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Friday, December 02, 2005

Politics and Religion

I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend how people - completely logical, sane people - make rules to govern the country based on some religion bias.

If you think, this does not happen in India, you should just take a look around.
Most of the things in our country are based on religion bias.

To me, religion should be a thing which you should practice at home. Period.
Don't bring it out.

Your a hindu, he's a muslim, he's a Parsi, he's catholic - who gives a damn?
Where in the world is all this going to help?

Will it help me get a job?
Imagine me walking into a company, slam my resume on the desk and yell "Hey you ! Yes you there! I'm a jain ... now gimme a job!”

I don't know if this actually is possible - but the thought that it could be ... even in the remotest, possible way is very scary.

Unfortunately, this does happen on the caste level - which is just as stupid.
So many times you find advertisements in the newspaper which go:
Vacancy for the post of a professor: 7 (Open 3, ST 2, BC 2)

Not only is this really bad, what it does is turns us Open category people against the reserved caste people even when we previously had no problem against them.

C'mon - if I was a BC and had a certificate, I would be stupid NOT to use it to get a reserved seat in a college or a job.
But what the law in turn does is, gets the open category people pissed off on the reserved category people - and many times people don't spend a minute to realise that its not
the reserved category people which are to blame, its the damn, stupid pre historic laws.

And why aren't they changed?
Because it is suicidal.
Governments go to power to actually stay in power for eternity.
Doing this will make sure, a large percentage of their votes get depleted.

The biggest, most stupidest things that I have seen on Earth - something which walks away with the top prize for the Most Stupidest, Idiotic thing ever - are religious riots.

Hehe ...

It is like we all have a set of Pokemon cards, and we pull out swords and sticks and go at each other's throats because the other guy said that my Pokemon's powers were not good enough, or it was crappy.

Who cares?
I mean ... most of the religious backgrounds are based on mythological - fairy tale stories.
These things never happened.

But amazingly enough, the people who invented them, must be geniuses because thousands of years down the line, they are still effective - people are still fighting over the same, stupid reasons from the time that they were invented.

Somehow, I don't believe when people say that religion teaches you to live life in a nice way.
It does set down some guidelines on what you should do, but at the end of the day, isn't it just common sense?
Does it have to be written somewhere that it is wrong to kill another guy, or steal from someone else?

If you are not from India, you will not believe that we actually have different laws for different religions...
Some laws go like "You are supposed to do this, this, this blah blah ... unless you are a Muslim" or "You are not allowed to do this and this, unless you are a Hindu ..."

How about inventing one which says "If you kill another person, you will actually go to jail. Unless of course, you are a Jain - in which case, you shall be given the President's medal"
That'd be really cool :)

I studied in one of the best schools in Pune.
But, it was a convent school - Catholics being the minorities and so, had some reservations.

I mean, if you think about it, their primary aim is to encourage Christianity - it being run by the Jesuit society.
But then, that is not a valid enough reason to justify a boy with 60% getting into the institute just for being catholic over a non catholic boy getting 85%.
In the junior college, there were even reservation over vocational seats - the situation was that you could get a Computer Science seat only if you were catholic with a decently high percentage or a non catholic with an impossibly high percentage - above 90% which is only possible if you have just topped the boards exams, or are from one of them ICSE schools.
What this does again, is divide the students.

Imagine how pissed off a student would be who scored 89% and missed out a computer science seat just because another guy with 75% got it because of his religion.

In the hunt for an engineering college, I actually came across this college in Solapur, which had reservations for Jains.
I was like "Full on. For the first time, I can get a taste of reservation."

So, me and my dad go on a one day picnic to Solapur to check out the college and apply for it.
However, to my bad luck, the college was not what I expected it to be (it sucked in my POV) - and I probably would have hung myself on my second day there.
So, we came back which brought an end to my "reservation" dreams.

Hehe ... probably reason why I am so pissed off with this entire issue and am writing this.

But on a serious note, I just can't imagine why normally sane and logical people write such atrocious laws.
I mean, it's like a very bad director making a crappy movie and he knows it - because, he can actually see how it is coming out.
But instead of stopping it and improving it, he goes ahead and makes it anyways ...

I mean, c’mon.... grow a brain!

10 comments:

Makdt said...

hmm religion and politics ....too subjects i HATE.
By the way after the whole laws and reservations system, put in place make up for the ostracisation of how many decades back...actually makes the open category the ostracised!!!!!
Basically if you ask me its kind of like and admission "I am from a category and hence posses no brains. so i need to have reservations for me." Only scholarships should be given with that kind of discretion ...and not by caste verification but income verification. I have seen stupid rich girls get PICT computer because she was a LNT3 and got 60% in 12th. The shame.

Actually religion is enforced to control human behaviour....and hence "Killing is bad" needs to be written down. Its kinda natural to get what you want/need any which way you can...animals kill each other for food.
i think i lost track here ...will come back later
Is there anything we can do?

Sharath MS said...

Let the so called "Under-Previliged" people get economic consessions. i really dont mind if that happens. But, when i see someone who gets an admission into a good college/whatever because of his caste/relegion, then it pisses me off; big time.

jomy said...

Engg Admissions ...like you said is the perfect example ...A guy , who belonged to some category ,in front of me ...got a better college ..and decided to leave a VIT COMP seat ...which would mean i would get the seat !!!!!

After looking at the happiness on my face , the guy turns back and says ...No , I think I'll stick to VIT only "..Grrrr....

Both of us , had the same marks !!!

I guess ...shit happens !!

Religion ...is the way you want to interpret it ...

How useful would a religious educational institution be to a community , if it didn't reserve any seats for students belonging to that community ?? Especially ...when it's funded by that community !!! Be it Vincents for Catholics, Choksey for Gujjus , SV Union for Tamilians ...

Rishi Agarwal said...

well, its ok with me if these religious institutions give some reservation to their community , coz in the end, they want to help their community which is a minority in the first place.

Like my school JN Petit, was run by a Parsi trust for the Parsi community . They provide education at minimum price or sometimes free of cost to all needy parsi students ( irrespective of their percentage ) from Gujrat, Maharashtra etc. Prob. thats why the fees for us was quite high. But while taking admisssion for non-parsi students, the judging was done purely on the entrance test.


So its fine with me if some catholic, Hindu, Muslim , punjabi , or jain start their own institute, its for their community and they have their own rules. If u like it , get in, else stay out !


But i dont agree with government enforcing reservation during engg. admissions, or other job reservations , irrespective that the colleges want that or no. This way, the government who is supposed to be biased towards everyone is actually creating a diff. amongst us.

Id it is said...

Being a recognized minority is a great advantage in the USA too. Thankfully, the minority status is not religion based. But the problems remain the same. Many academically deserving candidates don't make the cut offs only becaues the minorities have to be accomodated. What is worse is that the minority students often drop out of college before the end of the first year because they're unable to cope! Now, that's a waste of a seat, won't you agree?

Saurabh said...

Yes ...
Very, very, very true.

I missed out that point completely.

When we were standing in line to pay our fees for the third year, all of us had this cheque of Rs. 50,000 and there was this guy - who had gotten admission via some caste reservation and had a fee of Rs. 5,000

And what really drove me mad, was that this fellow had flunked 2 years already ( and he flunked again last year ).

But I guess, when the system allows you to get in with only a 50% in your 12th grade exams ( while the other need atleast 60% - but no one less than an 80% gets into good colleges without a reservation ) ... and to top that, pay fees 1/10th the size that others are paying, who gives a damn ... right ?

Plus, 5,000 is not a big amount.
Its what most graduates make per week here on their first job.

So, even the guilt of having to make your parents pay Rs. 2,00,000 for your education does not come !

Anonymous said...

k....point taken....i too had a very very strong opinion against any kind of reservation...economic religious or otherwise...have kinda calmed down about it a bit now. Primarily because it is so pervasive now and any effort to stem it seems futile. It just seems to get worse and worse and worse.

See....USA usinversities also have a decent amount of reservation...nowhere close to what we have obviously...but its there.

France....u think is a very calm,loving place....BUT ITS NOT. from what i've read....the communal tension there is equivalent to what we have in the worst hit places in India!!!

Zimbabwe and South africa....two other places where Hindu-Muslim division seems frivolous compared to the hatered between blacks and whites.

The only consolation i see in the whole current scenario...are the coming generations. The next gen of politicians in India seem to be decently educated and at least(FOR NOW) dont play up the religion card. All the current leaders....In India(most of BJP),Robert Muagbe,The French Hardliner(Forget his name!!!) are all part fo a generation which was brought up in an atmospehere in whcich people were discriminated against....i really dont see the leaders of the future acting in this way.

Religion and Caste have held India back for sooooo long....its really about time we move on...and we do...believe it or not...have the leaders to take us forward, but our populus does not have the maturity to vote them in.


damnit...i just ramble on and on when it comes to religious or caste discrimination...so i'll stop:).

Saurabh...u mite rememebtr the following moogad quotes...which to some seem a bit extreme...but he was probably describing extremists when he said this -

"Relion is the opium of the masses"

AND

"God created man, Man created religion to give himself a reason to kill other men".

Two quotes which , from todays scenario, are gathering strength day by day.

Yuvi Panda said...

"But on a serious note, I just can't imagine why normally sane and logical people write such atrocious laws."

Hey, you call these people, those Politicians logical? Very Logical, these laws are....

I study in an Anglo-Indian School, and those crappy stuff happen here all the time. Anglo Indian students don't have to write an enterence Exam or anything of that sort. The Community Certificate would get them the admission that would take me several Enterance Exams...... Very Logical....

And, they don't even have to Pay School Fees! Believe me, it's true. All that they've gotta pay is to pay for books and the uniform, which comes to around 1.5K. And, these AI guys are mostly the rich guys... Very Logical...

But then, that's the problem of India : Illogical People in decision making posts.....

Hope This Changes....

Yuvi Panda said...

P.S. BTW, How the Hell on earth did you get the names of the people who commented on the post out on the post itself ? Genius-in-a-Making ?;)

Suppose, we could give you a title : BloggerTemplate King;)

Saurabh said...

Okay.
As for your first post, by logical, I mean, every human being is logical.

If you can think, you are logical.
Still inspite of this, they do things which are so stupid and apparent that how it can get past them is beyond me.

As for the second part about getting your comment names in the blog, though it is highly flattering, I cannot take the credit for it :p

It is a blogger hack by blogger itself and very easy to do.
Actually it could be done even if you know what special keywords mean what.

The place where all your "How to" queries regarding this subject can be answered : http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1197&topic=41

- Saurabh