Is Job Reservation Fair?

Job reservation is an affirmative action by the Govt of India to advance the well being of the backward community. The government thus reserves 7.5% for the Tribals, 15% for the Scheduled Caste and  27% for the Other Backward Caste in the public sector. The controversy regarding who all fit to be in the category of the underprivileged community is a different matter from whether there has to be job reservation at all. 

On Monday i.e 22 October, 2012, there was a sad and an interesting news item in the Indian Express. It carried the story of an infant Damini whose mother died after the delivery on September 20. Since there was no one to care for the baby, the father who was a rickshaw puller was taking care of her on a cloth sling around his neck. And the news item further added that the man was using a hired rickshaw. It is a kind of a worst situation where one could possibly be in!

Hindustan Times on September 23rd, 2013 carried a news item giving the figures of salary of over ten executives in India. Naveen Jindal tops the list, according to the news item. And Jindal's salary was 7342,00000 rupees per year. The second in the list earns 5701,00000 rupees per year, and this second spot has two people. If we divide Naveen Jindal's annual salary 7342,00000 by 12 it comes to 611,83333 rupees -- and that is the monthly income of this man. And if this monthly earning is divided by 30, it gives 20,39444 -- daily income. A daily income of 20 Lakhs 39 Thousand and Four hundred Forty Four! 

With such figures, there is a huge gap between the well-being of Damini and Naveen Jindal's child. (Well-being does not always depend on having so much money, but if one is compelled by the circumstances to starve, question is about survival. And when one is compelled to starve, well-being is seriously undermined.) When well-being is thus divided between members of the community by the economic forces and the governing principles, the system is not fair unless it does something to rectify the gap. Those people who argue for non-intervention by any government agency to regulate the gap -- against reservation policy -- are misguided. To let the rich get richer, aided by the economic and political design and the poor like Damini remain in their miserable state is inhumane. One of ways then to rectify the gap is to device reservation policy, and this policy has to be such that only those who truly deserve it get to benefit from it. Without such policy, there is no way Damini would be able to compete with Naveen Jindal's child!

There is a piece of writing being circulated, attributed to Azim Premji, arguing against reservation. ( I am not sure if it's really his thought). But I am intrigued by his argument. Azim got the best of education in the world -- earning his Bachelors Degree from Stanford University, US. He was born into a family that was rich enough to send him to receive education from one of the finest institutions in the world. He was being lucky! Had he been born in place of Damini, where would he be? To be well-off and to be educated with the finest education is not entirely one's own doing. Yes, he did work hard to pass the exam; but had he not received proper parenting, he might have been a boy out there on the street doing drugs and begging. Had his parents been from a very poor background, he might be illiterate. Had he been born in Capua, (present Italy) in the first century, he might have been a gladiator. For so many people the story of misfortune is not entirely one's own doing; circumstances which are beyond one's own control are also contributing factor to one's present predicament. By similar token, one's own fortune is not entirely one's own doing; there are circumstances that are not my doing that have led me  thus far. Given this reality, to blame the less unfortunate ones entirely or to be least bothered about the welfare of those who are less unfortunate is not morally right. After all our fortune depends on 'cosmic lottery' too! So the question is whether those who are fortunate because 'cosmic lottery' ( family background, in- born talents, location, friendship etc) favours them will enjoy the fruit of their 'cosmic lottery' winning themselves or share with those who are less fortunate? Of course, like non-human animals we can care only for our herds; and leave the rest to feed or to starve. Or we can rise above our basal animal instinct and be like humans -- caring for each other across generations and locations. And practical implication of such caring must result in reservation policy.

And as a society, it is going to be more peaceful if there is relative equality between the members of a society. When some are starving outside, and some are having hundred items of food on the table inside a hotel/home, disaster is not so far away. 

NB: Edited on 27th May 2014. 

Justice and Christianity

In her interview on a programme of Hastings College of the Law, University of California, Martha Nussbaum says, "Christianity as I was experiencing it was a religion about 'let's take advantage of our privileges in this life, and let justice wait for the world to come.'" In the same interview she says that it was the concern for justice that made her convert to Judaism. Nussbaum is at present one of the most prominent philosophers in the area of moral and political philosophy and teaches at University of Chicago. I have read some of her writings and I agree on quite a lot of things that  she says and writes. In the interview mentioned above she did not say that Christianity is so and so; she rather said that Christianity was so and so as she was experiencing it. And it was not her fault that she came across that version of Christianity.

But is the version of Christianity that she experienced the authentic version of Christianity? I would argue that it is not. But I would also concede that such version of Christianity is not uncommon. One just have to surf Christian bookstore for a while to know about such version. As a religion that is found in all the continents, practised by people of every conceivable social position, the Bible has different ways of being read and interpreted. This different interpretation does not mean that all the interpretations are correct and authentic. Some are very wrong, so distant from what the Bible teaches; and some are right. One just have to read the Bible to know which is what. 

The book that the Jewish considers sacred is considered to be sacred by the Christians too. So if Judaism considers justice as an important virtue, Christianity cannot but considers it equally important, if not more. The God in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible is just the same as the God in the New Testament. The main different is that in the New Testament Jesus Christ is here revealed as the incarnate of the God of the Old Testament. This Jesus Christ himself faced injustice unto death; but through death he took on the power of the evil one and exhaust its power on the cross to emerge triumphant on the third day. And having conquered the evil one through death and resurrection, he now gives power to his disciples and commissions them to go out into the world " to preach good news unto the poor; to heal the contrite of heart; to proclaim liberty to the captives; and deliverance to them that are shut up".

It was because of his conviction that all men are equal as taught in the Bible he read that William Wilberforce laboured for over 20 years for the Abolition of slavery  in the British empire. It was because of his concern for social justice that Martin Luther King Jr.,  the Christian minister, strived hard for Civil Right movement in the US. Christians have this strong conviction about the world to come. But this strong conviction is never to lead away Christians to engage in this world for justice. Towards the end of his longest discourse on the life to come, St. Paul writes, " therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labour is not in vain..." ( 1 Cor 15: 58). Justice and peace are what Christian believers are to work and to pray for in this world. Working for justice and peacemaking are not optionals; they are part and parcel of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Secularism and BJP

Few days back BJP's strongman L.K. Advani stressed that BJP is committed to secularism,  and that it brooks no discriminative attitude towards the minorities. Considering that it can no longer come to power unless it sheds its old and harmful ideology, it is now reaching out to people of all religious communities. States where BJP ruled or shared power have seen persecution of religious minorities. Be it in Orissa or Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat or Karnataka, Christians and Muslims have been butchered and persecuted. Thus not only the religious minorities, but many other Indian citizens distrust BJP. So at this moment when Congress' and its allies are burdened with scams after scams, looting the nations treasury, BJP needs to capitalise on Congress' failure to provide a clean and transparent government. 

BJP has the worst record for any national party when it comes to dealing with the religious minorities. And unless it takes drastic action it would not sufficiently assure the minorities that it has mended its ways. Before the election it is natural for any political party to promise all sorts of things. And therefore if BJP is seriously committed to secularism, it must first severe all ties with RSS. It is a well know fact that Manmohan Singh takes "orders" from Sonia Gandhi; likewise, BJP takes "orders" from RSS. And RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP are birds of the same feather. How can BJP-RSS govern the nation into peace and prosperity when a huge section of the population feel threatened by their coming to power? 

This is apart from the fact that BJP has to settle its internal struggle for power. The tussle for power  has BJP unit split in Gujarat with Keshubhai Patel forming his own party; even Karnataka Yedyurappa seems prepared to part ways with BJP; though Vasundhara Raje is quiet for a while now. 

While Rahul Gandhi is busy at the grass root level, Congress' ministers and its friends have proved themselves to be corrupt. But unless BJP sheds its communal ideology and part ways with RSS, Congress would be the lesser evil. Whether Narendra Modi was responsible for the Gujarat riot and therefore requires persecution or not  is for the Court to decide. My position is that BJP's verbal commitment to secularism is not enough. It needs to be translated into action to be heard and seen.