Dependency through protective rights
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: March 20, 2015 -

The advent of Modern Nation States has necessitated the framing of numerous rights and privileges of citizens.

While providing constitutional rights which are aimed at protecting the people, most countries claiming to be Nation States have been burdened by intended as well as unintended impact.

The results framing policies in a country like India are directly or indirectly related to the notions of protection and empowerment.

The citizens often find it difficult to understand the difference between the two and the predicament arising thereon, has most of the time led to unprecedented impact and a kind of situation closer to socio-economic and political chaos.

For instances, the idea of positive discrimination and affirmative action in India had become a hot topic since the time Mandal Commission was set up in 1978 by Moraji Desai government.

The commission was set up to identify the socially or educationally backward classes to consider the question of seat reservations and quotas for people with certain indicators to determine backwardness.

After the submission of the report in 1980, the commission recommended 27% reservation quota for Other Backward Castes/Classes (OBC) resulting in total 49.5% quota in government jobs and public universities.

During VP Singh’s regime, the government tried to implement the commission’s recommendations in 1989. This led to massive protests till the early 1990s ending in violence and even self immolations by those protesting against the recommendations.

Here, one should note that affirmative action and positive discrimination are complex and controversial issues.

The goal of affirmative action had been to accelerate the creation of a representative and equitable workforce for those who are in a historically disadvantaged position to fulfil maximum potential.

However, any measures taken up by the Government as well as demands related to affirmative action invoke emotional outbursts.

It is under this context, one should understand demands made by certain sections of the people who feel that they have been left out from availing the benefits reserved for the socially and economically backward communities.

While assessing the demands in its historical perspective, most observers often see the issue purely from the parameters of the end objective.

This is why, there is a need to relook at why and how unscrupulous politicians India have taken maximum advantage of the objectives of positive discrimination and affirmative action in India.

Once the people are trapped within the whirlpool of enticing objectives, there is every possibility of deepening the dependency syndrome of benevolence of the any Modern Nation States.