When will this ever change?

During my school days I had a Maths tutor who had an interesting habit of involving people into conversation by starting a discussion about sensitive topics... Somehow we happened to start discussing about reservation in education.... I still remember the below exchange of views...

MathsTutor: Y should the reservation system be changed? Our forefathers have been victims...

My Friend: It should change for the fact that I will not be having equal opportunities to compete with....

....

The discussion below is when I was in Hyderabad.... (I don't wish to name the person I was also involved in the discussion...)

Person1: Do u think there should be reservation system?

Person2: No It should not...

Person1: It should exist .Our forefathers have been victims of discrimination.

Person2: When will we stop discriminating people? Will it go on and on ...

(I remember this conversation going on for an hour or so......)

.....

There was a gap of five years between those two conversation.But the mindset of the people have not changed....


I am for one who is not able to comprehend the viewpoint of people who support reservation.
During those days if I m correct most people of the backward community belonged to economically weaker sections of the society and therefore for their upliftment BABA Saheb Ambedkar envisioned a system which will bring then to mainstream. To an extent this system worked.But now in the current context where the current generation does not believe in caste and creed the current form of reservation just divides the society. We no longer need a reservation system which is based on caste or creed.To be frank we don't need reservation system at all.Let the admission procedure em be open and transparent.What message are we conveying to the future generation? Are we saying that "even if" hardwork does not pay,they can always bank on their lineage to get an admission or a job? To me even money power shouldn't work...
What sort of transparency is this?

The true purpose of reservation is for the upliftment of lower sections of the society. In those days there was a disparity between the "so called" upper caste and the "so called" lower caste.To eliminate this a reservation system based on caste system was introduced.But the only form of discrimination I can see now is between the haves and have nots. It is present even in temples where there is an option of so called "Speed Darshan" which only the certain section can afford. If the affluent section of the society cannot afford to waste their time by standing in queue then there is no point in those people coming to worship the deity ... (In this context I was happy when I read a article which said about TTD contemplating about scrapping away special darshans). Coming to the current topic can we have a reservation system based on Income Groups? Actually speaking reservation system based on family income can be an alternate option. But is there a guarantee even that cannot be misused? The answer is no.So the best option is to scrap the reservation policy once and for all.Instead the government can ensure no meritorious student is denied a seat based on external factors like want of money. Reservation system at present only divides our country into smaller section which in turn is vulnerable in the hands of divisive forces.

Will Reservation policy ever be scrapped? In an era of vote bank politics and at a time where each and every party supports either one community or the other and at a time at which the word "secular" has lost its true meaning I don't see it happening.

Fuel Rationing/ Differential Fuel price

Of late even common man has started to track the price of a oil barrel. I remember having discussions in my office with team mates about the price of a oil barrel and its consequences.(Even though professionally price of an oil barrel has nothing to do with my work) . That is the sort of situation we Indians are in now. This is from a lay mans perspective.

But if you think about the fiscal deficit of the oil companies many would agree that these companies are bleeding financially already and so this hike cannot be avoided. If there wasn’t a considerable hike then the oil companies wouldn’t have had money to even import fuel. They would have gone completely bankrupt.

Is fuel rationing and differential price regime of fuels the only saving grace?
To me for a country like India which is almost dependent on imported crude for its usage and where the divide between haves and have nots is huge the answer is yes. I for one , wholeheartedly support subsidies because the so called poverty alleviation programs that are being implemented by the successive government don’t reach the people for whom they were actually planned for. When the government cannot provide ways by which an average Indian cannot increase his/her annual income well above the poverty line then the government definitely has to bear with the overhead of subsidies. But my point is that the government should definitely ponder about the following question.Why should the government sell fuel at subsidized rate for affluent sections of the society? I understand the point in government sharing the cost burden of LPG cylinder of a family whose monthly income is 3000 but why should it give the same LPG cylinder at the same cost to a family whose monthly income is around 50000 ? At the end it is the common man’s tax which goes into government coffers which in turn is given as subsidies. So will the affluent upper middle class and the filthy reach be affected by this increasing prices?Yes I agree they will also be affected but my argument is that they will not be affected to the extent of the common man or a man whose annual income is just above the poverty line. (Please remember that LPG is not the only one there are several items that are been subsidized). For the economically weaker sections their daily bread and butter is affected because of this price hike….
I mean the chain effect this fuel price hike would have on the food items….

So why cant the affluent upper class take this as a moral responsibility and support a price regime wherein they compensate for the fiscal losses in subsidies by filling their fuel drinking SUV petrol tanks at an higher cost? I for one will definitely support and will be ready to pay . But will this be really implemented is a different question for which each one of us has an answer. In an era of vote bank politics there wont be many takers to this idea. But to me this is the only way using which India can safely navigate the current fuel crisis. I understand the cost cutting measures being taken by the current government. But these measures do not have a cascading effect on the society . I personally do not have anything against the filthy rich or the upper middle class (I too belong to one of these section) but it is high time that we as Indian citizens act morally and totally accept this differential pricing concept(if implemented) to tide away the current crisis(if I can call it so). Will we raise to the occasion?

Looking forward for your comments….