[Reader-list] The middle class and the welfare state

[Shivam]

Some more on reservations.

*

I wish I could agree with the conclusions that Vir Sanghvi draws to in
this essay:

"Could it be that the middle class has matured? That we have realised
that most of India is not like us? That the vast majority of Indians
have not benefited from India Shining and that it is only fair that
the government redirects some of the country's new-found prosperity
towards those whom the boom has left untouched? My guess is yes; the
middle class has finally come of age. We are less selfish and more
mature than we have ever been. And we have come to terms with the
paradoxes and contradictions of India." [Link:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1702508,00300001.htm]

*

Everyone's read and heard Pratap Bhanu Mehta and others of the
Knowledge Commission. However, two of the Commission's six members,
Jayati Ghose and Dr PM Bhargava, supported the government's proposal.
Dr Bharagav tells Rediff:

"Today, the middle class is not concerned about anything; they are
bothered only about themselves. They are not concerned about public
social welfare. They always think how our children can make money and
live happily. They fight for their rights, but when it comes to the
upliftment of depressed classes like the OBCs, STs and SCs, the middle
class turn away and say that looking after the poor and downtrodden is
the government's business." [Link:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/may/23inter1.htm]

*

Outlook editor Vinod Mehta makes a similar point:

"[…] the passion-charged street power and the virulent rhetoric
against reservations should be seen as part of a larger, disturbing
pattern. India's smug, selfish, self-centred, satiated middle class,
fattened on the fruits of the booming economy, is positively hostile
to any policy which sets out to empower the poor. Over 900 million of
our citizens live on less than Rs 90 a day. Of this, 300 million live
on less than Rs 45 a day. Meanwhile, 200 million privileged have
decided that these citizens must remain roughly where they are—or wait
till the enormous wealth the rich, the ultra rich and the nouveau rich
are accumulating trickles down. This is an obscenity. No fancy
economic formulation can hide this appalling reality of India 2006.
[Read the complete essay:
http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060605&fname=Col+Vinod+%28F%29&sid=1]

*

"Merit" is conditional to opprtunities. Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar writes:

"The canteen boy who brings me tea may be more intelligent than me,
and so too may be the man shining shoes on the roadside. But they were
born in the wrong family, and never had access to good education or
economic opportunities. So they remain on the fringes of society.

"Meanwhile, lesser beings like me dominate society, on the spurious
claim that we are the most meritorious. What gall! We got good marks
because we had the most educated parents, the best books, and went to
the best schools and colleges.

"But others far more meritorious are rotting without education or
opportunity in the slums and villages of India. In a fair and just
society, the top two million or so positions would be occupied by
people with an IQ of over 135. Lesser folk like me (and most striking
doctors) would be just clerks or labourers." [Link:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1581082,curpg-2.cms]

*

The answer is to give them opportunities, not reservations, say the
anti-reservationists. Aiyar tries to make the same point. I don't
dispute that. But while that takes its time, reservations lowers the
entry bar a bit to ensure that some of those who didn't have the means
to acquire "merit" are given a chance. Such a special measure becomes
indispensable when you are looking at addressing an insurmountable as
caste:

[1] http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/caste-social-mobility-and-the-progressive-indian.html
[2] http://www.theotherindia.org/general/the-superposition-of-endogamy-on-exogamy-means-the-creation-of-caste.html