Reservations about reservation : Satbir Singh Bedi

March 19, 2009

I give below my story to prove that reservations are not necessary on caste, creed or any other grounds to progress in life.

I belonged to an Upper Caste (Khatri) family which was economically poor.  We had, of course, a large Haveli in my home town which belonged to our more prosperous fore-fathers but my father did not have the money to maintain it.  Once when my father was out of job for one year, I was taken out of school and my studies were stopped.  They were resumed only after one year when my father got a job.  During my father’s unemployment, I used to sell the books lying in our house to make both ends meet.  Then I used to sell bottles and such other things lying in my house to get food.  A day came when we had to sell our utensils for getting food. Then for two days, we were without food. Then one of my uncles came and took pity upon us and lent some money to my father. After a few days, my father got a job but was never well off.  My own caste (Khatri) people told me in my face that I was a Kangal (Pauper) because I had no money to see films or listen to radio because we had no radio.  There was also no cycle in our house. What to talk of my own caste people, even my relatives and cousins treated me as if I were their servant.  I even wore the clothes that were discarded by them.  However, my father who was very fond of giving education to his children, saw to it that I did my graduation.  Nobody helped us. After graduation, I passed Assistants Exam. of UPSC thanks to there being no corruption in UPSC. I retired as Deputy Secretary.  I was not the only poor man belonging to our Khatri (Upper) caste.  Many Khatrisafter partition of the country, came penniless to my hometown.  They were not helped by anyone including the Govt.  They worked as petty hawkers and their womenfolk served as maids doing household chores in the houses of well to do people of their own caste (Khatri) and started saving money out of the small amount of money earned by them.  However, they could not educate their children beyond Matric.  The children also worked as petty hawkers, saved money to train themselves as mechanics.  They sold their belongings and collected enough money to go to Dubai and then to USA..  They are now better off than me.

Now, we come to the Scheduled Castes of our hometown. They also saved something from out of their earnings, got education and then sold their belongings to go to UK. They are also now better off than me.  Government did not help them much except giving them free education.  They did not also opt for Government jobs. So, practically, they also built themselves up on the basis of their hard work.  Had they remained dependent upon Government, they might not have progressed so much.

Now, these are not made up stories but the stories of real flesh and blood people and their struggle.  Of course, I am not a story teller.  I only wanted to emphasize that crutches like reservations etc. never enabled a person to get up and make the most of life. On the other hand, it gives a false sense of security and of taking things easy.  People become too lazy and are unable to do much except to continue to enjoy reservations.  So reservations are all for Vote Bank Politics.

Satbir Singh Bedi