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Journalism of Courage
In India, it is not only the communist and the so-called intellectual who try to hurt capitalism; the capitalist joins in the fun. The joint statement issued last week by 22 8220;like-minded captains of industry,8221; supporting affirmative action for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes SCs 038; STs in the private sector, is in the inglorious tradition of Indian capitalism.
Regretfully, the big bosses of Indian industry have little problem in bowing to the quotawallas. This despite the fact that the reservations policy is unfair and unethical; it discourages merit, diminishes efficiency and, above all, promotes the caste divide in a society that is trying to rid itself of birth-based discrimination.
Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Social Justice Minister Meira Kumar, Mayawati and other self-appointed champions of dalits want public policy to undo historical wrongs. As Thomas Sowell, an American black scholar, wrote in an article in 2000, 8220;It is undoubtedly true that the careers of black 8216;leaders,8217; politicians and community activists depend heavily on government programmes. It is their ability to lobby for government goodies that keeps such people in business and in the limelight.8221; Replace the term 8220;black8221; with 8220;dalit,8221; and you get the same pattern. Sowell has convincingly argued against affirmative action, saying that it hurts rather than helps blacks and other supposed beneficiaries.
But our bleeding heart industrialists refuse to learn from history. In their joint statement, they did not blast the odious idea of reservations. Instead of taking on the government and other champions of reservations who intend to expand the scope of caste-based reservations in the private sector, they have obsequiously accepted the merit of reservations. The only way our industrialists can hope to win the battle against egalitarian fanatics is to fight them intellectually.
