Reservation System in India

Historically speaking the main religion of India known as Hinduism today or better we use the word Sanatan dharma had different castes. Now the caste of a person was originally dependent on the profession of the person. Initially everyone was free to chose his profession and the caste assigned to him depended on that.

If a person chose the study of religious scriptures and science, he automatically became a Bramhin and it was supposed to be the highest caste, since knowledge was given very high importance and was considered sacred in ancient India.

If a person chose to be a warrior and protect the people and country, he became a Kshatriya. The second highest caste in India, since these are the people who would protect others at the cost of their lives.

If someone chose to do trade and business, he became a Vaishya. The people involved in unskilled labour were regarded as Shudras .

But later on the caste system started becoming more and more rigid in India with rigid laws made by the people of upper caste(Bramhins), backed with all military strength of the Kshatriyas and money power of Vaishyas. Now the caste was no longer dependent on work, but on birth and the worst part was someone who is born in the house of a cobbler will have to earn his living by making shoes. No other choice. If a boy was born in the house of a soldier, he had to learn the art of war. If a boy was born in the house of a Bramhin he had to take up the study of religious scriptures, no matter how dumb he was.

This castes also got divided and subdivided into many other castes and sub-castes. There were a big number of people who were outcasts as well. The outcasts were oppressed by the upper sections of the society, they were not even touched. They could not go to the same temple as the higher caste people. They could not drink water from the same well as the upper castes. If they did harsh punishment was meted out to them, which even included killing the person or even forced sexual intercourse(rape).

The lower castes were mostly deprived of education. They were exploited by the upper caste people. Things turned worse during the British Rule because of the system British got in place increased the exploitation and atrocities against the lower castes. The British deputed zamindars, patwaris and other higher officials from higher castes and they were extremely harsh on the local populace, who mostly were illiterate. The British made sure that they hired the most cruel people for those tasks. 

The police system that we have in India, is given to us by the British, in general it is common knowledge that in most parts of country except a few, the behaviour of police with common people is not good. The British had this police force to subjugate the masses. While it cannot be denied that police has helped control crime, but it is equally true that during the Indian freedom movement the police was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people and even today in India poor and illiterate people are afraid of police.

During the end of the British rule there were people like Gandhiji, Nehru, Sardar Patel,Dr BhimRao Ambedkar and many others who thought that this evil of untouchability should go from the country. After independence laws were made that abolished the practice of untouchability and discrimination on the basis of caste was made a criminal offence. A person who insults or discriminates on the basis of caste is liable to punishment under Indian laws.( Protection of Civil Rights(PCR) Act)

Since people belonging to these castes had to face discrimination for centuries and they were subject to neglect, the people who wrote the constitution assigned certain amount of reservations in government jobs, educational institutions and public representation(ie MPs, MLAs etc). There reservations were and are in proportion to their population. Scheduled Castes have 22% and Scheduled Tribes have 8% reservation. The number of people belonging to the SCs and STs category is also 22% and 8% respectively. 

However 63 years after Indian Independence not all SCs and STs have been able to take full advantage of this reservation system. Only a small proportion of them take get advantage of this reservation, and this is cause that even non deserving people get into premier educational institutions and jobs that require high level of competence. Not only that, after one generation gets advantage of reservation, it is followed by the next generation, while generations after generations, the deprived stayed deprived. Hence there was a formation of this creamy layer among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, that got all the advantages.

Hence there is an existence of discontent among the masses, since meritocracy has taken a backseat because of the reservation system. However there is point to be understood if all people belonging to SC and ST category got equal advantage of the reservation system, such mismatch won't have existed, since people are equally talented. 

The reservation system was created just to protect the right of the SCs and STs and the reservation system was supposed to be in existence only for a certain period of time, but vote bank politics have made politicians weary of even talking about this issue. 

The real issue in India is corruption if corruption is reduced significantly and black money is unearthed, then we can create enough opportunities in this country for all, so much so that no reservation would be needed. 

-----------Rakesh Mallick

Commando Surinder Singh

The Aam Aadmi Party fielded some of the best candidates in the Delhi Vidhansabha Elections. One of them was Commando Surinder Singh. Commando Surinder fought in the Kargil War. Again during the Mumbai terrorist attack, Surinder was the part of the NSA team that entered the TAJ hotel and killed the terrorists. In that process he was wounded. He completely lost his ability to hear and had to be retired from the NSG. 

After retirement for 19 months this physically disabled man had to run pillar to post for his pension, that he deserved. He met all the political leaders and ministers of the time, but his pension was not restored. Finally he went to the newly formed Aam Aadmi Party where they helped in getting his pension. He joined AAP and was fielded as a candidate from Delhi Cantonment during the Delhi Vidhansabha elections of December 2013 and February 2015. Both the times he won the elections.

The central government is trying to prove that his degree is fake. Delhi Police arrested him for allegedly beating up an NDMC employee. The Delhi High Court granted him bail within 24 hours and has said that the Delhi police seems to be acting under a political vendetta. 

Here is video link that has views of Commando Surinder Singh.

Voting Correct and its benifits

Question : Why do you vote?

Ans: So that you can elect a person who would do good work for you and your state or country. 


Question : Why your vote is important?

Ans : Your vote is important, very important, since you want a correct person to be in charge of your ward, your constituency, your state and your country. If this post goes into the hands of a wrong person, he would exploit it to his/her own advantage.


Question : Why most Indians vote for corrupt and selfish people?

Ans : The reason is most Indians including educated urban people don't understand the value of their vote. They go too much by the hype generated by the media without verifying the facts about the contestants. There are people who vote on the basis of the cast and religion of the candidate, instead of his competence, integrity and character.   

Question : What is the outcome of voting for corrupt and selfish candidates having a criminal background?

Ans : The outcome is this candidates when they become ministers swindle the money that is meant for development. Most of India has this problem hence India is found wanting in terms of healthcare, education, cleanliness and development. The population grows exponentially. Millions of Indians live in abject povery because of this. Government figures show that there are 194 million people who don't get two square meals a day. The actual number maybe much higher. 

India is lagging behind countries like South Korea, Israel, Singapore and many others the achieved freedom after India did but outpaced India in the development game. They just had better leaders elected by people.


Question : What is the way out ?

Ans : A good start has already been made by the AAP government in Delhi. AAP was born out of the IAC movement and it is headed by Arvind Kejriwal the Delhi Chief Minister. AAP is doing very good work in Delhi and it shows how much we lost because of being ruled by corrupt leaders. 

The Indian voter has to become more aware, the vote that he casts maybe simply a push of the button, but it has tremendous value, it can change lives. Take the Delhi government for example. It reduced the electricity prices to half and made water free after coming to power. A CAG audit of power distribution companies was ordered and the audit report has made it clear that the discoms inflated the power bills by over Rs 8000 crore.Delhi government will no longer have to give power subsidy to maintain the current price of power. On the other hand this CAG report will enable Delhi government to get back the Rs 8000 cr + interest from the discoms and it can be given back to the people of Delhi. 

Delhi government is working well in spite of the roadblocks that are created by the Lieutenant Governor. Also the unruly sub standard Delhi police is not under its control , it reports to the central government and it is largely responsible for the bad law and order situation of Delhi. 

The Delhi government has come out with a scheme of giving Rs 10 lakh bank loan to every student who clears class 12 and gets admission in a  collage, Delhi government acts as the guarantor of the loan. 

The Delhi Government will open 1000 Moholla clinics , the first one is already operational. 

There are many more such initiatives mentioning them will make this blog post very very long. 

Also just yesterday an announcement was made that the Delhi Government will rehabilitate 50,000 odd children living in the streets of Delhi. There is not a single state not a single city in India where you don't find children living on the streets. This is first time a state government has decided to take matters into their own hands and change the lives of this kids.

I hope AAP succeeds in its mission. I hope the people of the nation become more aware and not get fooled by the paid news channels. 

CAG report of Delhi power companies (AAP was right, others were wrong)

The Aam Aadmi Party came to power in Delhi by promising lower electricity and power bills. AAP claimed that the electricity tariffs of Delhi are highly inflated and they are designed to rob the people of Delhi and help the power companies make big gains. 

It all began with the formation of the AAM AADMI PARTY, when it became obvious that the IAC movement had to take a political turn and that IAC must send honest people to the Assemblies and Parliament to win the war against corruption. 

At AAP, Arvind Kejriwal, the party convener decided to begin with the state of Delhi. Back then Delhiites had to fork out a good sum of money for water and electricity, the meters used to be faulty as well and people ended up paying way more than what they should. People from the poorer sections of the society were badly affected due to this as water and electricity are basic and extremely vital necessities. 

This video shows the descriptions given by people about the troubles they were facing with their inflated electricity and water bills. 

In March 2013 Arvind Kejriwal sat on a hunger strike protesting against this bills and demanded a CAG audit of all the power companies. The the Delhi Government headed by CM Sheila Dixit gave no heed to the demand. In fact AAP volunteers were arrested and beaten up by Delhi Police.

In the elections that were held in December 2013, AAP on its election debut got 28 of the 70 Vidhansabha seats. BJP that had got 32 seats refused to form the government and Congress that was reduced to a mere 8 seats, went to LG and announced unconditional support for AAP. AAP after doing a public referendum decided to form the government with an external Congress support. In the first tenure itself, the prices of electricity was reduced to half and water was made free up to 20,000 litres per month per household. A CAG audit of discoms was ordered by CM Arvind Kejriwal. 

However the government lasted 49 days, it resigned after it failed to pass the Janlokpal bill. A few months after AAP resigned, the high electricity and water prices were restored by the cunning Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. Jung delayed the Delhi State elections for many months and dissolved the Assembly, only when it was obvious that Delhi High Court will most probably give orders for dissolution of the Assembly. 

In Feb 2015 Assembly Elections AAP came back to power with 67 seats, Congress did not open their account and BJP got only about 3 seats. The CAG audit of discoms, that was stopped by Najeeb Jung was again ordered by Arvind Kejriwal. Yesterday the CAG audit report on discoms stated that the power bills of Delhi were inflated by Rs 8000 cr. 

The CAG report vindicates what Arvind Kejriwal and AAP was saying till now. This also shows that the TV and print media journalists, panelists who defended the high electricity prices of Delhi were actually paid agents of the discoms and they simply told lies to the public.  

Now the power companies will have to payback the Rs 8000cr to the power consumers of Delhi with interest and pay the fine that will be imposed on them. 

Congratulations and a big thanks to Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. 

Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi (On 16th Aug, 2015)

Today 16th August, 2015 happens to be the birthday of Arvind Kejriwal. The Delhi Chief Minister is definitely the most popular politician in the country. Throughout the day the social media was full of happy birthday messages for Arvind, also there were a few hate messages from the opponents. The Prime Minister tweeted from UAE to express his birthday wishes and AK took this opportunity to express his desire to meet the PM and brief him about the situation of Delhi. The screenshot of the twitter conversation  is shown below with the the URL:

Click here to access this tweet

Arvind Kejriwal had earlier tried to seek an appointment with Modiji however he did not get one (Modiji of course had time to meet his abusive social media trolls). 

The law and order situation of Delhi has become worse because of bad policing. A girl was murdered in broad daylight, she was stabbed multiple times. The murderers actually earlier teased and harassed the girl, when the girl filed a police complaint, the miscreants took revenge by murdering the girl. 

The Delhi Police is lax because it is under the central government and neither the Prime Minister or the Home Minister has time to keep a tab on DPs work, as a result there is no one overlooking the functioning of Delhi Police and that's why there is rise in the crime graph of Delhi. 

While Arvind Kejriwal did not get a chance to meet the Prime Minister, he had to run TV advertisements to appeal to the Prime Minister to hand over the reins of Delhi Police to Delhi Government. Here is the video of the advertisement: 

The Delhi Police get its salary from tax that is paid by the people of Delhi, so protection of people of Delhi should be its prime duty. However, as you can hear in the above advertisement, its system has gone bad so the PM either has to spare an hour a week for Delhi Police or initiate the process of handing over Delhi Police to Delhi Government and complete it fast, so that people of Delhi can live in a peaceful low crime environment. 

Our Prime Minster Narendra Modi is a man who has virtually left his family, his wife exists only on paper. He is 65 and he won't live forever. But as the PM of this country he has this golden opportunity to change the nation and lives of millions of people.

In the first 15 months of his 60 month regime, he has only worked for the crony corporates while ordinary people are suffering because of high levels of corruption and price rise. Nothing is done for the ordinary people of the country even health and education budgets of centre, which is already low as a percentage of GDP, have been further slashed by 14% and 15% respectively. 

If he keeps doing the same things that he has done in the last 15 months, then he would go down in the history of India as the worst Prime Minister ever. 

He still has the time and opportunity to work for the people, make amends for what he did wrong in the last 15 months, work to eliminate corruption and bring back black money, that would change the lives of millions of Indians living below poverty line. If Narendra Modi does this he will go down in the history of the country as the best Prime Minister ever, history of the nation will remember him as a hero.

The choice belongs to Modiji he has time in his hand, I sincerely pray and wish that some enlightenment dawns upon him and he starts working for the people of the country.   

On Independence EVE

India achieved Independence after a long freedom struggle which spanned 90 years, with a period of lull in between. It is widely said that the Indian freedom movement has been perfectly non violent and a bunch of satyagrahas and agitations drove the British away. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

While its true that the non violent movement along with Satyagrahas did connect a lot of Indians to the movement, it had very little impact on the British since they kept achieving the target of looting the nation. A massive amount of wealth from India was sent to England each year.

Behind achieving this freedom there are untold tales of sacrifices made by huge number of people. Mahatma Gandhi could have been an excellent lawyer and made great amount of money, he could have lived a comfortable life. Subhas Chandra Bose cleared ICS exams he could have been a high ranking civil officer with a good pay packet.

The above two examples are of people whom we know about, but there are also hundreds of thousands of people whose sacrifices will always remain unknown to us.

We owe the freedom of this country to those brave patriotic men and women because of whom we live in a free nation. On our Independence Day instead of drinking a wine and making merry its better to remember the sacrifices of the great souls. It is because of them that we live in a free nation.

On 14th August 2015, the Delhi Police which is under the Central Government forcibly evacuated the ex servicemen who were peacefully protesting for One Rank One Pension in Jantar Mantar. This men protected our nation and this is not the kind of behaviour that they deserve on the eve of 69th Indian Independence day. 

A Tweet from Vishal Dadlani that mentions how this old ex army was manhandled by Delhi Police even his clothes were torned off 

I hope tomorrow morning the Prime Minister announces OROP for the armed forces. That is the only way he can make amends for the ugly scenes in Jantar Mantar today. 

Ruling and Opposition Parties are hands in gloves

During the parliament session we see the Indian political parties fighting with each other. Making all kinds of allegations against each other. Today the idiots of the ruling party themselves sat on a dharna, the idiots didn't even have the common sense that when you sit on a dharna you actually have demands from a higher authority.

Now the ruling party which comprises of the cabinet ministers is the highest authority, so to whom they were making their demands. The main opposition party with a mere 44 seats, Congress was opposing the GST bill and the ruling party was sitting on a dharna against it, isn't it idiotic. You are the ruling party and the ruling coalition has over 300 seats why worry about the act of a single party with a mere 44 seats. 

In his first tenure as the chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal sat on a dharna demanding suspension of 3 police officers for callousness in their duty. The Delhi Police comes under the Central Government, so Arvind had demands from the central government and that's why he sat on a dharna, the conditions were challenging it was mere 5 degree Celcius in Delhi that night. 

So this shows that the BJP is in awe of Arvind, trying to copy him. However one more point needs to be mentioned. One should not be fooled by the behaviour of the ruling and opposition parties. This parties are busy playacting. They really don't have any intention of welfare of the nation. When it comes to robbing the nation both parties are hand in gloves, they do it together. 

BJP stalled the parliament during Congress regime shouting slogans and walking down to the well of the house and the same is done by Congress during BJP's regime. Both parties are trying to attract public attention towards them. Both the parties try to fool the voters to vote for them during the elections.

Each hour of Parliament lost costs lot of money, if this two parties were indeed concerned about the welfare of people they won't have stalled the proceedings of the house by their hooliganism when they were/are in opposition. 

Commonwealth and India

No society, no country would like to be ruled by any other country in the world. People living in a particular country are the best to know what rules they need, what should be done for the development and the progress of their country. Some other country ruling a country is slavery and against the rules of humanity. 

However the history of the world is full of instances of countries ruling other countries. Democracy - the concept which is already thousands of years old, is only implemented effectively in the last 100 to 150 years. Between the 17th century and the middle part of 19th century the British empire was huge it ruled over many other countries which also included India, which was the largest(in terms of population) among all the countries it ruled( remember when India became independent it was divided into India and Pakistan, in 1971 Pakistan was further subdivided into Bangladesh and Pakistan, so India under British rule included the countries of today's India, Pakistan and Bangladesh).

The British before the second world war were rather unconcerned about the development of the countries under its rule. The public under its rule lived miserable lives, under the British rule India was transformed from a rich nation to a nation with extremely high levels of poverty. They plundered the minerals, natural resources and wealth of commoners.

 They would get the most cruelest people of the nation as zamindars, patwaris and darogas, who would commit all kinds of atrocities on the common people of the nation. There were places in India during the British Rule that had boards displaying "Dogs and Indians are not allowed". Education was out of bounds of masses. The literacy levels dropped down to less than 10%, with female literacy at 0.6% in 1901 census. 

Same was the behaviour with other nations. The black people of Africa were used a human machines. They worked as slaves in America, the Caribbean islands and other nations. They were mercilessly beaten up and many of them were killed by their masters sometimes for making little mistakes. Slavery is one of the darkest chapters in the history of humanity. 

The Commonwealth is a group of nations that were once under the British Rule. Even the USA was once under British rule but it gained independence in 1776, much before many other nations, however USA is not a member of Commonwealth. 

Most countries including India gained independence from the British rule after the second world war. Seemingly the British policies changed after the second world war. The last country to become free from the British Rule was Hong Kong in 1997, however rather than other nations that were left in extreme poverty(except Australia and New Zealand which had migrants from UK and other parts of Europe), Hong Kong was achieved freedom as one of the most prosperous nations on earth, a major trading hub of the far east. 

Many from India, Pakistan Bangladesh and other nations emigrated to Britain after 1947. Britain provided them with excellent opportunities and this people worked hard to become prosperous. Specially the Indians, who were more educated, today the richest person in Britain is an individual of British origin. People of Indian origin are MPs in the British Parliament. Some of them have even represented England in cricket. 

However the Commonwealth reminds one of the days of slavery and it is improper for any educated and civilized nation to live with the dark history of slavery. So in my view India must leave the Commonwealth. Its better if the Commonwealth is dissolved. 

Voting Thoughtfully

In India it is very common to see the sites of people contesting polls, going door to door and asking people to vote for them with folded hands. Money is spent like water during this time. Various kinds of gifts are given to voters from poorer sections of the society. It can be a Rs 100 or a Rs 500 note, a bottle of liquor, a saree or a box of biriyani. The election commission has a fixed amount that each contestant can spend in a particular constituency, but invariably this amount is crossed by the contestants many times over in an effort to gain power. 

Now once a particular contestant wins normally people don't get to see him for the next four and half years. The reason his target is achieved now he/she will recover the investments that he made during the elections through various dubious means. While a MP or a MLA is elected to represent his own constituency in the Parliament or Assembly. They hardly bother about doing any development work in their constituency. Whatever development work that is being done will invariably have some financial motive associated with it like getting a percentage from the project. 

The big problem is people vote on the basis of the promises and gifts given by the contestants rather than judging him/her on the basis of his character and past work. Again in India there is no Right to Recall any MP or MLA so the people have to suffer for the next 5 years after electing the candidate. 

So this makes it clear that it is important that people vote on the basis of character and past works of a candidate. The candidate must be honest and a man/woman of integrity. Another point is in case a wrong candidate is chosen by the people they must have the power to recall him/her, this is the basis of Right to Recall. 

Before the formation of Aam Aadmi Party. The major demands of India Against Corruption were :

1. Janlokpal
2. Right to Reject.
3. Right to Recall.

While Aam Aadmi Party has been able to give an honest alternative to Delhi. The Delhi Janlokpal bill is yet to be passed. The draft is probably sent to the Centre for approval. 

The Right to Reject and the Right to Recall bill has to be passed by the central government. However the kind of government that we have in the centre, it is very unlikely that the bills are going to be passed in the next four years. We must remember that Modi has come to power after spending money in advertisements like flowing water. Even an idiot will tell you that the amount of money that was spent should have surpassed the limits set by the Election Commission many times over. So its obvious his governments intentions now is get the most advantage of being in power. 

The state government of Delhi came to power on the basis of a transparent funding system and at a small budget of about Rs 20 cr, well inside the limits set by the election commission. The awareness spread by the AAP volunteer during Delhi state elections resulted in people accepting the gifts from other parties, but the ended up voting for AAP, since they now knew that other parties will simply rob them. 

The state of Delhi is now reaping in the advantage of voting for a honest party, AAP is working well despite of the hurdles set by the Centre through the Lieutenet Governer of Delhi.