Fashion is a Form of Ugliness so Intolerable that One has to Change it Every Thirty Days - Reservation Policy

One of the biggest problem in India is, we still call those people under reservation as underprivileged. I am no opponent to reservations. But, this single statement forces us to introspect over an uncomfortable truth – even after seventy years of reservations, people are still deemed underprivileged. There is only one logical conclusion for this – our reservation policy is a failure. Any policy which didn’t succeed need not be upheld all eternity in the hope that it will succeed one day. A failure like that should be scrapped off completely and replaced with something else. The other may fail or succeed, but the existing one should go.

Let’s take the Patidar agitation in Gujarat. One single statement sums up the complete movement.

My son did diploma in engineering, but couldn’t get a good job. He now runs his own shop but the earning is not good enough. Had I belonged to OBC category, things would have been different.

Are we saying that because someone didn’t read properly and excel in life, he should be provided reservations? This statement, not just defines the Patidar Movement, but the complete concept of reservation. It is being treated as a privileged shortcut to get facilities which in an open competition, can never achieve. This notes another major danger – the ganging up of a caste to form a close knit group, which can be used by as a potential vote bank by any interested political party. Obverse, political opportunists or persons with agendas can any day bribe a potent caste grouping by reservations and in turn, widen the social fault lines or even, create potential law and order problems toppling governments. Mandal agitation is but an example of how worse things can turn.  

Keeping the opportunism(which is applicable not just for reservations but for any regional groupings like the Assam Student Agitation, Mulki Movement of 1969 etc) aside, below are some of the inherent fallacies of reservation model we have got –

1.     Does a poor Brahmin boy coming to his counselling in torn slippers need reservations more or a reserved quota candidate coming in a Benz or Rolls Royce?

2.     If a father avails reservation, why should his son be eligible for it? After all, reservations is an opportunity to excel, not a privilege and show off. His father has been given a chance to excel. If his father is a failure and if his son is desperately in need of reservation, why should the government be responsible for the failure of an individual? After all, there are many other people desperately waiting for reservations

3.     Should creamy layer have reservations? What is the definition of creamy layer?

Besides all this, we see a selective application of reservations – no reservations in judiciary, army, ambassadorial posts or Chief Minister posts, for example.

Looking at them, we notice one thing – reservation for caste or reservation for social position? Though this is a very big cesspool to talk about, there are a few guidelines we can have in order to have this to succeed –

1.     If either of the parent avails reservation, the child cannot.

2.     Anyone in the creamy layer in the past three generations cannot avail reservations

3.     Upper Caste Economically Backward need not be provided any reservations. That will only rankle the rest.

4.     What are the guidelines to define a caste as backward, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes? What is the mechanism to add extra castes or remove castes from a quota?

5.     Creamy Layer shouldn’t be defined as an absolute number but should be, say, 3 times India’s per capita.

6.     Reservation should only for education, not for jobs. After all, the government has provided sufficient facilities for their uplift and they should attempt to prove themselves in open competition.

7.     No reservations for electoral constituencies. After all, the MP is supposed to represent all the people, even those who didn’t vote them.

The Chaos of Traffic – A Specific Example

There is a vehicle trying to turn on the road. Instead of giving it space to do it’s work, I will zip through the smallest gap available. It may be sometimes risky, but I will do it. Well, there are cases that the window for zipping is not sufficient and we are stuck in a scenario where the main vehicle is stuck in an odd angle on the road with the errant vehicle plugging the gap. Amidst all the honkings, we notice that rest of the vehicles stand inches away, there by, not giving any opportunity to the stuck vehicles place to move. How long does this take, then, to clear the traffic? In an attempt to save a few seconds, how many minutes are lost? All this is happening because no one understands the concept that by giving someone else a preference, the traffic flow becomes smoother and hence, the time spent waiting will be converted to travelling at a better speed. Is this not the story we see everywhere in India?

Let me take the specific case of Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai. A stretch of some 20 km from Madhya Kailash to Siruseri, this road caters more than two lakh IT employees in one direction daily. Since all the people are packed in a two hour window, this road is a perfect recipe for a pile up. The real problem in India with regard to traffic is, not following of rules, precedence and trying to fit in wherever there is space. There are umpteen number of examples on this single road as to how mad things can be.

The junction at Sholinganallur is one of the busiest in Chennai. To tackle the rush, they created one ways and split the junction into three individual traffic signals – there is no right turn across the signal. This is a good takeaway anywhere in India.

Trying to make a list of all the things which are wrong/which can be corrected –

1.     There are too many feeders from the service lanes. Because of this, people tend to bypass the rush or even signals by entering the service roads defeating their purpose. There are cases where accidents happened when vehicles zipping on the main road crashed into those coming out of the service road without concern for anyone. Solution – Reduce the number of feeders from the main road to service roads. Openings should be provided every kilometre or so, but not less than that. Another thing which can happen is, anyone travelling on the service road across a feeder should be fined. After all, service roads are to facilitate people who are stuck on the wrong side of the road/who need to travel on the wrong side of the road and not to be used as transit roads.

2.     There are cases where service roads are discontinuous. Though illegal, this forces people to travel in the wrong direction on the main road.

3.     Implement pedestrian crossing signals to ensure that the hassle of crossing roads, especially near major offices is reduced

4.     Vehicles, especially buses and mini buses switch two lanes in fraction of seconds without giving any indication to those who are in the back. All vehicles, especially four wheelers, should be fined for doing such.

5.     No one is supposed to overtake from the wrong side. But, it always happens. How many times have we not seen people trying to getting down of a bus and a person trying to force his way through them on a bike, not giving them a chance to get down? This is because of education, safety and sense of urgency. Many people don’t know that one should not overtake from the left in India. That single act forces the driver to focus on both the directions there by increasing the chance of an accident. To avoid this, two wheelers generally try to drive near to the divider. In that case, at least, there won’t be any overtakes from the right.

6.     Regulation of private mass transit. Can seven seater autos be allowed onto these roads? Instead of paying the toll charges, we see them attempting to squeak through the two wheeler lanes. The best way to tackle them is impound and auction. Else, they will never listen.

7.     Two wheeler lanes in a toll gate should be in the end of the road, not in the centre. Because of a bus attempting to decide which lane to take, shuffling between lanes, we see that there are sufficient vehicles stuck in the back, even if their lane is vacant

8.     Dedicated bus lanes for MTC buses only. Any private bus, if they want to use that lane, should pay a monthly subscription on a per bus basis. Any other using that lane should be fined.

9.     No private mass transit vehicle is supposed to stop within a specified distance from a bus stop.

10.  More number of bridges between ECR and OMR. This will allow the a better load sharing.

The main thing here is better monitoring. There should be an increased number of CCTVs on the roads which the police can use real time to catch hold of the errants – over speeding, lane change without indications, using service roads as main roads etc. The thing needed is a road where traffic flows smoothly, not where people are forced to watch out as if they are in a war zone.