CASTEIST TENSIONS IN INDIA - DEFINITION OF BACKWARD CLASSES

A great leap backwards: Patel agitation is making quotas a zero-sum game - by R Jagannathan  Aug 27, 2015 14:45 IST
The violent agitation by the Patidar Patels in Gujarat demanding OBC status and quotas in education and jobs is one more indicator that the whole business of affirmative action has become counter-productive in India. Instead of helping the really backward classes overcome their historical handicaps so that they can lift themselves up by the bootstraps, India's caste-based quotas have become the route for the relatively well-off to demand special treatment and deny them to the more deserving. FIRST POST

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In the Ketu pratyantara dasha of the Indian horoscope of Independence of 1947, we have been witnessing what is a well known historical phenomenon---coming events casting their shadow before. The hint here is at the coming mahadasha of Moon, the third lord in the third house with Saturn, Sun, Venus,  Mercury all casting their aspects on the ninth house of communal and casteist tensions along with Mars in Mithuna casting the eighth house. This pratyantara dasha of Ketu began on 19 August 2015 and will end on 10 September 2015 .

Ketu in the seventh house, showing a war like situation is  close in degrees to transiting Saturn at four (4) degrees and Ketu in the Indian Independence horoscope is five (5) degrees.

Gujarat known for big agitations once in two decades shaking up the state and with visible reactions all over India has been seeing some seismic Patidar rising. And the nation is looking at the  coming Bihar elections---a state known for high voltage casteist feuds and earlier , before Indian Independence and later for communal and casteist tensions.

What awaits the nation then ? The question is pertinent because the coming mahadasha of Moon shows some remarkable achievements in space and other scientific areas but in the socio-economic sphere with huge political repercussions, it is an ill augury for national peace.

MY FIRST APPEARANCE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA AS A PETITIONER IN PERSON
To explain why I am reacting in this way to the agitation of Patels (Patidars of Gujarat) to their present agitation let me explain that I appeared twice, though I am not a lawyer, as a petitioner in person twice in the Supreme Court of India, first time in 1990 and 1991 in the hearing of the Mandal Commission Report which was imposed by V.P.Singh and later in 2003 in the case of astrology.

I had written a book MANDAL REPORT XRAYED then and included the name of S.S.Ahluvalia, a Member of Parliament from Darjeeling, in the present Lok Sabha, as a co-author though he had not written a single word in the book but had helped me with lot of material used in the book, including the reports of both Backward Classes Reports, the first of Kaka Kalelkar (29 January 1953 ) and of Mandal in 1 January 1979).

I had appeared in the Supreme Court and stated that though I was not against reservation for the truly backward classes, the Mandal Commission Report was totally unscientific and based more on preconceived notions and not on any fact finding. But instead of deciding this case on facts, the Court decided to refer it to the larger bench on law points as a result of which all arguments of the report being totally fraudulent remained undecided by the Supreme Court. Some of the arguments given in that book are included in this article as appendices.

The second time I appeared in the Supreme  Court was in November 2003 as a petitioner in person for astrology case and won it.

The Politics of Backwardness in India
Many Indians do not know about the politics of backwardness in India. The first Backward Classes Commission under Kaka Kalelkar, a great Gandhian was done with honest intentions to do something effective for the backward classes of India. But the report was rejected through a Memorandum by the Home Minister, G.B.Pant whose argument was sound and on the lines that through successive Five Year Plans such backwardness as is referred to in Article 340 of the Indian Constitution. There is no doubt that good deal backwardness that existed in the earlier years of the Indian independence has been removed and the backward classes have not only improved their condition socially, educationally and economically but have ousted upper classes and captured power all over India, starting with Tamilnadu.

Pertinent questions
Certain questions arise which our politicians never want to face and answer it all being opportunistic politics.
a) Are those who can capture political power and suppress and even oust upper classes from the corridors of power socially backward?
b) Many of the backward classes of earlier decades, now well educated and in high positions in bureaucracy and politics socially and educationally backward ?
c) Should not those who are economically prosperous  be categorized as socially forward ?
d) Is it therefore not necessary now to define the word “backward” legally in consultation with the Supreme Court and include it in the Constitution of India to avoid the political tension that Patels of Gujarat, a very prosperous community, are creating under the leader of Hardik Patel who was the driver of Arvind Kejriwal when this AAP leader had visited Gujarat  as shown in a photo of Hardik circulating in many places?
e) Is it not necessary to bring such an amendment urgently to stifle such politically opportunistic movements in future?