Monday, May 22, 2006
Mandal-I and Rajiv Gandhi
Students, protesting against quota, have faxed a copy of former PM Rajiv Gandhi’s speech, delivered in Parliament on September 6, 1990, to UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi. The late Rajiv Gandhi had blamed then PM VP Singh for igniting caste violence all over the country with the latter’s reservation proposal. It will quite interesting to see what stand Sonia Gandhi takes on her late husband’s views.
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It is strange that Sonia Gandhi has not spoken about it. Is she having a doubt on her late husband's views on reservation? In politics anything can happen.
It has once again proved that congress is an opportunist party. Yesterday to save its government it has vowed down to the pressure of its allies and left to agree to introduce OBC quota from Jun 2007, the next academic year. What happens to Rajiv's stand on reserrvation? He would never have imagined that her widow will throw his ideals out of the window to serve narrow political interests of his party.
An ad in TOI from 'Youth For Equality' informs what three generations of Nehru-Gandhi family said about reservation.
Jawaharlal Nehru - "Help should be given on ecinomic considerations and not caste" in 1961.
Indira Gandhi - "Na jaat par na paat par mohar lagegi haath par". in 1980.
Rajiv Gandhi - Our goal today must be a casteless society, Let us be vey clear about that". in 1990.
Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi perhaps do not agree with them as congress under their leadership is pushing caste-based reservations. What a degeneration?
Article from expressindia.com -
ONCE UPON A TIME RAJIV GANDHI ASKED SAME QUESTIONS AS SC
Varghese K George
New Delhi, May 29:Why the hurry? What’s the logic? What’s the scientific basis behind the figure? The Supreme Court’s pointed questions today to the Government of India on its proposed Bill for 27% OBC quotas echo the concerns that the late Rajiv Gandhi raised in his speech on the Mandal Commission in the Lok Sabha on September 6, 1990.
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Rajiv, then Leader of the Opposition, described then Prime Minister V P Singh’s hurried announcement of job reservations for OBCs, “not very different from what the Britishers were doing.”
“Today it is the Raja Sahib, sitting there, who is trying to divide our country on caste and religion,” Rajiv said, calling for a “comprehensive action plan, an affirmative action plan for backward communities.”
The thrust of Rajiv’s speech was, “Within a class when you want to give some assistance, it should go to the poorest...We would like that to be targeted to the poorest and weakest in the socially and educationally backward classes...We have problems if the weakest among the classes are not helped and if the weakest among the minority religions are not helped.”
Sixteen years after he made that speech, while his party Congress is pushing ahead with the line that caste is the sole marker of backwardness in the country, it ignores sevaral questions Rajiv had asked V P Singh.
Pointing out that the Mandal Commission failed in its responsibility of “specification of the socially backward classes”—the category article 15(4) of the Constitution makes eligible for special treatment, Rajiv asked: “What sort of information is this report based on? What is the substance of this?”
B P Mandal had not based his report on any scientific field study, and the figure of 52 percent of Hindus as OBC was questioned by Rajiv. Mandal had claimed his personal knowledge after visiting 37 villages was among the source of information on backwardness attributed to castes.
“It is incredible that the government has no comment at all on this report other than saying we will implement it in toto. Why has the government not thought about the lack of scientific input in the data, about the lack of scientific analysis of that data because there were no sociologists involved? Why has the government not spoken about the heavily conditioned inputs that the commission has got? Why has the government not commented on the speed and hurry with which the report was completed?” Rajiv had asked.
Saying that the “Congress was for all types of action including reservation to help socially and educationally backward classes,” Rajiv had said the problem was with “certain definitions.”
Rajiv's speech on Mandal-I : “Let us not have one man’s obstinacy holding India hostage ... Let that man’s obstinacy not lead to caste war ... I appeal to the patriotism and patriotic feelings of every member in this House not to remain idle, not to remain quiet and save this nation from the obstinacy of one person.”
Now the nation is to be saved from the obstinacy of his own party.
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