One of the big cliches about Indian elections is that “the educated middle-class” voters do not come out to vote because they do not find the kind of candidate they can relate with.
And that the moment they do, our world will be transformed.
That cliche was kinda essentially reduced to bull shit on toast last week when just 44.73% of voters came to the booths in “highly literate” Bangalore South where besides the outgoing BJP MP, three people of pedigree—a young US-returned Congress candidate with a software spouse; a respected college professor standing on the JDS ticket; and an Air Force man who set up India’s first low-cost airline standing as an independent—were on offer.
But this middle-class apathy is neither new nor surprising.
BHAMY V. SHENOY with IIT on his resume, a long career in the oil industry in the United States, an established record as a consumer activist in Mysore, has twice stood for the Karnataka assembly elections: once in 1989 and then in 1994. The first time he won a grand total of 550 votes; the second time he was four times as lucky, getting 2,260 votes.
In 1994, when the average turnout in the State was 65%, Shenoy’s “literate” constituency recorded 52%.
Here’s his story which gives us more than an inkling of what is in store for Captain G.R. Gopinath, Mallika Sarabhai, Meerah Sanyal and other do-gooders of their ilk at the hands of “the educated middle-class” in the 15th general elections.
***
By BHAMY V. SHENOY
My own experience of contesting the election from the Chamaraja constituency of Mysore City as an independent candidate and losing the election by a big margin proves my hypothesis that Indian voters are not interested in elections, do not care who wins and often do not even know whom they are voting for.
One retired Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) official who wanted to vote for me changed his mind at the last minute to vote for a candidate because, on his way to the polling booth, that candidates people gave him his voting registration number!
In my constituency, there were eight major slum areas and the votes there were controlled by petty feudal lords, usually small time politicians.
They are not influenced by what the policy of liberalisation is doing to the economy, whether poor are getting kerosene regularly, whether the condition of roads is good or in what way the reservation policy will affect our educational institutions in the long run.
They are swayed by how much money they will get or what position they can secure after the election.
I was hopeful that their votes would be more than neutralized by the active participation of literate and educated voters in my constituency. But my hopes were belied.
I had contested in the assembly election in 1989 also from the same constituency and secured just 550 votes. This time I could get 2,260 votes. The surprising thing was that even many of my supporters were shocked by my defeat.
When I contested the election in 1989, I was not known in the city. I had returned from the US in 1987 where I had stayed for more than 22 years.
But in 1994, the situation was entirely different. With the help of many leading intellectuals, scientists, professionals, retired army officials and bureaucrats, I had taken interest in solving every significant problem faced by the citizens in Mysore.
During the campaign I did not want to match my political opponents in terms of spending money. While they spent any where from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 20 lakh (despite the much publicized observance of the model code of conduct of T.N. Seshan), I spent less than Rs. 14,000.
But with the help of friends, we were able to visit more than 30,000 houses and talk to more than 70,000 people. We did not just ask them for votes. We spent some time in each house and discussed the problems faced by them.
Thousands of voters had promised to vote in my favour after understanding why I was contesting. If just 50% had kept their promise, I would have easily won.
As a part of the campaign, I had published a booklet Decline and Fall of Mysore: Who is Responsible? I was able to sell more than 3,500 copies of that booklet. Some who read that booklet voluntarily came forward to help me in the campaign. The message in that booklet was clear. Unless literate and educated people take interest in politics, we can not improve living conditions in city.
Eighty percent of the voters in my constituency were literate and between 40 per cent and 50 per cent were readers of newspapers and reasonably well informed. My strategy was to concentrate on this literate body and to take my message to them.
I also spent a lot of my time with members of Rotary, Lions and Round Table clubs, industrialists, employees of leading industries, shopkeepers, educationists, medical and engineering students among others. This is after all the segment of the society which is capable of understanding how professional politicians are duping them and this is also the segment of the society whom, purportedly, I could easily communicate with and convince of the need to bring about a revolution in our political system.
I was obviously wrong in my assumption.
A shopkeeper was frank enough to admit that if we really root our corruption he would not be able to earn his living!
For the sake of argument and to show others how moral we are, many of us may talk against the present corrupt system. But many of our traders and industrialists have learnt the art of managing the system and continuing to make money. They may even agitate for unification of taxes and show anger against the political system which is bringing all kinds of irrational rules and regulations. But in the final say, they prefer a system where they can bribe and manage rather than one where the rule of law prevails.
When the average percentage of voting in the whole of Karnataka was around 65%, my constituency which has among the highest percentage of literate people managed to post the lowest percentage of voting: 52 per cent!
In other words, our literate class which should be able to vote taking into consideration the merits of the candidates did not even bother to perform their duty and betrayed their city. There was greater participation of voters from slum areas rather than from better neighborhoods.
I was hoping that since the literate class is fully familiar with the lack of a well-defined election agenda on the part of political parties and lack of determination to implement what little they have, not only they would canvass for me but would publicly come forward and endorse my candidacy.
But for a handful of well known Mysoreans others were hesitant to come forward to support me publicly. Most of the leading intellectuals had privately assured me that I could depend upon their support and votes. Ironically most of those who had publicly supported me could not finally vote for me because their names were missing from the voters list. Is this just accidental or is there a sinister design?
I also observed another interesting phenomenon during my campaign. While all the people living in slum areas were registered, many people especially (the principal of a medical college and a retired judge to name just two) who had transferable jobs often are not registered.
The attitude expressed by some sympathisers of the Bharatiya Janata Party clearly shows how immature we are as far as democracy is considered.
Some of them did not even know who the BJP candidate was but that did not bother them. A few even told me that they would vote for the BJP even if the candidate was worthless. Some of them assured me the vote after hearing my name. They had assumed that I was the BJP candidate.
Even many educated voters did not know what was expected of their legislators. One doctor assured me of her vote if I could get two dustbins by the side of her house. Another housewife wanted my assistance that once elected I should come and clear the garbage in front of her house. Many were going to vote for certain candidates because they had received certain favours like getting admission for their children, or sites.
Very few were aware that a legislator should try to bring about a systemic change by enacting the right kind of legislation so that all are benefited, so that the rights of minorities are protected, so that society as a whole prospers.
With one exception, all newspapers completely ignored my candidacy. Even when I was prepared to pay, one newspaper was hesitant to accept my advertisement and I had to make many calls before I could buy space. No newspaper bothered to find out and publish what the stands of different candidates on various important issues were.
When a candidate-public meet was held for the first time and many professional politicians could not answer questions from the public properly, only one newspaper bothered to cover this important experiment.
The most significant revelation newspapers could make was that voters would vote along caste lines!. If that was indeed the case, being the only prominent Brahmin candidate from my constituency, where there are more than 20000, Brahmins, I should have got many more votes.
A longer version of this article was published in The Sunday Observer, Bombay, dated January 15-21, 1995.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News; author pic courtesy itbhuglobal.org
Lovely picture — looks like a photographic version of an R.K. Laxman cartoon.
Bangalore South arguably has Karnataka’s best lineup of candidates. If I lived there I would have voted for Mr. Krishna Byre Gowda, for his dignified campaign, for his youth, for his U.S. education, and for the positive energy/attitude that he brings to Karnataka’s politics.
Now about Mr. Bhamy Shenoy. Well, Mr. Shenoy needs to appreciate that India is a multi-party democracy. Our system is designed to disadvantage independents — and for good reason. Only parties can, theoretically, provide stable governance. Not individuals of wildly disparate ideologies.
If Mr. Shenoy is serious about winning he must join a party, lead that party in the ideological direction that he supports (and that many educated youths appreciate), build his public credentials on legislation that matters — and along the way inspire the youth to come out and vote!
Mr. Shenoy should quit being a futile rebel, and instead join/reform a party of his choice. I truly want to see Mr. Shenoy in the Lok Sabha.
I feel Mr. Shenoy is very wrong in assuming that the legislators role is only to bring about systemic change and he shouldn’t be worried about ensuring dustbins near his constituents’ homes. His condescending attitude towards the voters is also disturbing.
Just because the voters are illiterate does not mean they are not aware of what/who they are voting for. Voting for people who have done us favors in the past makes sense because that person is likely help me even more when he is in power. And if that person is actually helping out enough people, I do not see why he should not be elected as that will mean that a large number of people are being granted favors. I admit that this has several problems beginning with the possibility that the leader might totally neglect one community or caste if he feels that their votes are insignificant.
However, I feel that Mr. Shenoy’s problems stem from the assumption that the only kind of election promises should be development of schools, roads, rooting out corruption etc. Why are we running away from the possibility that what the electorate, including literate urbanites, actually want is some symbolic reassurance that their cultural identity is respected. This might be in the form of building a Ram temple or erecting an Ambedkar statue.
As a resident of Bangalore South and having voted, I didnt quite understand what the Cong and JD(S) candidates stood for. There wasn’t a clear articulation on what they stood for Or even communicate what they felt the local issues are.
>> “My own experience of contesting the election from the Chamaraja constituency of Mysore City as an independent candidate and losing the election by a big margin proves my hypothesis that Indian voters are not interested in elections, do not care who wins and often do not even know whom they are voting for…”
Ah.. the arrogance! Mr. Holier-holier-than-than-thou-thou loses an election and immediately an entire electorate are branded blithering fools. Wonder what he would have concluded if he’d — Goddess Chamundi forbid–won the election!
Pardon me if I missed it in the grape-fest above, but precisely what qualifies the likes of Mr. Shenoy to public office? IIT? Years in “faarign”? Mr. Shenoy should stop taking his delusions out on innocent passers-by on churumuri and elsewhere.
For all we know — and it certainly is not our fault if we don’t know any better — the Shenoys, Sarabais and similar pretenders are at least as unfit and as untrustworthy of public office as the ones currently holding them. Kindly forgive us for electing the known devil.
sisya,
Very well said.
A majority of “Educated” people of this country are usually “Political illiterates”. The MP/MLA must be “educated” about the local issues too. But, I agree with him that a majority of Educated needs to be “educated” about their duty to vote.
Second, let me tell this candidate, the first duty of an MP/MLA is to become a “representative”. Fancy resumes and IIT degree wont help (Btw, I’m an IITian and a doctorate in Comp. Sci. – So, dont get back to me on that.)If the candidate ridicules the problems of garbage that locals are facing, how can he claim to be a “representative” ??
After reading the first paragraph of this verbarrhoea, I did’nt care to read the rest of it. This man, given his hubris, did not even deserve a single vote. I’m kicking myself for voting for such a headlong person ( I think he contested under the banner of mysore lokswaraj andolan)
The most significant revelation newspapers could make was that voters would vote along caste lines!. If that was indeed the case, being the only prominent Brahmin candidate from my constituency, where there are more than 20000, Brahmins, I should have got many more votes.
Wrong Timing, that’s all. Try it now you reap a Bumper.
I am surprised by the naivete of Bhamy Shenoy. Bhamy is piqued because the literate people did not vote in great numbers and let him down. Even if all the literate people had voted my guess is he would have still lost. It is branding which is key for winning. You can discover and manufacture the best toothpaste in the world but no one is going to buy it unless you advertise well and create the brand. People will always go for well known brands except for some micro-minor exceptions. Same with elections. That’s what big, small, regional and national parties are. They are a brand. Religion, caste, language and all other identities are important elements which is used to create specific brands. The parties want their market share, the voters. Branding needs money, people and organization. Bhamy you had none. We have a huge population and you need to reach out, buy, promise goodies, promise protection against perceived/real enemies and convince them to vote for you.
Obviously Bhamy’s brand IIT is just not good enough. IIT is also no guarantee for good political governance. The literate people of Bhamy’s constituency are not angel investors, venture capitalists and employers of silicon valley. Bhamy’s IIT brand works in that field but not here. Neither are his US returned and Consumer Rights activist brand convincing enough. Branding is also communication, charisma and recollection value. Talking and meeting people on the road and their homes is just one mode of communication.
I also want to know how many times Bhamy appeared in Newspapers and TV. And media is again controlled by big businesses and they are not Bhamys brother’s keepers to give him the free publicity he needs. They do not mind projecting independents like the beautiful Meera Sanyal or the dancer Mallika Sarabhai or the successful aviator Gopinath. Even though these independents are likely to loose their deposits they brings glamour and enhance the TV channel TRPs. But Bhamy, why would media project you. Please introspect and wake up to reality.
Although people promised you that they will vote they did not because there was no recollection of brand Bhamy. They forgot because your advertisement was not sustained and impressive enough. I guess you never invested in any posters and pamphlets. With Rs. 14,000 budget your advertisement would have been surely pathetic. I assume you would have shown no drama, pomp and pageantry in your campaign. No loudspeakers and sloganeering. No symbols. These are very important Mr. Shenoy and the human brain has two hemispheres – Left and Right. Like most technocrats you have been trained and think predominantly from your left side. The voters right brain needs to be kindled. You should sing songs for them. Promise them sweet nothings. Project how compassionate you are and claim that you are have answers for all their problems and create a glorious future for them. You could have roped in some sandalwood film actresses to campaign for you. The primary needs of people are hope, faith, entertainment and protection.
I have my sympathies with you Mr Shenoy. The world is not a fair playing ground and reason does not rule roost here. It is better to wake up to that reality.
90%+ of voters in India are
1) People who vote for a party not caring about the candidate. They’d vote to the party candidate , even if the candidate from that party is sh**. ex: Most so called forward caste people vote for BJP.
2) People who vote on caste lines.They vote for same caste candidate.
3) People who wants to vote for winning candidate. – For them voting is like gambling because they want cadidate to whom they have voted must win. So they decide who is winning candidate and then vote.
4) People who go to polling stations and decide whom to vote.
5) People who have received some favour from the candidates ( like money, liquor etc)
These traits are applicable to all the voters including so called literates.
i’m sure this article would not have been re-published @ Churumuri, if not for the “BJP voters are stupid” remark by the author.
that aside, why shud the voters of Mysore have elected this traitor who spent the 22 years of his productive life in the US and came to retire in India? bcos he made it and was showing sympathy on the losers (namely the voters)? keep your money and education and all fancy “qualifications’ to yourself guys. people are supposed to elect representatives not celebrities. this guy who hadn’t even bother to live among his electorate, doesn’t even deserve the 550 votes he got.
and how is Krishna Byregowda an intellect? there must be a zillion indian graduates out of US schools. this guy got ‘lucky’ bcos his politician dad died. thats all. and how does it matter what his wife does?
and what on hell has Gopinath done, other than being successful in his personal life, to be our representative? are we voting for the ‘house of lords’ or the ‘house of the people’?
btw. I’m a BJP volunteer and have spent the last four weekends on the field, knocking few thousand doors, talking to people in their homes and requesting them to vote for BJP or atleast vote. and yes, now I’m disgusted with Bangaloreans. and the next time I hear a cynic saying how bad things are, I’m gonna ask him if he voted last time and positively slap him on the face if he hadn’t. (not being gender sensitive here, bcos I have no desire to slap a woman and make it to a Churumuri article).
and no people aren’t cynical despite Krishna Byregowda, Gopinath and this Shenoy guy. they are cynical ALSO bcos of these idiots who think coming out of a famous birth canal or being successful in their personal career somehow makes them eligible to represent us, the losers. thanks, but no thanks.
Balaji
Don’t get so cynical. The idea to have a successful person at the helm is, so that he can repeat the same best practices in his ward or his jurisdiction in the capacity he represents. And your grouse for NRI’s is wrong. He can use the exposure to benefit us.
Come to Kerala: Subramania Shenoy was a born Communist. so they may not think you are BJP!
Mr. Shenoy, in his learning, misses one lesson from Lord Krishna:
saktAh karmaNyavidvAMsO yathA kurvanti bhArata
kuryAdvidvAnstathAsaktaSchikeerShurlOkasaMgrahaM
I’ll cut the lecture short – basically, Mr. Shenoy – or any independent – or any “political party of the good guys” needs to do exactly that which the bad guys do – and do it better. The good guys actions cannot be different from those of the bad guys. Only the intentions can be different. Of course, the similarity with the bad guys needs to vanish after coming to power.
A Faux Pas: Capt Gopi is from the army.
Mr. Bhamy himself quotes stats that people from the slums had voted in higher percentages than those from the settled, educated sections of the society. It seems that his IITness had implicitly precluded him from approaching these very high-probable-voters while seeking votes from the constituency in question. Or was it the gap his IITness created between him and those slum dwellers? Why then does he need to proclaim his IITness during campaigns or pre/post-election analyses?
Its time people of BVS’s ilk realised the need of the hour for doing good to this society, and realised practical way(s) to do it.
Its very interesting to see the deep polarity amongst us Indians, who read and comment on blogs. The mere mention of BJP or Congress in any article turns out into a major mud singling, with the authors and the posters being accused of dark conspiracies. I guess, the main intent of the article being posted here is not about which party one must vote and to what kind of candidate we should vote. Though it does come across as the author is narrow minded in some of his approaches and dismissals ( expecting the slum dwellers not to vote him – maybe because he never went to campaign there and understand them?), but I could feel what he felt. Why cant we vote? plain and simple – why dont we exercise this basic right and duty of a citizen? and then we complain of lack of good leaders? Atleast people like this author, Capt.Gopinath, Sanyal have started something. Atleast they are doing something, while we (including myself) are just typing and showing our supposed political intellectual constipation…
Mr. Shenoy has missed one important reason. I don’t think the ‘System’ really does encourage voting. The electoral rolls are not updated. Thousands of names are found missing. People have Voter IDs but you won’t find their names in the rolls. I feel making voting compulsory would drastically change the picture. Then you will find polling percentage reaching more than 80.
The same Bhamy Shenoy who wanted Hindus to lie down and die until Muslims come forward to end terrorism? I commend the voters for rejecting him!
Good thing you did not win, We would have hated you as any other politician
Politics is not everyone’s cup of tea.
many people including many politisians spend their life time to win once.Many do win by comming up in life climbing ladder one by one.
inspite of staying with people for 5 years,if you could not gather confidence then it clearly proves that you lacked leadership qualities to inspire people.
There are many politisians who are poor and have came up in their life.But ask them how many years they have worked for it.They will say thier entire life.
After 2 defeats you packed bags with politics.Politics is not for weak hearted people.
I had gone to every slum and had sought votes as much as I had done in other areas. In some slums I was well known because of the help I had rendered in securing PDS kerosene and also through enviornmental NGO I had worked in several slums.
Thus it is incorrect to say that I did not seek the votes of slum dwellers. I had also gone there with some of the leaders they knew. Still it did not make any difference. I knew based on the ward voting how many I got from the slums.
I agree with the comment that I was naive. Does it matter? If you have to choose between naive but honest candidate and dishonest and corrupt politicians?
Incidentally through consumer organization I had attempted to solve every civic problem of the city and I was not offended with the request of the doctor for asking for garbage bins. It was just that I was expecting discussion on more important topics from a professionals. In fact when I went to the slums they were asking questions about toilts, garbage, kerosene etc. and I was happy to help them out.
Most readers seem to have completely missed the main objective of the article and picked on wrong items to concentrate. I was not trying to win debating points.
If you feel that some one with my background (sincerely interested to work for the society after a reasonably good education and work experience) is not fit to be elected, what kind of leaders do you want? Please tell me what do you want in your leaders? Also what have you done to select such leaders?
Bhamy V Shenoy
Firstly few hard things but please digest.
urban people do not vote with brains.I have seen so many BJP supporters who don’t know thw single achievment of BJP.yet they are big fans of BJP.They are more blind by the weakining hindutva and strengthening muslims in India.
only 6-8% people seriosuly decide to talk about candidates(mind it,people never discuss independents seriously) their pros and cons.most of the others would have already made up their mind.
Rural people as commented by many here vote more sensibly and change the anti incumbent leaders more often than urban population.
If your efforts were put into rural areas i am sure you would have seen more sucess as rural people vote more on local issues unlike most of the urbans who vote on certain principles(blind or unblind)
citizens’ turnout at the polls in Blore south was a shock to me when i read the numbers in the newspapers. Not sure of the actual contribution, i heard many of the educated people(film artists and many more, few of them in my own acquaintances) being left out of the polls due to their names missing from the electoral list. This can act in negative to the enthusiastic voters in the sense that their morale has been bent by negligence of the system and they might turn apathetic to the polls in future…
i think most people miss the point mr. shenoy wants to make: that the so called educated voters say that they stay away from elections because there’s no decent person standing and casting a vote is like a hobson’s choice, but when a decent person who epitomizes all that they visualize an ideal candidate to be actually materializes…. they still remain apathetic.
>> “If you feel that some one with my background (sincerely interested to work for the society after a reasonably good education and work experience) is not fit to be elected, what kind of leaders do you want?”
We want LEADERS who will get off their high horse first. If you got off yours for a moment, you’d realize that almost all candidates out there can make all the same claims you just made – “sincerely interested to work for society”, “reasonably good education” and work experience.
Secondly, we need LEADERS who are intellectually honest, are not hypocritical and won’t insult our intelligence. Someone who will care two hoots about being ‘politically correct’. Who will call a spade a spade – regardless of which side of the political divide the spade is on. For someone masquerading as an independent, you have a remarkably consistent pattern of picking on spades from only one side of the divide!
Thirdly, like I’ve emphasized all along, we need LEADERS. LEADERS are born. LEADERS stand out. We’ve seen that at work. In school. In college. All around us. The best teacher in the school can very well make a very bad Principal. The best coder on the team can lot of times be a very bad Manager. We’ve all seen it. So stop trying to impress an electorate with irrelevant IIT tags.
In a country of a billion people, all you managed is 500 votes and you have the cheek to lay the blame on everything and everyone but yourself?! Hell there’s 500 people on even a teenager’s cellphone contact list these days! Did you stop for a moment to think that may be you don’t DESERVE to be elected? You should. Seriously, what makes you think you’re any more deserving than a Laloo or a Yeddy or a tiruka or a Gowda? And honestly, as a registered Mysore voter, I’d never heard of your name before churumuri. And right, its my fault.
dear Shenoy, Imagine a parliament with 365 independants like you. from IIM, IIT and the likes. You would have still fought to become Prime minister or at least Railway minister!
Mr. Shenoy,
The election today is no different from wars earlier. Wars were won with might, cunningness and deceit and not by honesty and naivete. This is the secret weapon for success in war and elections. The follower of Dharma cannot be differentiated from the follower of Adharma in the “means”. He should be differentiated in the “end”.
[And yes, Gandhi was wrong. Remember that we haven’t achieved the freedom of his definition. Why? Because his means were wrong.]
This is a lesson you haven’t learnt. The honest need to be taught this, while the dishonest learn this by themselves.
This is the setting against which the sun of Dharma needs to rise.
Its been a while since i commented on churumuri, but in this case, i have a very strong urge to put forth a very simple question.
Clearly everyone here seems to have issues with religious/caste orientation in the sense that some are against secularism/pseudo secularism, some are against castes. some are against particular religious activism et. al.
My question is, “What would your response be to a complete abolishing of any reservation?”.
No reservation for castes/minority religions, no government interferences in procedures of religious institutions except a strict control over the financial audits of these institutions(no concessions on basis of minor/major religions). No reservations in jobs. No declaration of the caste/religion of electoral candidates prior to elections.
The only concession available to anyone being government sponsored scholarships to students who cannot afford education (where does the money for these scholarships come from you ask, i reply that it will come from the money not spent in actually maintaing the setups that provide and maintain all the reservation systems).
Would anyone here be inclined to support such a movement?
dispellshadow – Why does Caste/Religion carry a negative connotation? I see nothing wrong in its recognition.
In fact, I don’t think it is possible at all to abolish these realities either from our forms or from our lives. They are a definite and definitive part of us.
As for reservations, I am all for reservations for Dalits. When I say Dalits, I mean those that have not converted to Islam or Christianity. There are no other Dalits btw.
What is needed is not reservation based on caste. It is access to good education from primary and some affirmative action for those who come from poor environment. This is what has been denied and politicians try to create vote bank politics based on caste/relgion/language/ etc.
Yes we need a movement to get rid of rservations since it has been shown to help only the ‘creamy” layer with very exceptions. Dr. Ambedkar, Narayanan, etc were helped not by reservation, but by having access to higher education. Today in Shanthi Bhavan school near Bangalore one philanthropist has established a school only for the poorest of poor from the slums irrespective of caste and religion. This has opened the doors for those who have been kept away by our society all these years. His students have performed very well and of their own merit they should be able to go for higher studies without any rservation. Now can we open such thousands of schools all over India and create a level playing field? Are our present crop of netas capable of even thinking along that line?
In my view, the blunder is already committed when we give Dalit reservations a purely economic twist. It is much more than that. It is an emotional act of acceptance by Hindu Society.
In order for any regime to initiate a program that would help those who are economically weak..abolition of reservation would not be required nor necessary.
Please note I am limiting reservations to Dalits.
Dalits in general cannot rely on philanthropy of a few groups or individuals. They are too huge a population. They need State and Societal support in the form of official affirmative action. The case against the Creamy Layer, I feel, is a weak one. A red herring. What kind of numbers are we really talking about wrt the creamy layer? Are they substantial when taken from the total Dalit population?
I would like to point out that my support for Dalit Reservations is not predicated on an automatic anti-“upper” Caste or anti-Brahmin stance. I am not a propagandist for Dalit politics as is the form it generally tends to take. Ambedkar and Narayanan may not have had reservations to rely on…but certainly they had well wishers from amongst non-Dalit castes. That sufficed in the case of these two individuals.
Dear Sisya,
I can understand why you have not heard of my name. May I humbly ask you to take a small survey. Please ask at least 5 of your friends who read any news papers or take some part in solving civic problems of the city, I will bet at least two or more would have heard of my name and also of Mysore Grahakara Parishat or Pratham.
Please let me know what you find.
Why use the word ‘ Dalit’ when the word used by the Constitution is Scheduled castes. is it another rhetoric of the power discourse ?
I may disagree with Bhamy Shenoy on many issues but my dad always said good things about Mr. Shenoy. He even told me he was gonna vote for Shenoy if I remember correctly years ago.
@Sisya..most of the people in mysore have only arrogance and zero education and it’s very well manifested in your comment as well as in comments by a few others..
I disagree with BVS on the reservation issue. And of course with Palahalli too. The reason I suggest abolishing all reservations is not based on an economic turn but instead on the stability of society.
@palahalli
True, caste/religion does not need to have a negative connotation. It should be part of a person’s identity in so far that he/she is able to project it proudly and confidently. But it need not be an excuse for a person to be successful which is what reservations do. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First- It makes the whole concept of competition on a fair base null and void. As far as acceptance by the Hindu society is concerned, it has been done. A majority of the population has already accepted that the caste system was/is a form of social evil. And to this end, it has tried to make changes by giving the dalits, SC/ST the chance to enter every/any field. One cannot/should not expect a greater acceptance than equality. 60 yrs past independence, instead of reservations being reduced, they are just being increased in a haphazard manner, these days the main aim being vote bank politics. I will explain why this is problematic just after the second reason.
Second- To say,for example, “I am a dalit AND YET I have a high profile job” projects a completely different personality of say a dalit instead of him/her saying, “i have a high profile job BECAUSE I am a dalit”. I think what you refer to as religion/caste without a negative connotation refers to the former way of projecting self. Though reservations were primarily intended to aid the same, of late they are aiding more the latter form. Today, politicians go around campaigning that because ppl are SC/ST, , dalits,minority religions et al., they are entitled to some sort of reservation. All I am saying is, no one is entitled to anything other than education that they want to pursue. If someone wants a good life and a good job, they have to fight and struggle for it, just like everyone else. Prove their mettle so to say!
Now, the reason why i lay importance on my first reason-SOCIAL UNREST. The more reservations you create, the more unrest you are creating among the populace which does not fall under the quotas. True, dalits were oppressed for centuries together etc. ad infinitum ad nauseum. But, today we live in the information age, where technology facilitates people to stay connected far more easily than earlier days. So do u really believe that revolution will take ages to surface? What took the dalits centuries will now precipitate in less than a century. &0 yrs, ppl have accepted that dalits need reservation et al. But now a lot are beginning to get agitated by it. So how long do you think we have until we are caught in a bloody(literally!) CIVIL WAR. I for one am concerned that we are already in one! Was not there an incident some time ago about caste based conflict in ambedkar law college in chennai? And to think chennai is in TN which has more than 50% reservation and also has pro dalit laws and cops. A couple of people were killed/extremely badly injured in that one incident. How long do you think until such incidents surface all over?
Where is then the statement “Unity in Diversity”?
Bhamy Sir,
Why does your ego hurt if someone said they havent heard your name? You want a survey n all done to prove your popularity. Very silly and childish reply for your age and experience.
However i very much agree with you on education. Need of the hour is to make quality education affordable. But its the contrary even in U.S.A where university fees increase by 40% every year.
Rahul mirchi – Scheduled Caste is a term without a soul. Caste men that belong to it cannot own something that is mechanically stuck on them. Something like “Harijan” which was another such term. Dalit is a proudly self-owned name. No one should begrudge it. And yes, Dalit is more of an umbrella that covers all “untouchable” Castes.
dispellshadow – Your post is confusing and you make a lot of assumptions.
1. I have not found one who has chosen to be Dalit because he will receive reservation benefits. It’s generally the other way round. As any Hindu who is aware would know, untouchables have for most part been excluded from normal social intercourse vis a vis other castes. This may have been a later development but it has had its nasty effect. They cannot speak much proudly about their caste traditions like the others can..they have stumbled and come upon traditions of other castes that they borrow and practice. That makes them belong to a larger society. There are Dalits who have forsaken Hinduism and converted to other religions. Even so, by and large they have remained Hindu. One of the major reasons is Hindu society’s acceptance of the need for reservations for Dalits. The other major reason is a lack of patronage amongst their heroes, in favor of conversions to Islam and even to Christianity. This apart from unpalatable realities that exist in these religions.
2. As soon as one supports reservations for Dalits, there is an inbuilt acceptance that the field will favor Dalits. For this reason, I limit my acceptance to Dalits and do not favor reservations for OBCs for instance.
There is no question of saying Caste is evil because it is not. It has its negatives and positives just like any other social order develops. It needs reform not abolition. I look at Dalit reservation as repentance by Hindus. No one but Dalits retain the right to abolish or better, for-go reservations. If you feel reservations is wrong, then by all means convince Dalits to for-go.
Of course the value of any term or label will rest on what one gives it. “Dalit” will not lose its value because Hindus know why they receive reservations. It is only the arrogant who will look at the benefit without acknowledging why it should be so.
What our society must do should not rest upon how unscrupulous politicians behave. For instance, we cannot forsake Hindu traditions just because there are many people who fool the gullible in its name!
3. Social unrest is a certainly if reservations for Dalits are withdrawn without such an acceptance by Dalits themselves. The case in TN is remarkable. Dalits have always been oppressed in that Dravidian paradise. The law college incident was student politics gone terribly wrong.
Dear Bhamy,
I am sorry, but I’m the wrong person to be talking to about these surveys. Surveys like this are best handled by the Election Commission of India@Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001. Please contact them with your request. They seem to conduct one for any timma, bomma and haida anyway. Why, they even humored you with these surveys in 88 and 94, didn’t they? Maybe you should have requested them another one this time around too. Even if just for kicks.
>> …most of the people in mysore have only arrogance and zero education
aDDbidde devru. hiMge muttu udurustaa iri. neevu ond divasa election nillbOdu.
Sisya,
Too good!
I hope Bhamy takes your advice to heart…:)
there is a big issue with independent candidates – they do not say up front which party they will support in government formation, post election. This is very crucial particularly now because of hung houses. Elections are held to form a Government. An independent can not form a government. I hope the inte-ll-ehctchual returned-from-Mars understands that. Did he tell his voters what his stand will be in Government formation and a confidence vote? It will be fair to declare that, and in the spirit of being ‘independent’, declare neutrality in confidence vote (meaning abstain).
Or may be the voters were actually smart really – given the kind of ‘inte-ll-echtchual-sickullar-phrogrreshive’ attitude, may be it was very clear to them which way he would swing post elections.