Gujjar row- identity politics జూన్ 22, 2008
Posted by bharath in Economy, Identity, politics.add a comment
LEADER ARTICLE
A Case For Inclusion
5 Jun 2008, Times of India
Ravinder Kaul*
The resurfacing of the Gujjar agitation for inclusion in the ST category should be understood within the framework of modern democratic politics. Even though the language of inclusion employed is of caste/tribe-based identity claims, the concepts of justice and fairness underlying such claims are inherently modern. In fact, they militate against hierarchy-based rights enshrined in the caste system. Thus, the agitation is anti-caste and for modern democratic ideals.
Concepts of justice and fairness no longer enjoy the safety of mere politically correct ideological expressions. On the ground, real communities are involved and real lives are at stake, as attested to by a nearly hundred deaths that have taken place since the agitation first came out into the open.
Last summer, the Meenas were the visible ‘other’, seen as benefiting disproportionately from the ST pie, while Jats who have entered the OBC category in Rajasthan and are actually responsible for reducing the Gujjars’ opportunities for benefits remained in the background.
This year, there is an ominous silence on the Meena front. Even the Gujjar leadership has not been vocal about the community’s rancour against the Meenas, nor have there been any Meena/Gujjar clashes.
We should see this as progress. The Gujjars’ fight is not and should not be against the Meenas but a demand addressed to the state. The state government has also realised that the problem is pretty much in its own court.
As its response to a self-created problem – it was the BJP that promised the Gujjars a berth in the ST category – it continues to play political football by kicking the ball into the Centre’s court. The Centre, however, is not biting. It has enough of its own quota headaches. In its view, it is the state government that should deal with the “problem”. (ఇంకా…)
Small State Debate- Gorkhaland, Telangana, etc జూన్ 22, 2008
Posted by Telangana Utsav in Articles, Fazal Ali Commission, Six Point Formula, Telangana, politics.Tags: SRC
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Is it time for reorganisation of states?
We need to debate our federal structure
Peter R deSouza, Director IIAS*, Shimla
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Peter R deSouza |
The agitation in Darjeeling for a separate Gorkha state has brought to the fore, once again, the need to examine the place of the ‘state’ in India’s democratic architecture. In sixty years a significant shift has occurred in the locus of power from a dominant ‘Centre’ to one that has now to share power with the states, to not just accommodate their claims but to concede their demands. The state has begun to drive the equations of power in national politics. This is all well known.
The first is the growth in population. A fivefold growth in the electorate since Independence, to in excess of 650 million, necessarily means that the current federal form is probably inadequate to meet the voters rising aspirations. Coupled with this is the second cause, the deepening of what D L Sheth has called India a democracy of communities.
Democracy has created an assertive politics of communities that now, enjoying their arrival on the big stage, want a home of their own. This ambition gets fuelled, the third cause, by the increasing attention that community leaders get from the media and those who count. Yesterday’s nobody has become today’s somebody. Community politics makes one a somebody. (ఇంకా…)
