Reservation and The Cause of Reservation

Why are our policy makers c reservation as solution to everything? When we achieved our independence from British shackles, alternatives were searched for a fast economic social growth path. For the cause of upliftment of unprivileged, depressed class leaders demanded communal electorates but congess leaders headed by Mahatama Gandhi was against such electorates. With intense bargaining, reservation of seats as solution was hammered out.

Its quite visible and clear that intentions of our leaders were/are fair and true but the path they chose is not the best one. I am against reservation of any type. Does that mean I am against the upliftment of poor and the needy ? Obviously NO ! Then why am I against reservation?Because I believe there are better solutions available to this problem then reservation. Its not like to achieve something u have to sacrifice something. It is possible for the whole society to move forward.

Reservation tramples the very basic fundamental principal of democracy i.e. individual liberalism. Its a tool synonym to communist ideology ; an 100% reservation would transform our democracy into a communism.

Reservation are like steroids for body building. You may see benefits but along with hazardous side effects. They are uneconomic and opposes the market principles of competition.

Compromise on talent and its side-effects - When you reserve a seat, you compromise on talent which then effects work.

Reservation is one of the most stickiest policy ever. We may have neutralized socialism but it would be impossible to dilute reservation. Any community or class given reservation would never want to let it go without a fight. Its like power given in hand of politician or bureaucrat or high salary given to an employee. They will not let it go !

It brings an psychological divide between the reserved classes and others. Its nurturing a division not based on economic or social conditions but one that of envy, jealousy of having less opportunities.

Its highly uneconomical. Such high reservation if carefully looked is an substitute or cover up of actually handing over money. This will prove highly dangerous for our economy.

I don't deny that this reservation policy won't bear any fruits, it will. But at the cost of irreversible damage. Moreover when its possible to have solutions better than reservation, then why should we chose the former.

United India : India - Pakistan - Bangladesh

An amazingly beautiful idea struck me today !

Today there exists such escalated tension between India and Pakistan. How our thoughts are clouded by hatred and distrust when it comes to Pakistan. But there actually exist an irony which has been overlooked. The same Pakistan was once our India and if seen through a different lens, it seems as if two brothers have taken arms against each other.

Partition divided us into India , Pakistan and Bangladesh, a single nation imputed by the sword of communalism and Religious sectarianism. What if, these 3 in future decide to come back together once again , to be a united country once again. What if we decide to erase the boundary once drawn on map by the British. What if we decide to reunite the parts of a broken nation lost once in history - a United India of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

West and East Germany came back together to form once again an united Germany. Can we dare to see the same dream ?

There is no use to awaken the ignorant - to make him vote

Well ! Recently I came to realize this irony -

Thr is this movement going around - Jago re ! , India awakening ...... Ya the one that tells that if u r not voting, u r sleeping :) The irony here is awakening a youth for doing something for which he doesnt know a thing about. .............. ok ! I get it that u dont get it :P let me explain !

We should vote. What for ! Y for ! Which for !

How many elections do u know about ? Ya! General elections ........ state elections ......... hmmm ..... do you know about municipality elections or for that matter panchayat elections !

Do you know the difference between an MP and a MLA ?

Do you know that locality (block) you are living in elects a corporator/ any representative by other name.

Do you know that does your state have a legislature council or not ?

U c ! wat use is thr to awaken a person who doesnt know a shit about what he is voting for!

They say we should vote to make our politicians accountable. But they forget accountability of MPs (general elections) don't matter to us that much.

Politicians whose accountability do matter to us are the one closest to us ........... municipality then state then general (union) ............. the closer it gets, the more ignorant we are about it (we don't know anything about municipality, do we? )

Its like this ............. group of friends c a pothole or corruption at a local sarkari office. One of them curse the politicians .............. another one says that its our mistake that we don't vote ......... the first one goes and votes in general election and feels good bout it that he is an awakened citizen and has done duty on his part. Wat fool ! Idiot doesnt know that voting in general election wont help, he must vote in municipality elections to make things better.

We have identified the problem correctly - to make our politicians accountable, we must vote. But prior to it we must know where to vote ................ and believe me, its not our fault, its our education systems fault.

Whats irony on irony is that we the most educated ones or the most brilliant ones (especially the IITians and IIMites ) don't have a clue about this system. Moreover, knowing about our admin system is no common sense . Yeah ! I am not joking , the bloody thing is so complex that if u take a book and start reading it, u will end up jamming ur brain. And they expect a common man to know all this and on this assumption, they come to awaken us !

The solution is simple - put a compulsory course on our administration, political and electoral system when we are mature. We have one (elementary) in our 6th-7th grade. Who does remember it, I don't and I know u don't. We need a compulsory course in our higher secondary and graduation (college) .

Afterwhich I believe our society can be awakened. Becoz u talk about waking one who is sleeping but has the knowledge !

Global Warming and Recent 2009 drought

As they all say, its all global warming ! The most contemporary effect of this climate change in our lives is 2009 drought which of course as we all know has sent food prices soaring.

You may have always wondered (well! at least some) how this drought and Global warming are connected. Though many point towards Global warming, there is no clear unanimous theory yet.

Well answer to this recent drought is phenomena of El Nino. El Nino is a global climatic event that affects our monsoons. During this event, surprisingly a high pressure exists over Indian subcontinent as opposed to low pressure in summers (a riddle which remains unsolved). Due to this pressure reversal, monsoons which are pulled into India, due to low pressure over Indian subcontinent, is severely affected. And in India we experience drought.

Now where does climate change come into picture ? Earlier this El Nino cycle used to repeat itself in 15-20 yrs. Post 1950s, it was seen to occur every 4 years and with 21st century, scientists are dreading us for a renewed periodic cycle of 2.5 yrs. This increased frequency of El Nino as many world scientist claim is an effect of global warming.

But alas ! our scientists are yet to fully understand this phenomena and its connection to global warming though it has been part of human history as long as we can remember.

PS - El Nino event is predicted to continue in 2010, so you may see a consecutive year of drought.

India's Sovereignty in today's world

Sovereignty means paramount, absolute and unchallenged authority of a nation (state) within it's own boundaries. Needless to say, it also implies complete independence and autonomy in handling one's own affair.

As the world moves towards globalization, its curious to note its effects on a nation's sovereignty.

Let me put some questions for you after which we will be able to appreciate the idea we are about to embark upon.

1. Why BJP and Left are opposed to Nuclear deal ?
2. Why are we opposed to international scrutiny of our climate change initiatives & policies ?
3. Why Left is against opening up of markets to foreign MNCs - liberalism ?
4. Why opposition (be it any party) views every international deal with crossed eyes ?
5. Why do we often hesitate to take aid from world donors ? etc.

The answer to all these questions is that all these deals though are advantageous and essential comes with a compromise. They all somehow subdue our sovereignty.

Whenever we sign an international agreement or deal, we are legally bound by the rules and regulations as agreed or set. Thus, our parliament looses its supremacy to freely legislate on matters dealing with the deal as its bound by international laws to abide by the agreement. And hence, we are subjugated to laws over which we have little control. Moreover, it's difficult for our leaders to acknowledge our subdued sovereignty.

Strengthening of International bodies like UN, WTO, World Bank.

Bilateral/Multilateral deals

What makes India such strong contender of being a superpower ?

Or Why is world going gaga over India's growth ?

Or Whats the cause of new found respect for India in world's eyes and our increased say in world forums?

Or Of all the countries opted for liberalism, why India (along with China) are the only ones showing such high growth ?

Or Why all foreign nations want to have a cordial relation with India ?

and most interesting of all ...... Remember 90s govt adds for family planning, where did they go ?

We all know reason of India's growth is liberalism. But many countries has opted for liberalism, why India alone (with China) showing such high growth.

India is among the most favorite destination for FDIs among all countries. Ya I know cheap labor but why do we have cheap labor ?

Answer to all these question (to surprise of many) is our huge population. Or economically putting it our vast human resources. This huge population not only serves as source of cheap labor (simple demand supply concept - huge supply of human capital brings down the price - the labor cost) but also as a huge huge market. Produce anything in India and its bound to sell in this huge market.

This huge market and cheap labor attracts FDI which in turn results high economic growth. Since we have not yet fully realized our human capital and our market are far from saturation, we are bound for growth for a long long time and eventually superpower.

This huge market is also reason for all countries favoring a cordial relation with India, after all they want Indian markets to be open for their companies.

And lastly till 90s we though our disabilities of poverty, unemployment etc are because of our huge population. Hence we got to see govt adds of family planning 'hum do humare do'.

After liberalization, picture changed and this huge population liability became an asset. Hence no more govt adds :)

Note - Additional factors such as well regulated market, huge resources, vibrant democracy etc have not been dealt here. Idea of this article is to bring out that unique feature of India with respect to other countries which makes it a contender of superpower. After all the word super power is relative !

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hmmm ! after reading the comments it seems people here are mixing two different question or are confused about the definition of superpower.

How do you define superpower ? Superpower as a notion deals with macro features of a nation as a whole - economic size , military power, political status in world etc.

In todays world China has emerged as a superpower but still is suffering from ills of poverty, poor-rich disparity etc. USA in contemporary time is still a superpower despite suffering from huge unemployment in its economy.

So point is India or for matter any country can be a superpower (macro concept) before attaining a developed nation status (micro concept) { c if you can grasp this idea ! }

Secondly ills of cheap labor (from individual perspective), low per capita income directs us towards a different question (though a related one) - Do we want such power or superpower status ?

And believe me this seemingly simple question will have a very complex solution ! As far as I can c, status of superpower and developed nation will prove complimentary to each other (barring some aspects)

For our big population, it seems population on one hand is driving us towards being a superpower, is also proving a hindrance for us to attaining the abilities of a developed nation or lets say cause for cheap labor or low per capita income. Eventually we will have to settle for a compromise !

India is growing immensely --- Really ?

We all today are extremely proud of that fact that India is showing such high growth. But looking closely one cannot avoid being suspicious at these figures of 7%-9% growth. How ? Lets c .....

Economic growth is calculated upon GDP that is gross domestic product , or in lame language value of final goods and services produced in year on Indian territory. What there is to closely look in this definition is the term 'on Indian territory'.

Liberalism as we all believe and know and taught as reason behind this growth. What does it mean actually ! MNCs investing in India (other factors account for less). Still further clarifying it, MNC setting up business in India. Since its MNC ownership business, revenue/profit is taken by them or lets say goes to people sitting outside India or non-Indians.

But all this revenue generated by MNC is accounted for in GDP, hence the growth (because of the term in GDP definition 'on Indian territory'). What does it mean ? It means foreigners using our resources, converting into financial resources and taking it outside India and we here are all going gaga over growth indicator of 9%.

Ohh yes !! a substantial part of our GDP is actually income of foreigners, money which we never ever get to see.

Yet not convinced ! let me throw some more facts on you .......

1. Going by calculation of growth, we showed growth during British colonial times.

2. If India goes into war, our growth would increase. GDP includes government expenditure which will go up due to war spendings.

You must have heard about jobless growth and eventually inclusive growth. Jobless growth now you understand as poor India showing growth numbers on paper. And obviously govt had to do something about it, hence the slogan of 'inclusive growth'.

Remember the slogan of BJP - India Shining ! India for the first time showed high growth of 9% and yet BJP lost the elections. Why did that happen ?

BJP told common man - "see look the growth figure of 9%" and got a slap on the face ...... "I am suffering here from poverty and you are boasting of your growth numbers".

All growth was on paper only, none on ground. So don't get so excited over the numbers 7%-9%.

What we really need is actual indicator which shows our true growth and Alas! there is none.

PS: Don't get too influenced by this picture as there is other side of the story too :)