its people, the Antony and Karunakaran camps have just been replaced by those led by CM V.S. Achuthanandan and cpi(m) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. With the Pinarayi lobby having pocketed plum ministries, the key question is whether VS would be a mere dummy CM. A free VS would be better for the people.
M.B.B., Salalah
Your story Rapid Fire Round (May 29) belongs to that genre of reportage based on relentless (but fruitless) efforts to deflect public opinion from the growing success of the Left. Creation of personal fiefdoms—which stems from sycophancy—is an impossible thing to imagine in the cpi(m), which has had the history of a leader refusing prime ministership. Instead of nitpicking, the party deserves kudos for consistently bringing in livelihood issues to the political centrestage of the nation.
Kasim Sait, Chennai
Sad that even educated people are creating this unnecessary hue and cry over the release of The Da Vinci Code, even seeking its ban at one stage (Believe It Or Not, Folks, May 29). Dan Brown, on whose book the film is based, has said nothing detrimental to Christian beliefs. In fact, the novel beautifully glorifies the image of femininity as never before—something essentially required in today’s time. In a masterly way, it projects the feminine as an inseparable part of any religion, age, society, family or community. If anything, Brown deserves applause for his remarkable efforts in underscoring the equality of women.
Dr Sanjay Kapoor, on e-mail
I am surprised that Christians, with their nearly 100 per cent literacy and generally liberal outlook, should have objections to the screening of the film. Is their religious belief so fickle that it would be shattered by seeing a movie? Why are even their religious leaders and wise men panicking? Are they not sure of the teachings that have been handed down to them over generations for two millennia? The first question that comes to any sane mind upon seeing the clergy’s high-profile anti-film campaign is—has the church really been hiding something? Finally, will a married God be a lesser God? Personally, what I feel is he will be a more complete God.
Saroj Chadha, New Delhi
If Hindu scriptures are open for questioning—and I believe they should be—then why not the Bible? Such exercises may lead to digging up some new truths—sometimes even bitter ones. So what?
Anand Vaidya, Leicester, UK
Frankly, since when did this great belief of the Catholic Church in free speech begin? It has the history of having burnt alive Giordano Bruno for proposing that the earth moved around the sun. Didn’t it torture Galileo in the inquisition chamber for his ideas on the solar system? In our times, The Da Vinci Code has spoken about the concept of one God—that of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. Of course, this doesn’t prevent violence among them. Good if this great book helps refine our reasoning skills, illuminates and dispels the dark lies, superstition, falsehood, hypocrisy, and perfidy of primitive religious texts that blunt the thinking power of people.
K. Narayanaswamy, Chennai
Trust me, The Da Vinci Code is a below-average Hollywood film mixed with more fiction than facts. We shouldn’t give it any undue importance. Some people always prefer to select provocative subjects for books and cinema so as to earn quick money and fame. The believers of religion should, instead of protesting the work, pray to the Almighty to show these people the right path.
M.B. Baben, Oman
The whole debate over whether or not Jesus married Mary Magdalene is pointless. I would rather remember all the preachings and messages of Jesus than his personal life. Preyoshi Ganguly, Calcutta
Maria Aurora Couto has made some interesting points (No Return to Inquisition, May 29). It nicely highlights how many of us Christians might have ended up overreacting to those "tissue(s) of specious arguments". In the process, we might have portrayed ourselves as an intolerant community. A sad thing to have happened. But to comment that this harks back to the days of Inquisition is in bad taste. It’s not expected from somebody who knows what the Inquisition was all about—the framework within which its powers were exercised. In Goa, the Catholic church is conscious of its bad legacy. Even then, we have our own Dan Browns here. They keep writing a blend of history and fiction, continue to harp on Inquisition every now and then, thus lending ammunition to one’s own opponents.
Francisco Colaco, Margoa
Of course, Indians are inveterate plagiarists (Ctrl C, Ctrl V, May 15). Look at Chanakya who shamelessly copied Machiavelli, and has come to be known as the Machiavelli of India. Or Kalidas who freely stole from Shakespeare, thus becoming the Indian Shakespeare. Or Aryabhatta, who, needless to say, purloined from Newton. And the guys who fashioned those vimans that were nothing more than helicopters which Sikorski invented. In every field of arts and sciences, Indians have merrily pirated, pinched and thieved from time immemorial. It runs in their blood. Even V. Shantaram, maker of the film Admi, copied from Waterloo Bridge, never mind that he did it before the Hollywood film was produced.
Som Benegal, on e-mail
Nidhi Kaila’s services are an eye-opener to all those who can visualise the struggles of visually-challenged people (Feel For An Equal World, May 29). Today I am a student. And tomorrow, when I will become a professional of some sort, I will definitely go in for my own braille visiting card.
Parul Bhandari, on e-mail
As a proverb, "Love me, love my dog" may not sound that bad. But Vinod Mehta has no right to make the same demand on his readers (Delhi Diary, May 22) when he finds nothing better to write on than his dog. Agreed, dog tales can be touching but this one—of plain mischief—is not.
P. Dasgupta, New Delhi
Reservation for OBCs, it’s no secret, is just a political tool for parties to corner the maximum electoral advantage (Dr No, May 29). As for the agitation, whether pro or anti reservation, it’s led by the privileged on either side; the actual needy on both sides are neither in a position to agitate or avail of any government bounty. If the government really wants to do something for the upliftment of the downtrodden, it should factor in only two of our castes: the rich and the poor. Unless our villagefolk, small farmers and labourers are included in the overall welfare schema, Gandhi’s dream will remain a mirage of history.
S.K. Atri, New Delhi
What’s one supposed to do if one of your hands is paralysed? Paralyse the other one? I’m an engineer and have a few friends in the SC/ST categories. Nearly 80 per cent of them were way, way behind the general category students. Now you’re increasing their numbers. Can our government think of no other meaningful, fruitful and better way to achieve social equality and justice than just reservation?
Komal Bhardwaj, on e-mail
Affirmative action of a voluntary nature won’t work in India as it has in the US (Rainbow Warriors, May 29). The deep-rooted prejudices of caste have not disappeared from our minds. One only has to recall the case of former president K.R. Narayanan, a topper in his university, who was denied a government job in Kerala for his caste. Occasional flashes of humanity which outshine caste are only exceptions.
M. Muthukrishnan, Bangalore
The present agitation against reservations is the biggest event management exercise conducted in our country (Dr No, May 29). It’s high time the anti-reservationists stopped hiding behind the reasoning of merit while opposing reservations. Does anybody complain about "reservation" via capitation fee, which goes on shamelessly? Isn’t merit a casualty in such cases? We would accept the genuineness of this agitation if the compromise of merit via capitation fees was also on the agitationists’ agenda.
L.K. Henduklal, Mumbai
"Why must the protesters always take to a broom or shoe-brush? Why don’t they milk cows? Are they not the preserve of a certain caste?" asks a Dalit student. Because it’s more convenient to carry a broom and protest rather than taking a cow in the middle of the road and milking it as a mark of protest! The entire OBC reservation argument seems specious. As per NSSO data, the OBC share in total employment equals their share in population; their share in professional jobs is also similar to their share in college enrolment, which in turn is in line with their share in the high-school completing population. The priority then should be in increasing seats in primary education, not reservation in institutes of higher learning.
Novonil Guha, Delhi
The Divine Reservation Policy initiated by Manu and practised for 5,000 years has created a microscopic ‘high-caste’ elite which controls more than 90 per cent of our GDP. If they’re negating reservation now it’s due to the fear that it would pave the way for redistribution of wealth in the country. The protest is not about merit, but as even the protesters admit, because it would reduce them to doing menial tasks for a living. In a democratic society, redistribution of wealth has to take place: reservation is one policy option to achieve it.
S. Meshram, Nagpur
Arjun Singh is just wasting time in all this gimmickry. He should understand that he can never become prime minister, which has been his life-long ambition. I doubt if he’ll even make it as a junior minister in the Congress’ fantasy government headed by Rahul Gandhi.
Rajeev, Detroit, US
The proportion of women in our population is 50 per cent, but none of the wise men in Parliament would agree to provide quota for them. Women do not count in the rotten world of Indian politics.
Udita Agrawal, New Delhi
And you thought this was it. No sirree, there’s more to come: a constitutional amendment taking quota to more than 50 per cent; reservation for religious groups like the Muslims; and reservations in the private sector.
Biraj K., Calcutta
I’m not against affirmative action for the compensation of historical wrongs. What rankles is the lopsided way in which the self-appointed guardians of the backward castes (the politicos) have decided to undertake the task. Why haven’t they considered it important enough to ensure the provision of good primary and secondary education (as well as primary healthcare) to our people as a whole and to BCs in particular? It would automatically open up many more options for them rather than the sanctimonious one being presented by the HRD ministry of reserving a few thousand places in India’s premier institutes. The solutions being propounded to placate the protesters sound more like band-aids being taped on to a bucket which has sprung too many holes! Increase seats, the government has offered. While there’s definitely a need to increase the capacity of India’s premier universities, it cannot be a kneejerk reaction to anti-reservation protests. Expanding capacity needs infrastructure, money, competence, and must be well thought through. Strange that poverty, the biggest divider in contemporary Indian society, is not important for our MPs. It’s caste that wins the game for our rulers!
Ayesha De Costa, Bangalore
Arjun Singh has done well to notch up enough hatred to last a lifetime. If such a prominent section of the intelligentsia protesting over so many days doesn’t carry any weight, we should all think of buying plots in the now-democratic Kathmandu and migrate before the free borders collapse. The government actions over the past weeks had nothing ‘democratic’ about them. India is fast becoming the god-forsaken penal settlement that the Congress wants it to become. All hail Mr Singh for making us realise this once and for all.
S. Vashishtha, on e-mail
Backward castes allege they were suppressed for centuries by Brahmins and call themselves ‘Made backward’ in Tamil Nadu (Southern Solitude). However, it was the SCs who were suppressed. The backward castes had access to education, including Sanskrit. Only the Vedas were denied to the fourth varna. Great Tamil intellectuals like Thiruvalluvar, Nammaazhwaar, Kamban and Avvaiyaar were backwards. The maths professor who lectured Srinivasa Ramanujan at Pachaiappa’s College in Chennai was a Singaravelu Mudaliar of the fourth varna. The fruits of oppression are rich indeed! Instead, why don’t the backwards answer why mbcs agitated for a separate quota?
R.Narasimhan, Chennai
The Brahmins of south India, especially TN, have neither the stomach nor the time to launch any protest against reservation even though they’ve been subjected to almost a century of vile racial abuse, including cutting of Brahmin tufts and sacred threads by all Dravidian parties starting with the Justice Party, right through to the DK, DMK, AIADMK, MDMK, PMK etc culminating in the arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya. In fact, when the DMK defeated the Congress for the first time in 1967, Karunanidhi promised he’d make Brahmins clean the toilets of the backward classes. There have been three major effects of this persecution. One, Brahmins from the south have moved north where their success has irritated the rest of the country so much that Bal Thackeray dedicated almost his entire life to drive south Indians out of Bombay. Second, Brahmins from the south have migrated in large numbers to the US, contributing both to the American economy and the American population. Third, the large surplus of capable youngsters who haven’t been able to qualify themselves professionally have moved to the mushrooming BPOs, which provides them an alternate outlet.
P.B. Mohan, Chennai
If Mandal-I helped OBCs grab political and administrative power, Mandal-II will help them take away seats in higher education and private sector jobs using their brute electoral power. And going by the example of the southern states, it’s clear they won’t give up quotas even when they corner 90 per cent of the seats in medical colleges by merit. Even the creamy layer shamelessly refuses to give up quotas. Sons of sc/st ias officers or ministers are unwilling to compete with the sons of forward-caste peons on merit! Merit has become a dirty word in caste politics. The way things are going, it won’t be long before there’ll be reservation in the cricket team, army and judiciary.
Dr A.K. Ajmani, New Delhi
If only 430 out of 1,445 seats are available to the open category and of those, only 38 from the open category qualify, it shows that the reserved classes are competent enough, and they don’t need reservations. What is the percentage proportion of the general category in TN? If it’s less than 3 per cent of the total population, fine; else it amounts to a marginalisation of the general class. Do we need a classless and casteless society or do we need bloody revolutions in the name of past wrongs?
Krupal Bhavsar, Ahmedabad
It was surprising to hear the pmk founder advising the striking doctors and students to participate in talks rather than striking work. This, from the founder of demonstrations, strikes and bandhs in TN? People down South remember how Ramadoss almost paralysed the AIADMK government by indulging in his favourite sport of agitation. On the other hand, maybe Ramadoss Sr was too concerned about the dip in health services in the capital for which his son Anbumani has been facing the fire.
Dr David Peniel, Tiruchy
Being a student of history of religions, I’ve come to take an interest in Indian sociology. The English instituted quotas in the late 19th century in their ordinary efforts to "divide and rule". The system also attempted to bring a national standard to the diversified jaat classifications. I do understand most abbreviations like OBC and so forth but ever so often a new one appears—now MBC—that completely alters my ability to evaluate information. Is there any overview of the classification system of the quotas?
Anders Agren, Stockholm
Instead of America’s Rainbow Warriors, why didn’t you cite the UK’s example? There are no reservations here. But there are two very important things: compulsory and free education up to ‘A’ levels and 90 per cent subsidised higher education; and equal opportunities in jobs. The Hindus, almost all of them OBCs, came to the UK in 1971 as refugees, completely bankrupt. They started their small businesses, cornershops, etc. They suffered horrendous racism, but had only one thing on their mind: to become successful at any cost. The most important thing they did was to send their children to schools and colleges, unlike the Blacks and Muslims who were content with wage labour. So, even though they started on the same level ground, the Hindus (mainly OBCs) overtook the Blacks and Muslims, and even quite a few of the local whites.
Anand, Leicester, UK
In the US, many nris are taking advantage of the AA Program in education and business regardless of their station of birth or richness. I (a Gujarati Muslim) and my partner (Assamese Brahmin) have been running a consulting engineering company since 1984 and regularly fulfil AA quota in highway and environmental engineering projects. There are many such companies. Both of us had a privileged upbringing and education in India and here. Why can’t India devise a system where the underprivileged can get a helping hand and not a mere handout?
J. Malek, Massachusetts
Instead of good ol’ Condi, the honour of being the other face of reservation should have gone to George W. Bush.
Srinivas Sridhar, Bangalore
Outlook is conveniently forgetting that Condoleezza is a "creamy layer" Black born to affluent parents. AA has hardly helped the Blacks (the recent Hurricane Katrina is testimony to that). This is exactly what we don’t need. The efforts should be made at the grassroots level favouring the most poor and most backward (where in my opinion the US has failed).
Ashwin, Baton Rouge, US
You seem to have got AA in US all wrong. I’ve been teaching in a US university for over 25 years. AA here means that few representatives of ethnic groups from Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos and American-Indians (natives) be admitted to the universities. My university has about 7 per cent minorities. Harvard, mit, Stanford and Caltech and others have much less. There, even minorities have to compete. As for the Condoleezza Rice example, we have had our Jagjivan Rams.
Ravindra Kalia, Minnesota
The difference your rather one-sided article omits is that there are great many more universities, and many of considerable repute, in the US than in India. I studied at the University of Michigan and am very aware of the expectations the university has of its students, with respect to academic performance. Very recently, UM was dragged to the US Supreme Court over its admission policies. There is no guarantee that AA won’t come up for review by the justices of the Supreme Court again. Why doesn’t this article make mention of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his contempt for AA? Justice Thomas does happen to be African-American, the last I checked.
R. Varma, Michigan, US
AA in the US has had mixed results. Even as the percentage of illegitimate children among Blacks rose to a staggering 71 per cent, it created certain islands of Black prosperity. A large number of Blacks still live in ghettos. Reservations tend to benefit certain elites among the communities targeted. If one considers the costs involved in term of opportunities lost to other candidates, it may not be such a good deal.
Kiran, Hyderabad
AA in the US is a token gesture from different education, business and cultural segments. It’s not compulsory, unlike reservations in India. Moreover, AA in the US does not shift the overall social balance against the white majority because its votes count. In India, the minority Hindu forward castes are discriminated by majority SC/ST/OBC/Christians/Muslims because they have voting power. Even if the upa government comes up with 100 per cent reservations and shows its middle finger to the forward castess, they can’t do anything.
Ram, Kerala
If Outlook really believes in AA and all its reservation blah blah, what does it have to show for it? How many BCs or mbcs does it have in white-collar jobs?
Suresh, Heidelberg
