Open Poll: Should caste based reservation benefits in India be phased out and eventually eliminated?

Rashmun wrote:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-16/india/37766172_1_creamy-layer-obcs-income-limit

Rashmun wrote:Open Poll: Should caste based reservation benefits in India be phased out and eventually eliminated?

Please answer with a Yes (they should be eliminated) or No ( they should continue indefinitely).

Rashmun wrote:My answer: Yes they should be phased out and eventually eliminated.

truthbetold wrote:seva ,
regardless of your emphatic statements, you are not making a case for repealing reservations without fact based arguments. this forum discussed your blog several times and i am not interested in that rehearing.

Rashmun wrote:Incidentally Pandit Nehru was instinctively and fundamentally against caste based reservations:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4826/1067/1600/CBB_reservations.jpg

One would have imagined that with the passage of time our leaders would be more modern minded but unfortunately there seems to a regression in their mind sets. History tells me that this has got to be a temporary phenomenon.

Seva Lamberdar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:Incidentally Pandit Nehru was instinctively and fundamentally against caste based reservations:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4826/1067/1600/CBB_reservations.jpg

One would have imagined that with the passage of time our leaders would be more modern minded but unfortunately there seems to a regression in their mind sets. History tells me that this has got to be a temporary phenomenon.

Strange! There probably is no truth in it or it might just have been lip service on the part of politicians. Or, perhaps this news was planted later (even recently) to make politicians look good and not just bad for putting in place the caste based reservations initially.

There was no talk from any politician, at least at the top level, showing aversion at that time to caste based quotas. During 1950s and 1960s I attended several election rallies as part of the audience and heard many top leaders (including a chief minister and a central minister belonging to the ruling Congress party) giving election speeches. I did not hear any of these guys questioning the caste reservations and they even (as members of Congress party) tried to take credit for putting the caste reservations initially in place, implying that public needed to vote for them and their party (Congress) for the sake of caste based reservations.

The expression of displeasure by Nehru about caste reservations thus seems hollow. Had he done such a thing in reality, that would have shown up in speeches etc. by his fellow party members and juniors (Congress ministers and CMs etc.), but that did not happen and that raises doubts about the veracity of this article / news.

Btw the top leaders in India (starting with the prime minister) at that time (1950s and later) seemed to have one main concern, to get elected to parliament or state assembly and hang on to the power. The leaders in Govt. etc. would therefore run in elections from several constituencies, 2 or 3 (instead of 1 -- the proper representation for a candidate in a parliamentary election) to make sure that they would at least win in one constituency and thus enter the parliament or state assembly and assume the power (as P.M., C.M., minister etc.). Incidentally, after a parliamentary election in 1950s, I personally heard a teacher bragging in our school “prime minister won all the seats (3 , I think) he contested.”

This shows that there was little chance for these guys (leaders) to question the caste based reservations which ensured them more votes from people in return for caste quotas / reservations (from Govt.).

Seva Lamberdar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:Incidentally Pandit Nehru was instinctively and fundamentally against caste based reservations:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4826/1067/1600/CBB_reservations.jpg

One would have imagined that with the passage of time our leaders would be more modern minded but unfortunately there seems to a regression in their mind sets. History tells me that this has got to be a temporary phenomenon.

Strange! There probably is no truth in it or it might just have been lip service on the part of politicians. Or, perhaps this news was planted later (even recently) to make politicians look good and not just bad for putting in place the caste based reservations initially.

There was no talk from any politician, at least at the top level, showing aversion at that time to caste based quotas. During 1950s and 1960s I attended several election rallies as part of the audience and heard many top leaders (including a chief minister and a central minister belonging to the ruling Congress party) giving election speeches. I did not hear any of these guys questioning the caste reservations and they even (as members of Congress party) tried to take credit for putting the caste reservations initially in place, implying that public needed to vote for them and their party (Congress) for the sake of caste based reservations.

The expression of displeasure by Nehru about caste reservations thus seems hollow. Had he done such a thing in reality, that would have shown up in speeches etc. by his fellow party members and juniors (Congress ministers and CMs etc.), but that did not happen and that raises doubts about the veracity of this article / news.

Btw the top leaders in India (starting with the prime minister) at that time (1950s and later) seemed to have one main concern, to get elected to parliament or state assembly and hang on to the power. The leaders in Govt. etc. would therefore run in elections from several constituencies, 2 or 3 (instead of 1 -- the proper representation for a candidate in a parliamentary election) to make sure that they would at least win in one constituency and thus enter the parliament or state assembly and assume the power (as P.M., C.M., minister etc.). Incidentally, after a parliamentary election in 1950s, I personally heard a teacher bragging in our school “prime minister won all the seats (3 , I think) he contested.”

This shows that there was little chance for these guys (leaders) to question the caste based reservations which ensured them more votes from people in return for caste quotas / reservations (from Govt.).

indophile wrote:They should be eliminated today. It's been 66 years since independence, and that's enough time for the beneficieries to get off the dole. However, if sudden change is not palatable, the reservation percentages should be reduced from the present levels gradually over ten year to eliminate them at the end of the ten year period.