The politics of division

March 8th, would have been a historic day for India. For on the International Women's Day, the country was hoping to pass the Women's Reservation Bill. However sadly it was not to be. Few days later it got passed in the Rajya Sabha but it has still remained a major subject of debate in the Lok Sabha.
The issue of divisive politics and caste has to come into play even out here. Women's reservation is a quota. Yet opponents of the bill say they want to create a sub quota within that quota to favour the SC/ST and other minorities. What these people fail to realise is that the bill was introduced so that equal representation would be there for both men and women in the parliament. However, they are indirectly arguing to create more dicvide when they claim for a quota within a quota. This policy of divisive politics is being played by some selfish people who are afraid that enough male candidates from their party would not get seats in the final Lok Sabha elections.
I had read in a poem once that politics is a game of selfish decisions clothed in the name of optimism. It cant be truer. The guise the opponents are giving is that all strata of society would not be equally represented but the true motive remains that they want to prolong the bill from being passed.
The issue of category has always been a cause of concern for the "general masses" (read open quota ie non category people). In a survey by a leading newspaper 2 years back, it was seen that 53% of India consists of SC, ST, OBC and minorities. The remaining 47% are the so called majorities. The irony could not be more prominent.

Reservation should be made for the economically backward if there is reservation at all. They are the ones who truly deserve it due to their limited resources. However the issue of vote bank politics has kept it for the "backward castes". Many hailing from such backward castes are considerably well off. Creamy layer exists only for OBC, not for the other classes. Thus again, development does not cater to all sections of the society.

Its high time the leaders put development in mind and take requisite steps rather than taking such steps in order to ensure them a safe seat for the next Lok Sabha election.