It is often said that castes are a reality in India. These are not some virtual tags or surnames which impact nothing but only the way you write names. Your caste (mostly, if you are a Hindu) may affect the way you will be treated by others. Your caste may decide whether you are eligible to marry a girl of your choice or not. By and large and socially, this happened to be the limit castes would have impacted you – to gain you first cut acceptance or respect by your fellow caste-members, or to decide your eligibility criteria during prospective marriages. But when politics entered it, it has spiraled into many more spheres. Today, governments in India give entries into schools and colleges; give jobs, promotions, bank loans, ration, and a hell lot of other things, depending on your caste. Though most political parties have employed this ‘divide and rule’ strategy, if there is one party which has been pioneer in inventing more ways to ‘legalize’ casteism (caste based discrimination), it is the Indian National Congress (INC).
Legend is that in villages you have caste based sources of drinking water. Depending on your caste, you may or may not be allowed to drink water at a particular pond. This has been the tradition, started decades or centuries ago, and now defunct in most villages by and large. But now our government headed by the Congress party has come up with inventing almost the same process by replicating it in the area of fuel refilling at gas stations (called ‘Petrol Pumps’ in India). Govt has decided to allocate petrol pumps based on castes of the applicants. And hence, for the first time in modern history, you will have choice to refill your vehicle at the castes you like. You can decide to boycott the petrol pumps with owners of some particular castes and may choose only your own co-caste owners’ pumps. Loving it?
You can read more about this news here:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/27-pc-quota-in-petrol-pump-allocation-for-obcs-reddy/977397/
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article3695129.ece
Without doubt, such decisions and schemes are taken in order to build and please caste-based vote banks. I strongly oppose all such ‘caste-based’ schemes existing and being introduced. Castes and religion can’t be the criteria based on which an allocation can be done. Poverty alleviation is a completely different agenda and not related to castes. If we make laws and boost our economy to grow at a high ratem poor and downtrodden people from all castes will be benefited. But obviously politicians don’t see it the same way and they have their vote banks and elections in mind while they take any decision. Hence national interests take a back-seat.
Now that petrol also has a ‘caste’ in India, aap kaun se caste ka petrol bharwate hain? Which caste does your petrol belong to?
Disclaimer: Views are personal and do not represent views of any person or organization associated with the author. This is a personal blog. Purpose of write-ups is not to hurt anyone’s sentiments.
