Indian Democratic Policy!

Well a new day and a new morning. Woke up with sleep in my eyes and coffee in my thoughts. Remembered, mom is out so made my cuppa myself. Got it nice, hot and strong and settled to glance through the newspaper headlines before moving on to the important parts of life, the funnies and movies list.

On the first page itself, there was this huge SC order stating that "Poverty is no excuse for encroaching on Government Land" Our learned justices even made a pithy comment, " They will squat on the SC itself, move in to the counsel's home" This seemed interesting.

We Mumbaikars have a long long history with encroachments. Its become so, that we fail to find any legal buildings in many parts of this great city. Even the land where our society is built upon had been encroached. A long, strenuous fight for a decade, led to their magnanimously vacating 75% of land that was not theirs and keeping 25%. Our corporator acted as if this was a favor he was granting us. They also reserved the right to produce night soil right in front of our homes so that we could in essence be part of the big happy neighbourhood. People who could afford bikes, television and refrigerators, did not want to contribute Rs10 every month to build a public toilet for themselves.

So as you can imagine, how happy I was to read the SC order. Then came the catch phrase.. "Public Land". You cannot encroach on public land, but private land is a completely different issue. Then, the matter needs compassion for their poverty, their right to a decent living and need for a more convenient locality. Private landowners who sometimes have spent their lives trying to build a decent home in this exorbitantly expensive city, have to live with the fact, that someone is shitting on their millions worth of real estate. But not so the government. While all encroachments are bad and need a solution, why should the brunt of rehabilitation fall on the private landowners? Agreed some of them have excess land, but last time I checked being rich was not a crime. Trying to make profit of something that is legitimately yours to offer is called business, I think. Stronger laws should be able to prevent people from misappropriating government lands, be they Millionaires or Millionhairs, this way we can ensure that land which is ours stays ours, no matter what some politician, bureaucrat or local slum lord says.

But no, SC is not interested in applying the same laws across the board. Some or the other extenuating circumstance arise to ensure that government, which just by virtue of being elected gets more preference than the common man who is just the nation, an intangible commodity. The Govt is the payer of salaries, so obviously the master of the judges. This may not stop the judges from ruling against the Govt most of the time, but real politic would demand that they bend some of the time.

Another issue that always rankled is the oft beaten issue of affirmative action, called reservation. Envisaged by the father of our constitution as a fast track method to integrate repressed sections of our society with the mainstream, it has been flogged like a dead horse on steroids. Somehow a legislature meant to expire after 10 years, has been renewed for the last 50 years or so. Expanding in scope and damage, a shining example how even a good law can become devastating in the hands of politicians.

Case in point, Karnataka. Will be brief and concise.
Med School of two types, Aided and Unaided. Reservations of 50% in both. Aided conducts its own entrance exam, as does the unaided. If a reserve category student, fails to get a seat in the aided coll, where education is subsidised, then he is given a seat in the unaided coll. The disparity in fees which runs to hundreds of thousands of rupees will be paid direct by the government. So now the case is like, my friend who has gotten better marks in a more competitive group, will not get a seat and on top of that his tax money will actually pay for the education of someone who does not deserve the seat as much as he does. Double whammy or what?

But in a democracy, you have to live with this. You just cannot assume with great freedom comes great intelligence. Till the fact the reserved people understand that reservations are just removing the incentive to compete and make a mark for themselves, they are not going to improve either their lot or their society's lot. Our politician who actually cannot see further than the poll booth, continue to propagate the myth that reservation is the fast track to education. You do not need good primary and secondary education. It does not matter if you do not know basic biology or mathematics, we will make you doctors and engineers. But please do not treat us or build our homes, we are politicians, we have to have "phoren" treatment for our colds and coughs. International architects without affirmative action universities are going to build our illegal buildings. All you have to do is vote for me. I will take care of the rest.

Take care all, peace be to my backward friends
Vibhu