Letters To The Editor

Short cut shunned• THE ex-IITian, Gautam Kumar’s achievement described in his article (‘You have let me feel low again, Mr Ar...

Short cut shunned

• THE ex-IITian, Gautam Kumar’s achievement described in his article (‘You have let me feel low again, Mr Arjun Singh,’ IE, June 8) underscores the utter insignificance of caste based quota in this day and age. Nonetheless, Indian politicians, putting merit in the backburner, are out to perpetuate casteism for narrow political ends. To Arjun Singh’s political greed the likes of D. Raja from CPI, who is a vociferous advocate of such quota, are supplying oxygen. Yet more quotas in jobs and education will engender hatred and enmity in society, endangering the unity of the nation. Despite being an OBC, Gautam Kumar has proved that a person can reach his goal with dignity by hard work and without short cuts like quota.

— Jayanta Sarkar, Kaugachi (W Bengal)

• IN his piece, Gautam Kumar has made every right-thinking citizen of this country raise his head high with clarity of vision and self-confidence. Virtually censuring politicians like Arjun Singh, who indulge in divisive politics out of narrow motives, the IIT product sounds the warning: “We have the power to mould our destinies and fortunes; we have started believing in equality, hard work and dedication as the recipe for success. Don’t break our faith.” Bravo, Gautam!

— M.C. Joshi Lucknow

• THE anguished appeal by Gautam Kumar ought to be read by Dalit and OBC advocates of quota like Chandrabhan Prasad and Yogendra

Yadav as well as India’s politicians. It is sad that with all their scholarship and

social awareness, they are unable to see through the casteist scourge threatening “the unity of the nation,” which the young professional is worried about. Some Dalit activists seem to have developed a vested interest in perpetuating Dalit identity. Their first impulse is to know the caste of an individual rather than his values and ideas.

— M. Ratan, New Delhi

Exit policy!

• OUR elected representatives in the government are keen to impose their populist measures on all possible sections of the economy and society. All this is being done despite ample evidence that reservations have not helped the intended sections in the past few decades. How can India be called a democracy when the government pursues its own agenda without any concern for the views and interests of a large section of society? The situation is akin to a dictator pursuing his own self-serving agenda. As for the Indian industry the globe is its canvas. If the government persists with its policy of reservations in the private sector, at least a part of the Indian industry would migrate to other countries to escape such irrationalities.

— Gopala Raghuram, Kolkata

OK, sans politicians

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• PRATAP BHANU MEHTA’S piece, ‘Being middle class is ok’ (IE, June 7) is true to reality, because the middle class comprises all castes with varied lifestyles and different walks of life. Today a middle class brahmin may clean his own toilet bowl along with that of a lower caste guest’s. Caste is a non-issue. Also, today a poor brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya could be a domestic servant and a successful SC/ST officer could be the master. In real life, especially in urban India, there are thousands of such cases. Sans politicians, 21st-century India could become a nation without a debilitating caste divide.

— Beena Pandya, Gurgaon